Hawg73
Mediocre with flashes of brilliance
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The Belichicoder is a device I have patented that takes the words of Bill Belichick and interprets what he would have said had he been telling the truth.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addresses the media during his conference call on Monday, October 15, 2012.
BB: We got our asses handed to us the other day by a rookie QB who can't really throw and a big defensive backfield that can't really cover an incut to save their lives, but it's important to note that Marshawn Lynch didn't beat us. Of course, the rest of them did. We all came up short and share the responsibility for that; me, the coaches, players, scouts, the Kraft family, ballboys, sports talk radio hosts, the hot barmaids at Patriot Place, but mainly, when the game was on the line, it was Tavon Wilson trying to do Devin McCourty's job for him that was the deciding play. I watched that play about 60 times and he took two steps to the sideline before the ball was snapped. Once it was snapped he took a couple more because, like a lot of people, he was worried that Devin wasn't going to be able to do HIS job, so he decided to do it for him. Sidney Rice has been in this league for a lot of years and when he he head-faked right Tavon completely sold out towards the sideline and Rice burned him good straight to the post and with a minute fifteen left we were done. I keep telling guys to do their job. Do THEIR job. Not somebody else's job. Not EVERYBODY else's job, but their job. Anyhow, I don't want to pick on a rookie, but Tavon made me wonder if Ihedigbo or Josh Barrett might still be around somewhere. They couldn't really do their jobs very well, but at least they didn't try to do anybody else's. Or weren't capable of it. I've never been sure which.
Q: How do you manage the line between looking back on yesterday and finding what you need to get better on but not getting too caught up in one game because there is another one coming around the corner just six days away?
BB: I sometimes get caught up in trying to be a, I dunno......psychiatrist or whatever sometimes. I admit that. In 2007 we were just killing everybody and I knew it was just a matter of time before everybody just started taking plays off and saying to themselves "Ahhh, who cares? Brady will just hit Moss with another bomb and we'll win by 30", so I had to figure out a way to make the games closer to try to teach them how to make a play when you needed to, which is a big key in this league. It's that simple, really. Somebody steps up and makes a play when the team absolutely needs one, but in that instance, I ended up wishing we just kept bombing it to Randy. Historically, we usually win about 85 per cent of our games and the challenge becomes how to keep young guys interested and focused instead of drifting away and sexting cheerleaders, tweeting jokes or whatever else guys think about these days. This year it looks like 10 and 6 will probably take the AFC east comfortably, so I was planning on losing some tight ones along the way to teach them how to close games out, but I'm not sure blowing a 13-point lead late really teaches them anything except how to lose in a spectacular way. After all these years in coaching I'm still trying to work that all out.
Q: You mention coming up short in a few games. Is that a mental toughness thing and can you teach players collectively and individually about how to close out games and how to develop that consistency?
BB: Really, that's what I'm saying. It's a long season and guys get bored beating the hell out of people every week and, most of the time, that's what we've done for about the last 11 seasons. It's kind of a "tough love" thing. I'm trying to convince them that they aren't that good right now while at the same time figuring out a way for them to finish strong, get some confidence and stay out of the clubs with Gronkowski.
Q: Any impressions of the crowd and the noise and if it had an impact at all?
BB: There was one guy behind our bench with a blue mohawk and cat whiskers that got pretty loud from time to time, but overall I've heard louder crowds at Dunkin' Donuts on a monday morning.
Q: On the go-ahead touchdown, when you had the situation in the secondary, was that in concert with the pass rush and their inability to get pressure on Russell Wilson at that time or were you just trying to avoid a break in containment?
BB: I was mainly just concerned that Marshaw Lynch wasn't the one to beat us and that part of my game plan worked to perfection.
Q: In that situation, would an extra defender in the backfield have helped?
BB: Well, we tried to add an extra defender there at the end, but, unfortunately, it's against the rules and we ended up blowing a timeout. In general, if we were allowed to add another guy in there somewhere then it may have helped, but it just wasn't our day for pressuring Wilson or really covering anybody except Lynch. I will say that I kind of liked Chandler's "big shoe dance" sack celebration, but would have preferred to see it a little later on.
Q: What were your impressions of Aaron Hernandez's first game back?
BB: I think Aaron, like all the other players that played in the game, did some good things, there were some other things that I'm sure he'd like to have back or like to do a little bit differently. For instance, he ran a nice route on his touchdown and he was really sharp in terms of celebrating everything he did well and pointing into the crowd and things of that nature, but he dropped a pass late when we really could have used a play there and I didn't notice him doing his dance after that one. I might mention that to Aaron this week if I think of it.
Q: With this being Jets week and coming off a tough loss, is there little need to stress the importance of this week against a division rival?
BB: No, not really. I don't really have to say a whole lot and usually wait until Rex or Cromartie or somebody on their team says something about how we aren't all that good, or our backfield sucks or something and that gets the guy's attention. I used to print all their quotes out and post them on a big bulletin board we have in the locker room, but nowadays everybody just pulls the clips up on their smartphones and passes them around. Really, everybody hates the Jets and wants to kill them, so it's just one more thing the way they talk about how tough they are. They make my job a lot easier and I can concentrate more on which guy to take away from their offense. If I tell them "the Jets offense goes through Jeremy Kerley" I'm not sure if they would take me seriously, but they don't have Keller, Santonio, Tomlinson or Plaxico anymore, so that's a litter tougher to figure out than it used to be. After last week I might just try telling the guys to cover everybody and see how that works out. If we can find a way to win the game while at the same time making them bench Sanchez for Tebow then it'll be a much better plane trip to England next week than the one we had coming back from the west coast. I might need to borrow Spikes' smartphone for a while if that happens.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addresses the media during his conference call on Monday, October 15, 2012.
BB: We got our asses handed to us the other day by a rookie QB who can't really throw and a big defensive backfield that can't really cover an incut to save their lives, but it's important to note that Marshawn Lynch didn't beat us. Of course, the rest of them did. We all came up short and share the responsibility for that; me, the coaches, players, scouts, the Kraft family, ballboys, sports talk radio hosts, the hot barmaids at Patriot Place, but mainly, when the game was on the line, it was Tavon Wilson trying to do Devin McCourty's job for him that was the deciding play. I watched that play about 60 times and he took two steps to the sideline before the ball was snapped. Once it was snapped he took a couple more because, like a lot of people, he was worried that Devin wasn't going to be able to do HIS job, so he decided to do it for him. Sidney Rice has been in this league for a lot of years and when he he head-faked right Tavon completely sold out towards the sideline and Rice burned him good straight to the post and with a minute fifteen left we were done. I keep telling guys to do their job. Do THEIR job. Not somebody else's job. Not EVERYBODY else's job, but their job. Anyhow, I don't want to pick on a rookie, but Tavon made me wonder if Ihedigbo or Josh Barrett might still be around somewhere. They couldn't really do their jobs very well, but at least they didn't try to do anybody else's. Or weren't capable of it. I've never been sure which.
Q: How do you manage the line between looking back on yesterday and finding what you need to get better on but not getting too caught up in one game because there is another one coming around the corner just six days away?
BB: I sometimes get caught up in trying to be a, I dunno......psychiatrist or whatever sometimes. I admit that. In 2007 we were just killing everybody and I knew it was just a matter of time before everybody just started taking plays off and saying to themselves "Ahhh, who cares? Brady will just hit Moss with another bomb and we'll win by 30", so I had to figure out a way to make the games closer to try to teach them how to make a play when you needed to, which is a big key in this league. It's that simple, really. Somebody steps up and makes a play when the team absolutely needs one, but in that instance, I ended up wishing we just kept bombing it to Randy. Historically, we usually win about 85 per cent of our games and the challenge becomes how to keep young guys interested and focused instead of drifting away and sexting cheerleaders, tweeting jokes or whatever else guys think about these days. This year it looks like 10 and 6 will probably take the AFC east comfortably, so I was planning on losing some tight ones along the way to teach them how to close games out, but I'm not sure blowing a 13-point lead late really teaches them anything except how to lose in a spectacular way. After all these years in coaching I'm still trying to work that all out.
Q: You mention coming up short in a few games. Is that a mental toughness thing and can you teach players collectively and individually about how to close out games and how to develop that consistency?
BB: Really, that's what I'm saying. It's a long season and guys get bored beating the hell out of people every week and, most of the time, that's what we've done for about the last 11 seasons. It's kind of a "tough love" thing. I'm trying to convince them that they aren't that good right now while at the same time figuring out a way for them to finish strong, get some confidence and stay out of the clubs with Gronkowski.
Q: Any impressions of the crowd and the noise and if it had an impact at all?
BB: There was one guy behind our bench with a blue mohawk and cat whiskers that got pretty loud from time to time, but overall I've heard louder crowds at Dunkin' Donuts on a monday morning.
Q: On the go-ahead touchdown, when you had the situation in the secondary, was that in concert with the pass rush and their inability to get pressure on Russell Wilson at that time or were you just trying to avoid a break in containment?
BB: I was mainly just concerned that Marshaw Lynch wasn't the one to beat us and that part of my game plan worked to perfection.
Q: In that situation, would an extra defender in the backfield have helped?
BB: Well, we tried to add an extra defender there at the end, but, unfortunately, it's against the rules and we ended up blowing a timeout. In general, if we were allowed to add another guy in there somewhere then it may have helped, but it just wasn't our day for pressuring Wilson or really covering anybody except Lynch. I will say that I kind of liked Chandler's "big shoe dance" sack celebration, but would have preferred to see it a little later on.
Q: What were your impressions of Aaron Hernandez's first game back?
BB: I think Aaron, like all the other players that played in the game, did some good things, there were some other things that I'm sure he'd like to have back or like to do a little bit differently. For instance, he ran a nice route on his touchdown and he was really sharp in terms of celebrating everything he did well and pointing into the crowd and things of that nature, but he dropped a pass late when we really could have used a play there and I didn't notice him doing his dance after that one. I might mention that to Aaron this week if I think of it.
Q: With this being Jets week and coming off a tough loss, is there little need to stress the importance of this week against a division rival?
BB: No, not really. I don't really have to say a whole lot and usually wait until Rex or Cromartie or somebody on their team says something about how we aren't all that good, or our backfield sucks or something and that gets the guy's attention. I used to print all their quotes out and post them on a big bulletin board we have in the locker room, but nowadays everybody just pulls the clips up on their smartphones and passes them around. Really, everybody hates the Jets and wants to kill them, so it's just one more thing the way they talk about how tough they are. They make my job a lot easier and I can concentrate more on which guy to take away from their offense. If I tell them "the Jets offense goes through Jeremy Kerley" I'm not sure if they would take me seriously, but they don't have Keller, Santonio, Tomlinson or Plaxico anymore, so that's a litter tougher to figure out than it used to be. After last week I might just try telling the guys to cover everybody and see how that works out. If we can find a way to win the game while at the same time making them bench Sanchez for Tebow then it'll be a much better plane trip to England next week than the one we had coming back from the west coast. I might need to borrow Spikes' smartphone for a while if that happens.
