Bill Belichick Post Game Press Conference Transcript
Here is the complete trasncript from Bill Belichick following the Patriots preseason loss to the Detroit Lions:
OPENING STATEMENT:
"I think you obviously have to give a lot of credit to Detroit tonight. They really handled us in every phase of the game. We really weren't very competitive in anything. We got thoroughly outplayed and out-coached and they just did everything better than we did. Obviously when you turn the ball over four times in the first quarter, that will knock you out of most any game, and it practically knocked us out of this one. We couldn't ever make a stop in the second half defensively to ever really make it competitive, even though we had a couple of decent drives offensively. But when you can't stop them on defense, then we couldn't get back in the game. Couldn't score on offense, so it's a bad combination. Too many negative plays. Just too many bad plays in all phases of the game. We've got a lot of work to do and that certainly wasn't a very competitive performance tonight."
On the pressure Detroit's defensive line put on them:
"They did everything well. They did everything well, they did well in all three phases of the game."
On the defense facing sudden changes of possession in the first half and if it was helpful facing those scenarios:
"I thought we played competitively on defense in the first half, not in the second half. We never could stop them in the second half so..."
On the fact [the reporter] was talking about practicing dealing with different situations and if that was at least a positive:
"Yeah, I guess you could say that."
On the reason Tom Brady and the offense didn't start the second half and if that was a change in their plans:
"No, I said last week when we talked about it that we would evaluate the game situation. I mean, we played a lot of plays in the first half."
On why they only played two quarterbacks tonight:
"Because we played two quarterbacks."
On if he felt there was an area that he considered a positive:
"No...no. We need to work on everything."
On the fact they've done a good job with ball security and if he felt tonight was uncharacteristic:
"Look, anytime you turn the ball over four times, your chances of winning in this league are not very good. And when you do it in the first quarter, on the road, I'm sure they're even less. Doesn't really make any difference what happened in any other game, or any other week...I mean, it doesn't matter. What happened tonight is what happened tonight. We turned it over, we put ourselves in a hole, and we got beat."
