| |
Michael Felger: Bill, I know during this
bye week that you usually use this to, what you would call 'self-scouting'—you
look at your own team as if you would look at an opponent. I must
imagine that this round of self-scouting is probably not the most pleasant
one you've ever had.
Bill Belichick: Kind of like the way the games have gone, is it
breaks down into the three segments of the game—offense, defense, and
special teams, and even beyond that and into the plays. There are a lot of
good things and then there are a lot of things that just aren't consistent.
I think you can pretty much find that in each game, a lot of times within each game—the first quarter of Atlanta to the second quarter of
Atlanta, or the first half offensively of San Diego to the second half
offensively, or the first half defensively in Denver to the second half
defensively. There are things there that are okay—I'm not saying that they're perfect,
I don't mean it that way—but there are things that are okay and then there
are other things that are not anywhere near what they need to be. And
again, a
lot of times it's the same things. I think it's been frustrating for all
of us—for the team and for the coaches and the staff—because you look at
plays and you can find examples of them looking real good, and then you can
find examples of the same thing looking not so good. So I think we've
got to try to even those peaks and valleys out and just be a little bit more
precise in our execution, and more consistent.
Felger: Bill, I know
this is not what you do, you would never point to injuries, so we don't
have to mention injuries, but could the different
personnel that's in your lineup from week to week be a factor in
inconsistency? That, to me, would be a normal byproduct.
Belichick: I think that
it's always favorable the more you can keep your people together doing the
same thing the better off you are. But there are always going to be a certain
amount of people that are out for a game, or two games, or whatever it is.
Every team in the league has that. You just have to deal with it. The
thing that works well is when you have people in your system who can come in
and do it. What's harder is players who aren't familiar with what you're
doing that you have to plug in in the middle of the season. But in a couple
of situations where that has come up for us, I think that we've been
fortunate that the guys have really picked up things quickly—like Zereoue,
or Freeman, guys like that. They pick things up pretty quickly, they're experienced, and they've been able to go out there and handle it
pretty well in a hurry. So that's been good.
Kevin Winter: Bill,
staying on the personnel issue, because you've had different players come
through here in your tenure since you've been here, and it has seemed
like—whether it be in training camp or during the course of the
season—they've picked it up well, has this turnover in personnel been a
little bit slower in developing, or does that go case by case?
Belichick: No, I wouldn't
say so. I think it's been alright. Again, the hard thing, the
frustrating thing is you can see a lot of good things there, it's just
that we haven't been able to do it as often as we'd like to. It's not like
it never happens, it just doesn't happen with the highest frequency that you
would like for it to. So that's why when you said, 'Well, can they pick it up?', I think that we've shown that we can pick it up, but we've got
to be able to do it on a more regular basis. And that's game by game, and
it's unit by unit, and it's position by position, and to some degrees it's
player by player. You can find good examples of all those things,
whether it's throwing the ball, catching the ball, blocking, tackling,
coverage, there are elements that are good in each of those, but it's
frustrating because there are also breakdowns that are hurting us. That's
obvious.
Felger: Bill, I think
fans have taken a look at a couple of your players, specifically on defense,
and put a lot of blame on them. We all watch TV and see people catching
balls on Duane Starks, or maybe people running by Monty Beisel, or that's
the way it looks to us. Do you think that those players get unfairly singled
out and it's more a matter of team defense? I know I've heard you say that.
Could you maybe explain why it isn't just Duane Starks getting beat, or it
isn't just Monty Beisel? How the whole team, maybe, failed on those plays
that we sort of single out.
Belichick: I think
definitely that there is too much of a spotlight on one player on any one play. But defensively in terms of the passing game, it comes down to a
combination of rush and coverage. What you want is, you want the
receivers to be covered when the rush is getting to the quarterback. And if
pass rush isn't getting there, then that gives the receivers too much time
to get open and it's hard to continue to match that coverage for the same
period of time. At the same time if you don't have them covered, even if the
rush is getting there, if you don't have them covered and then they're
completing those, even though you're getting a good pass rush. So, the idea
is to have the coverage and the rush, the timing of that, kind of work
together. And sometimes it has, sometimes it hasn't. I mean look, you
never want to give up a 70-yard pass. There's no defense where you say,
'Well you know, gee, if they throw this they might hit it for 70.' You just
don't have that. 'Can they hit a 10-yarder? A 15-yarder?' Some of those are
going to happen, but we've got to cut down on the bigger plays. Some of those
have been long plays that have gone kind of over our head, some of them have
been short plays like the Pittsburgh play where it's a short route and the
guy catches it and runs a long way. Again, they come in different...some
against man, some against zone, some against combination, some against
blitz. So it's been a number of different factors. But in the end it's built
around team defense and the coordination of the pass rush and the
pass coverage. It needs to be executed a little bit more consistently than what
it has been so that the coverage and the rush can operate in unison.
Felger: Bill, I wanted
to ask you about Tyrone Poole. It looked like he was coming back last week, or
getting closer anyway. Today we see him with crutches and a cast in the
locker room, and when we asked him about it he said, 'Go ask the coach.' So
I got the coach, and I want to ask you, did Tyrone suffer a setback here?
Belichick: No, not really.
I think it's just been one of these situations, and we've had this with a
couple guys, where they come out there, they're feeling pretty good, they can
do some things and they do it and they just haven't quite been able to get over
the hump. I know Tyrone's been feeling better, he's certainly in that
category and he's done some things on the practice field. And I do feel like
he's gotten closer, but I think we've kind of reached a point where, with
several players, that when they just can't quite get over the hump sometimes
it's better just to give it a little bit of time to quiet down. I don't
think it's really a setback, I think it's more of just a little bit of
change in what the medical people feel like is the quickest road to
recovery.
Felger: But what about
Corey Dillon? Not so much about whatever injury that he has right now, but
overall. You've heard people who've watched your games say that he doesn't
look quite the same as last year, maybe not the same guy. I was curious
how you felt he has been running this year.
Belichick: I think he's
run hard. I think he's run hard. I think that he's basically gotten the
yardage that's there...I mean, there are a couple runs that could always be a
little better than others, but for the most part I think that he's gotten the
yardage that's been there. And when he's had the chance to really break some
tackles and kind of get into the secondary, like in the Pittsburgh game and
in the Atlanta game and even a couple times in the passing game, like on
screen passes and that type of thing, that he's done a nice job on that. I
think that overall we've just got to, again, there are plays in the running
game and some of the positives in the running game have been our ability to
run the ball in in the red area. And that's been very frustrating because
that's the hardest place to make yards is inside the 20. But to be
able to run the ball in when you're down there, those are the toughest
conditions. So when you get out on the field and the secondary plays deeper and
there's a little more space and all that, you'd like to see runs show up
with the same type of production that we've had in the red area offensively
in the running game. But to answer your question, I think that Corey's run
hard, I think he's run well, and I think that we've got to, between our
scheme and our blocking and just the execution of those plays, that
we've just got to do a little better job there.
Felger: Bill, how about
the defensive scheme? I think we're so used to seeing you be multiple from
series to series, from week to week, and each of the last two weeks I don't
know if I've seen one defensive snap out of the 4-3—correct me if I'm
wrong—but I think you've been almost exclusively out of a three-man line.
What about Denver, what about Atlanta, led you to that scheme?
Belichick: You go back and
look at us defensively through the last few years, but there are a number of
games where sometimes it's one front, sometimes it's the other. That has
to do with a number of factors. One is how we match up against the
opponents. Two, what schemes they're running and how we feel like we can
best defend those schemes. And to some degree at times it's a reflection of
the personnel situation. The bottom line is, though, that all things being
equal, we would be comfortable playing either 4-3 or 3-4. Some games
it's a combination, some games it's more one than the other, for whatever the
reasons are. But if we feel during that we're able to do it, and that the
matchup is right, then we'd be comfortable with either front.
Winter: Bill, I know
that you're taking things week by week, and we know how focused you are, how
much of you is kind of thankful, and kind of counting your lucky stars to an
extent, that when Tedy was able to come back that it did happen
during a bye week. And I'm looking at given what happened yesterday down in
Foxborough, about a hundred people sitting there watching you talk on
a bye week, how thankful are you that this did happen during the bye week,
and that you're not taken away from game preparation in a short period of
time?
Belichick: I'm a lot more
concerned about Tedy's situation and the opportunity that he now has to get
back on the practice field, and how much it means to him and how important
football is to him and how hard he's worked. And that's what he is, he's a
football player. So I'm happy for him. Whenever that happens, whatever the
timing is, we've been through that before. But whenever a player's able to
come back I'm always happy to have him back. We can always improve our
football team when we get more healthier players out there on the field. So
that's a positive, and that's good whenever it happens. I'm always glad that
it happens, and this week's been fine and maybe to a degree it has given him
and the team, I guess, a little bit more of an opportunity to deal with it
without there being an immediate game. But still, we've tried to be
pretty focused on what we're doing this week in terms of our improvement,
getting started on Buffalo and all that. So I don't want to in any way make
it sound like this week isn't important to us or that there wasn't a lot
that we wanted to get accomplished.
Felger: Bill, I know
you have to get going, but I just want to ask you...now you have had Bruschi
out there for two practices two days in a row, how is he looking? Is he on
track, on that day to day thing building up to that Bills game? Are you
please with where he is right now?
Belichick: Well Michael, we
haven't had any contact. They've both been pretty light practices. He's
been fine, but in all honesty we haven't gone out there and had a very hard,
competitive, physical, contact-oriented type of practice. It's been more of
some timing, making sure that we're working on the things adjustment-wise,
and communication, and formation recognition, and play recognition and things
like that defensively than it has been some kind of big rockum sockum practice.
But that's important, too. It's important for him and every other player to be
mentally into the game, and be mentally confident that everything's there so
that we can play more aggressively physically. So that's part of the
emphasis this week, to solidify some of the mental part of it and the
recognition part of it so that we can physically attack more.
Felger: How do you get
them that physical working?
Winter: Volunteer you.
[Laughter]
Felger: I mean, I sort
of asked you this this morning but I'm interested in it. Can you dress up a
few players on the side and just have Tedy do his own thing and get his
contact in that way? I would assume before you make a decision to
activate him prior to that Buffalo game you've got to see how he takes,
responds to, and handles contact.
Belichick: Well, we know
that this coming week in the preparation for Buffalo that we'll have some
added contact back. So how that goes, and whether in talking to him and the
medical people whether there's a need to do more contact, then, as you
described it, that could be part of it. I don't think it necessarily has to
be, but it's certainly an option.
Felger: OK. Bill Belichick, thank you so
much for taking the time. Enjoy your bye week. |
|
