Bill Belichick Q&A, 8/8

[Christopher_Price]

Here’s the complete transcript of Bill Belichick’s conference call with the media this afternoon:BB: We have the guys in here today to review some film…We will go back and get a lot of extra work in before Philadelphia [Eagles] and [New York] Giants games. It will be more just trying to get organized and get [...]

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[tombonneau]

Interesting in that he'd plans on deferring the coin toss 100% of the time. I guess that coaches would rather get the ball to start the second half than to start the game. (?)

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Interesting in that he'd plans on deferring the coin toss 100% of the time. I guess that coaches would rather get the ball to start the second half than to start the game. (?)

I'd definitely pick that. I always root for the Patriots to lose the toss, particularly on the road. On the road, the defense always comes out really jacked and the place is going nuts -- in the second half, though, with the 12:00 halftime, the seats are usually half empty until about halfway through the third quarter.

Belichick predicts that most teams will defer, nearly 100 percent. I think that's funny. If that really happens, then it's as though the rule never changed. Most coaches wanted to lose the toss under the old rule, and now they will want to win the toss, but it's still a 50/50 chance.

The main difference is that, under the old rule, the loser of the toss got a double benefit -- they got the ball in the second half AND they got to pick their side of the field. Not so anymore.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Reading BB, look at how he answered the LBs question vs his usual "some good things, some bad things" standard reply. For BB he was exctatic about the kids. He should be.

 

[Pats Fanatic]

Interesting in that he'd plans on deferring the coin toss 100% of the time. I guess that coaches would rather get the ball to start the second half than to start the game. (?)

That's what I do in Madden.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Great question, give that reporter a kewpie doll! :rocker:

Q: On the punt team, what is the primary role of the personal protector and why is that player important?
BB: Well, he has several important jobs. The personal protector handles the communication on the punt team in terms of protection. If they bring eight players up to potentially rush the punt with the other two guys covering the gunners - you would have eight to block eight and you’ve got to get that right. You want to block that in the most advantageous way for your punt team so making the calls as to how to handle the protection, whose going to take who, whose going to go where and if that number diminishes whether it goes from eight to seven or seven to six or sometimes there is six guys in there, like five and one guy stacks. When you have more people than they do you can organize it so you can try to create a free guy. You have eight guys there which guy do you want to try to get free, how do you want to try to help your coverage and things like that. So, it’s kind of the quarterback on the punt team. That position is like a quarterback on offense. There is a lot of communication and decision making in terms of protection and organizing the coverage. From a blocking standpoint, he is the last line of defense so that is another important decision as to when to release into coverage, when to stay a little bit longer and protect the punter, when to leave his guy to get somebody else who may be more dangerous that maybe a blocker had missed in front of him and those kind of things. He’s the last line of defense. In coverage, you have your two left coverage players split out as gunners in an extended position. Sometimes they get inside and sometimes they don’t but because the personal protector lines up behind the snapper four, five or six yards he can a lot of times get released, get through the line of scrimmage and end up being a very productive coverage player - in a sense like a third gunner for you coming from the inside as opposed to coming from the outside. There are a lot of important elements in that position. When you pick a player to play there, you might weigh one area more heavily than the other. I’m not saying that every player is necessarily great at all three of those [areas]. Maybe he is better at one than another or two than the third but it is an important position and there is a lot of potential for a lot of production at that position if you have the right guy.

 

[Zeke_Mowatt]

Yeah, this was one of my favorite ever BB interviews, and that question/response was phenomenal!

Great question, give that reporter a kewpie doll! :rocker:

Q: On the punt team, what is the primary role of the personal protector and why is that player important?
BB: Well, he has several important jobs. The personal protector handles the communication on the punt team in terms of protection. If they bring eight players up to potentially rush the punt with the other two guys covering the gunners - you would have eight to block eight and you’ve got to get that right. You want to block that in the most advantageous way for your punt team so making the calls as to how to handle the protection, whose going to take who, whose going to go where and if that number diminishes whether it goes from eight to seven or seven to six or sometimes there is six guys in there, like five and one guy stacks. When you have more people than they do you can organize it so you can try to create a free guy. You have eight guys there which guy do you want to try to get free, how do you want to try to help your coverage and things like that. So, it’s kind of the quarterback on the punt team. That position is like a quarterback on offense. There is a lot of communication and decision making in terms of protection and organizing the coverage. From a blocking standpoint, he is the last line of defense so that is another important decision as to when to release into coverage, when to stay a little bit longer and protect the punter, when to leave his guy to get somebody else who may be more dangerous that maybe a blocker had missed in front of him and those kind of things. He’s the last line of defense. In coverage, you have your two left coverage players split out as gunners in an extended position. Sometimes they get inside and sometimes they don’t but because the personal protector lines up behind the snapper four, five or six yards he can a lot of times get released, get through the line of scrimmage and end up being a very productive coverage player - in a sense like a third gunner for you coming from the inside as opposed to coming from the outside. There are a lot of important elements in that position. When you pick a player to play there, you might weigh one area more heavily than the other. I’m not saying that every player is necessarily great at all three of those [areas]. Maybe he is better at one than another or two than the third but it is an important position and there is a lot of potential for a lot of production at that position if you have the right guy.