Bill Belichick’s Transcript From His Weekly Appearance on WEEI 10/10
(PHOTO: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports) 🕑 Read Time: 8 minutes
Posted Under: Patriots Transcripts
(PHOTO: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports) 🕑 Read Time: 8 minutes
New England Patriots > Patriots Blog
(PHOTO: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports) Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick had to say during his weekly appearance on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show on Monday.
On how he’s doing:
“Good. Good. Good to be in the win column here.”
On his thoughts on the quarterback play:
“I mean, first of all, as a team, we played good complimentary football. We, offensively defensively, special teams, helped each other out. [We] played well situationally. Bailey had a lot more opportunity to prepare for the game than he did last week in terms of taking snaps and going through different plays and situations himself as opposed to watching somebody else do them. But I thought he handled things well. Like always, there’s going to be things we can improve on and do better but generally speaking I thought he did a nice job for us. Made good decisions, threw the ball relatively accurately, and managed the game well.”
On the importance of creating turnovers and the factor they played in both scoring points and taking points off the board:
“Yeah, well, you hit it, Wiggy [Jermaine Wiggins], nothing more important than that. Nothing more important in a game than points. Anything that affects points is all critical plays in the game. You know, you never plan on a scoop and score touchdown defensively, those are kind of bonus points. You know you’re going to pressure the quarterback, probably hit him a couple of times. But to be able to knock the ball loose and get it in the end zone or intercept a pass and run it back for a touchdown, you know, those kind of plays. It’s not common throughout the course of the year. You may have, if you’re lucky, 2, 3, 4 of them but it’s not a weekly thing. So when you get the opportunity, it’s great to be able to take advantage of it.”
“They’re game-changing plays. Jack [Jones] made a really good play. Jahlani [Tavai] had pretty good coverage on [T.J.] Hockenson. The play they ran – it’s one you’re familiar with, kind of a double seam route there with Hockenson and [Tom] Kennedy – but the hard part about that play was the different levels that the two players were on. Kennedy was about 10-yards ahead of Hockenson so while the corner would try to split those two guys, he really can’t split them because they’re not on the same level, they’re at different levels. Jack just made a really good play seeing the ball and obviously made a great catch, a very athletic play, went up high-pointed the ball, caught it, came down with his feet in bounds.”
“I mean, it was a very good interception and with ball skills. But Tavai did a nice job to close the space and get to the play. I’m not sure it would have been a completion even if Jack hadn’t been there, but Jack came over and, as you said made a play that saved us at least three points. So that was a big turnover and a big red area stop for us.”
On how comfortable Bailey looks out there and if that’s just who he is as a player, or if he gives the credit to Joe Judge and Matt Patricia for that:
“Absolutely, yeah. Joe and Matt did a great job in helping him get prepared, and Mac [Jones] did as well this week, he helped us like he did last week. But ultimately, it’s Bailey that’s out there playing and he’s the one responsible for his performance and his preparation and he did a great job. Things that weren’t done perfectly earlier in the week got corrected. Not all of them came up in the game, but I think all of us, players, coaches, all saw and had confidence in him as those situations repeated, a decision or execution was better as the plays were repeated or came up again. So he did a good job and then executed well in the game, protected the ball well, managed the game well. There’s, again, things that we all can do better. But for him to not really turn the ball over, to manage the game well, and see the different looks that Detroit was giving us, there was really a lot of man coverage, different combinations of man coverage that they used, they had a good way of mixing it up on us. I thought he saw those well and then when they mixed in a couple of zones, which were infrequent but good change-ups, that he made good decisions on those as well, so that’s what it looked like to me.”
On Kendrick Bourne and the discussion between the two of them and the difference in how he’s played this year:
“I love K.B. He’s very passionate about the game, his performance, the team, works hard, and has helped us and will help us. It’s great to have him on the field because he’s an explosive player and he’s one of our key guys in the passing game. We’re always working to try to improve, do things better. Nobody works harder at it than K.B. He always practices hard, works hard in practice and I don’t think that will change. That’s just who he is. He loves football and he competes well.”
On the job Steve Belichick and Jerod Mayo have done defensively and if it helps the offensive side of the football and if it affects how the offense approaches things and plays a factor as he’s talking to the team:
“No, I don’t think so. Look, when we send the offensive team out on the field, the reason we’re sending them out there is to move the ball and score points. We’re not trying to go out there and dig a hole and give it back to the other team and just let our defense play. We’ve got to out there and try to move the ball and score points. Generally speaking, we’ve been able to move the ball pretty consistently. We’ve obviously had some turnovers, haven’t punted a lot, but need to score more points. So that’s what we’re out there for. When it’s time to punt, we’ll put the punt team out there. So I don’t think the offense looks at it, nor do I think we should look at it, until it becomes a situational game at the end of the game with the clock and all that, but just, until we get to that point, I think the offense is going out there with the attitude of moving the ball and scoring points.”
“As I said, we just need to do a better job collectively, coaching, playing, execution, all of us together offensively, we just need to do a better job of putting more points on the board. We’re moving the ball into scoring position. We have a great field goal kicker who had another fantastic day yesterday in not easy conditions whose given us the field goals every single time we’ve asked him and gotten the ball in his range, but we’ve just got to do a better job of scoring more points. But no, I don’t think the offense, they can’t control the defense, they can’t control … all they can control is what they can do when they’re out there. We’re trying to do that. There are some good things and there’s some things that need to be improved and that we’re working to improve.”
On Tyquan Thornton and if he sees him having a bigger impact moving forward and his thoughts on having him back off the collarbone injury:
“Yeah, I think Ty’s healthy, I don’t think that’s an issue. I think he’s got good confidence. His strength levels are good, medical department cleared him, they feel good about it, so it’s all good moving forward. Yeah, it’s good to have him back out there and we’ll see what his role and production ends up being. I mean, I don’t know what that is, but we’ll see.”
On the fact Tom Brady said last week he’s seen a lot of bad football and if he agrees:
“[Laughs] I don’t know if Tom and I have been watching the same games so I’ll let him speak for himself on that. I’ve commented on all our games this year so what’s on the record’s on the record for me.”
On if he can foresee a scenario where Mac Jones is 100% healthy and Bailey Zappe remains the starter this season:
“Yeah, I’m not going to get into a lot of hypotheticals on all the different things that might or might not happen and all that. You know, that’s just, to me, a waste of time. I’m not going to sit around here and dream up scenarios and all that. We’ll take things as they come and go from there. Obviously, Mac wasn’t active yesterday, so it wasn’t any part of any decision yesterday.”
On if there’s something in particular that he feels they need to do a better job of when they get into the red zone to help them score more points:
“Well, I think as I said, collective … coaching, playing, execution, all of the above. We just … as we know, it’s harder in the red area with the passing game, there’s less space, the defenders are closer to the line of scrimmage in the running game, everything’s a little bit tighter. The execution level has to be better than what it is out on the field because the defense is closer and there’s just less space. So we’ve got to do better with it offensively and get more points and honestly, we need to defend it better. We did yesterday but going forward we need to defend the red area, I would say in general, better than we have in the first third of the season, and we need to attack it better offensively than we did in the first third of the season. We’ll try to keep building there, we’ve made progress, but we need to score more points and kick fewer field goals, score more touchdowns.”
On if he was surprised they went for it as much as they did on fourth down Sunday:
“No. They go for it more than any team in the league. And then they had … the Lions had some issues/concerns with their field goal kicker, replaced him this week. So I’m sure that was probably part of it, you’d have to ask Coach Campbell, I’m not sure. But, a new kicker coming in, it was windy yesterday, the wind was blowing from our bench to their bench, it was a pretty decent crosswind. It wasn’t easy to kick yesterday, let’s put it that way. I thought Nick [Folk], as usual, did a great job and handled it as well as you could possibly handle it, but it wasn’t easy. Certainly it wasn’t like kicking in a dome or anything like that. So it didn’t surprise me, especially on those longer field goals. Kind of with their kicking situation, we anticipated that and I think the players did a good job of treating third down a little bit like second down because they anticipated, we anticipated there was another down coming after that. So, no it wasn’t a big surprise, no.”
On how much confidence he has in Rhamondre Stevenson in shouldering a three-down workload:
“As much confidence as you could possibly have, that’s how much we have. I think everybody’s … every player on the team, every coach on the team has total confidence in Rhamondre to do whatever it is we need him to do, catch the ball, pick up the blitz, run the ball, inside, outside, break tackles, short yardage, make explosive plays. He’s improved so much in these, whatever it’s been … 20 games, whatever … since he’s been in the league. He’s really … his ball security is good, his running skills are good, his blitz pick-up is good, his pass routes are good. But they’ve all improved a lot.”
“This kid’s really worked hard at making himself a good player. He’s a talented player but he’s put in a lot of extra work and understands what he needs to do to be effective in all those situations and has worked hard to perfect his techniques and craft to do that and I give him a ton of credit. This kid’s come a long way from the blitz pick-up in Miami last year in the opener, ball security in the early part of the season last year, route running.”
“I mean, all those things, he’s worked hard at and you can see the results and I think everybody involved in this organization that’s observed that, recognizes that a lot of his production and performance on the field is the result of his hard work and dedication to doing well in those situations, that it just didn’t happen. He’s worked at it and improved it. So everybody, I’m sure, has a ton of confidence and respect for him.”
On his thoughts on Jacoby Brissett and what they saw in him when they drafted him:
“Jacoby’s a tough kid. Good size, strong, strong in the pocket, strong as a runner when he has to run, good arm, was a productive player in college, and continues to be productive in this league. [He’s] having a good year. Cleveland continues to move the ball and score points and has a well-balanced attack with a good offensive line, good backs, good skill players and he’s done a good job for them. So, yeah, it’s going to be a challenge for us this week in Cleveland and Jacoby’s a tough guy to defend. Has a good arm, he can run, strong in the pocket, hard guy to tackle, we’ll need to play well defensively as a team, not just one guy, we’re going to need the whole team to be able to match-up against the Browns.”
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