Coffee With The Coach

WEEI
December 11, 2006

Bill Belichick joined The Big Show with hosts Glenn Ordway, Fred Smerlas, Steve DeOssie and Pete Sheppard during Patriots Monday on WEEI Sports Radio 850 AM.

GO: Back here on The Big Show, it is Patriots Monday and as always we are live down here at Gillette Stadium. It's time for Coffee With The Coach, brought to you by Dunkin' Donuts. Stop by Dunkin' Donuts today for a delicious coffee. America runs on Dunkin'. Good afternoon, Coach.

BB: Hi Glenn, Pete, Steve, Freddy.

GO: It wasn't a great day down in southern Florida, was it.

BB: It sure wasn't.

GO: Is it alarming now that we keep on talking every week about penalties and turnovers? Is it getting to the point where you're wondering when it's going to stop? And how do you get players to become...is it a focus problem? I mean, what happens out there that every week it seems to be the same issue?

BB: I don't know about that. I think it's always a point of emphasis. In the end, most of those things come down to one of two things: decision making and concentration. So you work on making good decisions and work on concentration to eliminate those kinds of problems. But that's something you do every week. I don't think it's anything unique to one particular game. We've emphasized it for seven years.

GO: Is it surprising that this late in the season you're having these types of issues?

BB: Well, we try to eliminate them every week. We don't want any penalties, we don't want any turnovers, we don't want any loose balls, so it's always a point of emphasis. You hope you get it every week. Realistically you probably don't, but you hope you do and you work toward that.

FS: Offensively, one thing we talked about early on in the year, most of the times you don't get a free run at Brady because someone picks up the blitz pretty well in the back. It seemed like they had a couple of free runs, whether it was a missed assignment or they had a scheme that was not picked up correctly.

BB: Yes, a couple times we missed it. We had it picked up, we had enough people to block it, just didn't identify it correctly and we missed one. But Tom did a real good job yesterday of getting the protections set the way they should have, and we had enough people to block just about everything they did. There was one time where they got us and you just had to get rid of the ball, but the rest of the times we should have had them blocked and a couple cases we just didn't either block them or in one case we just missed an assignment and blocked the wrong guy so somebody came free, but Miami does a good job of that. They give you a lot of different looks, and of course playing at home with the silent count they were able to time some of those blitzes up a little bit. But overall I thought Tom did a good job on that.

SD: Did they try to take away the quick hits from the receivers, the quick adjustments, the Miami defensive backs?

BB: They played a lot of split-safety coverage and kind of doubled up on the receivers, and then they mixed that in with some of the single-safety coverage where they pressured. That's pretty much what they normally do. They have different combinations, but that's the basic strategy. And again, they do a good job mixing it up. They have good players.

SD: A lot of people thought your praise during the week of Jason Taylor was a little bit over the top. What would you think about Jason Taylor after that game?

BB: Same thing I thought about him before.

[Laughter]

SD: Unbelievable.

BB: Obviously, anybody who doesn't think a lot of Jason Taylor hasn't watched him play this year.

SD: Yeah.

FS: Now, the offense it seemed couldn't get the ball off. They ran some plays and it seemed to trap them a few times taking care of the penetration they were having, but 78 yards passing, there was nothing they could get off, like I said, the slants were being jumped on. Did they have enough time to go downfield on those double moves? Because it stagnated the offensive passing game completely. Were they just jumping on receivers and not enough time to make an adjustment out of that?

BB: Well like I said Fred, they mixed it up. There were a couple cases where we were trying to go downfield and they had us doubled up and trying to throw the short and intermediate stuff. There were other times they were on that. You know, we hit a decent percentage of the passes, especially in the first half when it was a more competitive game. And then later on, we were trying to get the ball down the field more and that ultimately led to more problems. But at times I think we had, for the most part, you know, we got hit once in the first half, but for the most part we had time to throw. It was just a question of coverage or waiting for the routes to get open. Every once in a while we had a little bit of pressure and kind of had to rush it, but overall I thought the protection held up fairly well.

GO: It seemed like every time you took possession of the ball you were pinned back on your 3-yard line.

BB: Yes, well, we were. Three times inside the five...

GO: Unbelievable.

BB: And then we went through three and a half quarters...it wasn't until the middle of the fourth quarter that we had the ball outside our 30-yard line. That was our best field position.

GO: How difficult is it to operate your offense, Bill, in that one little mistake and suddenly they're in the end zone on you?

BB: Well, I think more of what we saw was we'd get the ball on our own goal line and move it out to midfield and then something would happen, we wouldn't be able to sustain it, and give it back to them. Where the first time we played Miami we had a couple of short fields. Then when we got those and took them in and scored, you know, that's where you get your points from. Miami did that a little bit, too. They hit some plays, but they got those two possessions in the third quarter on our side on the 50 and they finally converted one of those. You know, playing on a short field, you have to run a lot fewer plays. And Miami is very good on defense. It's just hard to move the ball 70, 80, 95 yards against that defense. Like you said, sooner or later something goes wrong – you have a penalty or you miss a pass, you get a negative run, and then you're out of there.

FS: Games that close, it comes down to one or two plays. [Daniel] Graham fumbled the ball on the 40-yard line, which was a huge play. They get the ball in good field position and then Artrell Hawkins seemed to have a beat on that interception out of position. Was he out of position early?

BB: That was a tough play because Artrell read the play and really anticipated it, and then [Marty] Booker kind of changed the route. Instead of going across the field [he] just kind of turned up and Artrell came back there. There was a collision right there as the ball...I mean, that play was a couple of inches away from maybe being an interception and it turns out to be a game-changing touchdown. And that's similar to the other play that [Joey] Harrington hit Booker on down the sideline, which was a tremendous play. We had great pressure on Harrington, and he practically threw it off his back and arced it over Chad Scott, who timed his jump perfectly, and the ball just went into the smallest window that it could go into. It was a great play by Miami; you have to give them credit. It was a great play. There wasn't much to work with there but they made it.

FS: I said to Steve earlier, normally that play, when you get pressure and the quarterback's going down and he throws a blind pass like that and there's good coverage, nine out of ten times that's going to be an interception. It's almost impossible to make that throw going down the way he was and the way he was hit, and he threw it perfectly to the only spot. When you make that play out of desperation you normally would get that picked off.

BB: There was so little space to get that ball in, and he made a perfect throw. And Booker went up and made a tremendous catch and got his feet down. ... Certainly we could play better, and we need to play better. I'm not happy with what happened at all, but at the same time I have to give the Dolphins credit, they played a real good football game. They didn't make any mistakes, they didn't turn the ball over, they only had three penalties, they played tough on defense, they played good in the kicking game, they had good field position, they got three punts down inside the 5-yard line. They did a lot of things well and we just weren't able to match them on a play-for-play basis.

FS: They didn't make any mistakes on offense. For Harrington and a backup running back, I can't even think of a mistake they made. Did they?

BB: We sacked them one time, we had a couple negative runs, but in the end they were able to punt the ball out, play good defense, get good field position, and ultimately we finally...they were able to crack us on a couple long passes and use the field position to capitalize on it.

PS: Your team has gone up against some very good to great defensive ends before, but what is it about Jason Taylor that gets in the head of Tom Brady? Because it certainly seems over the years, since 2001 anyway, he's one of the few guys I've seen that can get in Tom's head.

BB: I don't know about that Pete, but I think what makes Jason a good player is that number one, he's relentless. He has a tremendous motor and he plays very hard. You know, he's a tall, almost skinny looking guy, but he's a little bit like Richard Seymour in that he has a lot of explosive strength in that kind of linear body to go with his speed. He's very fast but he's a better than you expect power rusher when he wants to be, and he also has a good counter move. So he's fast and he's strong and he's explosive and he's quick. And he plays hard all the time. He makes a lot of plays on effort, like an Aaron Schobel and guys like that. Those guys, you see them get blocked but they still end up making a play. Then there are other players that wouldn't necessarily do that, or not as consistently. So that's what makes Taylor good. And he has great ball awareness. He has good hands, he's intercepted passes, he has a great awareness of where the quarterback has the ball, whether it's carrying it low or up on his shoulder. He knows when to kind of reach in and strip it and when to just wrap the quarterback up and make the tackle and the ball's protected, that kind of thing. He not only makes sacks but knocks balls loose, and again, those are game-changing plays.

SD: Does he have the freedom to make some moves on his own? Because every once in a while it seems like his responsibility might be outside but he'll swim and go inside. He did it to Matt Light one time earlier. Is he given some leeway in that defense or is that just him making plays?

BB: I think there is some, Steve, because they don't run a lot of games. Most of the time they just straight rush, and I think that's partially to give him a two-way go out there on the tackle. If the offense is trying to block him from the outside in what we call chip him – you know, with the back and all that – then he'll run some games to get away from that. They also stood him up in the middle a few times, maybe four or five times in the game, where he's not an end, he's kind of an inside player, and then you have to find him in there and he loops into different gaps and so forth. So getting help on him is a good concept [but] it's not always that easy because you don't always know for sure where he's going to be.

GO: Last week, though you didn't play a great game, you did come up with some big plays. In this game, that little trick play with [Kevin] Faulk and Brady, had you made that play it might have been a different ball game. Now, Brady earlier today said that you practiced that all week and it worked to perfection every single time. What do you think went wrong on this one? Was it just a matter of Faulk making a poor pass?

BB: Well, we've been working on the play for several weeks. We could have just as easily run it in another game as this one. But I think it was kind of the right time for it. I thought [Offensive Coordinator] Josh [McDaniels] made a good call going to it. We just obviously threw the ball forward instead of backward, and part of that was Kevin kind of getting pushed back. We just didn't execute it the way it legally needed to be done.

GO: So he should have been further up in the line at the time?

BB: Well, we just needed to throw the ball backward.

PS: You had two guys wide open, you had Graham and Reche [Caldwell].

BB: Right. The corner [André] Goodman dropped Caldwell, and Graham, who was over on the strong side, by blocking came all the way across the field and really nobody had him. So it's one of those plays that if you can get it executed, it's hard to defend because it has so much draw on the sweep, and then on the double pass, and that's when Goodman dropped Reche and came out of coverage and came up to get Brady. So, plays could look good on paper, but if they're not executed properly then you don't really have anything. We just unfortunately didn't get that one done the way we wanted to.

FS: You said that Tom was making the right calls with strength and the way the blocks...

BB: I'm saying in our protection that we have some calls that the quarterback makes relative to the defensive linemen and so forth so that we're trying to block the guys that are blitzing, not the guys that are in coverage and letting the blitzers come free. But I thought he did a real good job of identifying a couple very difficult looks, a combination of the front and the secondary rotation, and trying to figure out where they're coming from.

FS: In order to win a game like down in Miami, you need the big plays once in a while, you know, there was a [Benjamin] Watson pass over the middle. The long pass to [Jabar] Gaffney: it looked like he looked back and slowed down when he looked back for a second and missed. Because it only missed by what, six inches?

BB: Yes, it was close. It was kind of reminiscent of the flea-flicker to Troy Brown. But it's just a foul ball. It's just a long foul ball if you don't hit them. It was close; obviously we had the right idea. But you're exactly right, Fred, you have to make a couple of those plays. And especially, again, in a game like that where we didn't have a lot of good field position you've got to make a play that will change the field position. It's just hard to go 80 yards in 17 plays against a defense like Miami.

FS: And that's why when you start the game off and you have Graham who caught the ball for a first down on the 40-yard line in such a close contest, a highly competitive contest, that play right there can be devastating, fumbling that early on your side of the field.

BB: Again, the couple times that Miami was on a short field they were able to take advantage of a couple of them, and then they drove the ball there in the 2-minute – we got a penalty and they hit a screen pass. So that ended up giving up a field goal there.

FS: That middle screen, right? There were a couple of middle screens...

BB: Yes, the slip screen to [Sammy] Morris.

FS: The penalty on [Vince] Wilfork. When you revue that...it looked like he was laying on the ground and the quarterback tripped over him.

BB: Yeah...

GO: [Laughter]

FS: As a D-lineman you watch it going the guy tripped on his head!

GO: Doesn't the rule book claim that you can't hit them at the ankles? Isn't that it?

BB: You know, I'm not sure exactly what the call was on that one whether it was at the ankles or late or what. But I think Vince was falling; I don't even think he really...

[Everybody begins speaking at once.]

GO: It was Harrington that rolled into him... [Crosstalk] See, I think that's the problem with this, Bill. I don't know, if you're a defensive lineman and you're rushing the quarterback, I don't know how, based on the way the rule reads, how you can turn that switch on and suddenly go off. I don't.

FS: He was laying [sic] on the ground, he wasn't moving.

GO: I can understand they have to protect the quarterback. I understand clearly you don't want to lose all the quarterbacks in the league, or this league's going to have some trouble. But how do you tell a defensive guy to stop, shut your motors down? I can understand no head-on-head or stuff like that. How do you tell a guy to shut it down?

BB: Well, I think the rule is pretty clearly stated; how it happens in the game is another matter. But you can't hit the quarterback above the shoulder or below the knee. You've got to find a way to not do that. And then on top of that, there's the one-step rule: if it's anything more than a step at the quarterback, you have to show some intent to pull off. I'm not saying you can't hit him, but the referee has to see that in that extra step or half a step that you have, that you're showing some intent not to hit the quarterback as hard as you would if it was your last step.

GO: Do you guys do any drills with acting, or with stuff like that, with these players, to peel off?

FS: Can't touch the quarterback.

BB: Actually we do, because in practice we don't ever hit our quarterback. So when they come free on a rush, they just instinctively, they do pull off so that our guys won't get hit. It's a tough position for a quarterback to be in. Most players expect to get hit. When you're throwing the ball, you're not really thinking about...well, you might be thinking about getting hit, but you're not protecting yourself, you're delivering the ball and you're totally exposed. Occasionally that will happen to a receiver or a defensive players on a blindside block. But there are a couple of those a game; for the most part, that's it. Whereas a quarterback, he doesn't have any protection when he's throwing the ball. We all understand the reason for the rule. There are some close calls, but what's clear is you can't hit him above the shoulders, you can't hit him below the knees, and that's the defender's responsibility. And if you take more than a step at him, if you're going and your momentum is carrying you there and it's more than a step, then you have to show some intent to pull off the hit.

GO: So contact was made with Wilfork below the knee, but in this case it might have been the quarterback shuffling his feet that actually caused it.

BB: I understand.

FS: He could have been charged with kneeing Wilfork in the head.

PS: The bottom line is we've seen some doozies against the Patriots. That was one of the all-time worst. Thank God it wasn't a playoff game.

GO: I just think it's a difficult rule, the way it's written now, to interpret. I really do. And I guess they probably err on the side of protecting the quarterback...

BB: Oh, absolutely.

GO: So they'll be quicker to throw that flag out and then they'll worry about it afterwards – 'All right, [if] I screwed up, I screwed up.'

BB: Well they're going to err on protecting the quarterback and they're going to err on protecting a defenseless receiver. And they're going to rule on the head-to-head contact that, if it's a bang-bang play, like the Cincinnati play with Reche, and they're not sure whether it was helmet-to-helmet or leading with the helmet, then they're still going to call it.

FS: Ellis Hobbs, at the end, did a kickoff return. Has he been practicing that? I mean he seemed to have a great acceleration up the field.

BB: We know Ellis is fast; he did a good job for us on that last year. And Laurence [Maroney] has done a nice job this year. You know, Ellis was a little limited earlier in the year with the wrist and he's been more comfortable in recent weeks as that's kind of...he got used to it. And so with Laurence not back this week, then we were able to...Ellis got a few more reps back there returning kicks and handled the ball pretty well, so we used him in the game there.

FS: How much did it change the offensive scheme when you get a running back with the talents of Maroney not in there?

BB: Well, I mean we'd love to have all our players. Unfortunately Laurence wasn't quite able to make it for the Miami game but he's doing better. We have confidence in all our players. I thought Corey [Dillon] ran well. I thought he did a great job. And Patrick [Pass] and Kevin and Heath [Evans], I thought they all...I thought that was a very productive aspect of our game. So whoever's in there, we have confidence in. We have confidence in all of them.

SD: What is it about Miami that makes that the toughest place for the Patriots to play? You've had incredible success everywhere else in the league. Even on Miami's less than stellar years, it's difficult for the Patriots to win there.

BB: I think the hardest thing about the Dolphins is their team [Laughter].

SD: Yeah.

BB: They have a good football team, and they've had a good team. Now, even though their record might not...it usually has reflected it, but for a couple years there it didn't. But still, they've always been good on defense, and they have those good skill players offensively. They've been able to matchup pretty well in terms of their skill players on offense and just being a good, strong, tough, physical defense. That has carried over back from the Jimmy Johnson years, Dave [Wannstedt] and now Nick [Saban]. They've been one of the best defensive teams, one of the best defenses against the pass since really...

SD: Forever.

BB: Yes, since Jimmy went down there.

FS: Bill, when you approach practice after a game like this a lot of people say, 'Well, he should pound them because they lost.' But sometimes guys get fatigued this time of year; you cut it down, make it a little crisper. How do you approach it near the end of the season when you want to get guys all on the same page? How difficult is it for your decisions of which way to go in practice, or do you stay consistent throughout the year?

BB: No, we don't stay consistent, Fred. That's a great question. We try to do what we feel like is best for the football team, and if it's to go out and have contact and work on our timing in the contact part of the practice, like the running game and blitz pickup and goal line and things like that where you really need some contact to develop your timing, there are times that we do that. But there are other times when we might feel it's in the best interest of the team to pull off on that a little bit, and if that's the case then we'll do that. So really it's almost a day-to-day decision. I might say week-to-week but it's really more of a day-to-day, 'What do you want to do on Wednesday? What do you want to do on Thursday?'

FS: You sit down with the coaches...

BB: Yes. Right. We talk about that, talk to the medical people and they kind of give us a feel for where the team is overall in terms of the team's overall physical condition. Sometimes you have a lot of guys that are playing but they're just dealing with a lot of different stuff. And you know what that's like. Sometimes it's better just to back off of them a little bit during the week and get over that so you can be fresher on Sunday.

GO: I know the injury report comes out Wednesday, but are you a little beaten up a little bit more?

BB: Yes, it was a physical game. It sure was. I think we have a lot of guys in for treatment today, but it's Monday, it's the day after the game. That's the way it usually is. You kind of wait and see how those things progress in the next 48 hours and see what the players' availability is on Wednesday. I mean, I know that everybody's interested in that, and so am I, but in all honesty there have been plenty of times when on Monday a guy will come in and looks pretty bad, can't walk and is sore, and by Wednesday things turn the corner in a hurry and he's out there and pretty much fine. You wouldn't know where he was on Monday, and then it could also be the reverse of that – a guy could come in on Monday and not feel too bad and thinks everything's going to be okay, and then Tuesday, Wednesday come along and it really doesn't improve a whole lot in those 48 hours, like another player did with a different injury. And then you end up with a situation where it didn't look that bad on Monday, but now you get to Wednesday and you know it isn't turning the corner too quickly and now that player's availability's in question. So it's really hard to tell right after the game, it really is. I know everybody wants to know, but it's just hard to put a definitive time on it, and until we have to practice then you really don't know.

GO: Let me ask you this, is it safe to say that there were no devastating injuries in that game yesterday that would keep somebody out for a long period of time?

BB: You know, again, I hesitate to say that, Glenn...

GO: I'm busy Wednesday. I was trying to see if I could...

[Laughter and crosstalk]

BB: Just to follow up on that, because sometimes a guy might have to go get another exam or an MRI or whatever it is. And again, sometimes it looks like an injury could be not that significant and you find out well there's really more there than you think, and other times you look at a guy and he comes in and he's really having trouble and you say 'Boy, there could be a lot there,' and then you find out and get it confirmed that it's just a bruise or whatever and then it clears up pretty quickly. So it's hard to say. It really is.

FS: Is Miami a physical team? Because they seem very quick, hitting a lot of holes, like Chicago, more in your face, two-gap a little bit. This team seemed to be a lot of one-gap, a lot more quickness...

BB: I think it's one-gap or two-gap – it's by choice, Fred. I think that Kevin Carter is very physical, Keith Traylor, Dan Wilkinson, [Vonnie] Holliday – those guys. Taylor, he could pretty much do what he wants to do. [Channing] Crowder's a big inside linebacker. Zach [Thomas] has his own playing style, but one thing Zach is is tough.

FS: He'll hit you.

BB: He sure will. So they have a lot of...the same thing up front, now. That offensive line is...I don't think there's hardly anybody under [325 lbs.]. They're big and they use a lot of double-team blocks. Again, it's not just the size of the players, it's kind of the way they play. When a team is running two double-team blocks on running plays, those are physical blocks, they're not draw plays and stuff like that where you're not getting the same amount of contact. They bang it in there pretty good. They have a good blocking fullback...so I would say they are. And on special teams they're very physical, too. They're tough.

GO: All right, let's move on and get to this week's opponent. It's one of those teams, the Houston Texans, that you just don't see an awful lot of here, don't hear an awful lot of.

FS: You don't see any.

GO: Well you see André Johnson highlights.

FS: Have you seen any games? We don't. I haven't seen any.

GO: I can't remember seeing an entire Houston game this year; that's a good point, Fred. But we've seen the André Johnson highlights, certainly. He's had a terrific season.

BB: Plenty of those.

GO: Yes. But what do they provide? Start with the offense, what do they provide offensively?

BB: Offensively, of course Gary Kubiak was in Denver for years. They run basically the Denver system, so it's a lot of zone, stretch plays, bootlegs, moving quarterback plays, which [David] Carr is very good at – he's a very athletic guy.

GO: Has that made him a better quarterback because of Kubiak coming in there with that system? Does he function better?

BB: I think Carr is pretty good at everything. He can certainly go back in the pocket and throw, but if he does that he's also dangerous to escape if your rush breaks down and he sees a little alley up there he can scoot and run for 15 or 20 yards. I mean he's not a three-yard-and-slide guy, he's the type that can go 25 yards with no problem. But they do move him in the pocket, move him out. That doesn't hurt him; he can throw on the run. He's pretty athletic and can get out there pretty quickly. They have several different backs there that they utilize, but they run the ball; they're averaging almost four yards a carry. So they have a good running game. But again, it's mainly the Denver running game and the stretch plays. They're very good on special teams, probably the best special teams units in the league from top to bottom: they cover well, they kick well and they have two real good returners in [Jerome] Mathis and [Dexter] Wynn – they make a lot of plays in the kicking game; that will be a big challenge for us. And then defensively, they're a pressure team; they run a lot of blitz zone, a lot of man-to-man coverage. They really try to disrupt the offense with pressure and stunting and overload blitzes and things like that. Richard Smith's their defensive coordinator and he was actually at Miami last year, so a lot of the pressure that the Dolphins run, there are certainly some elements of that. Defensively, I think the other thing about Houston that's noteworthy is that they're fast. They're very fast in all three phases of the game – they're fast on special teams, guys like Johnson on offense are fast, David Carr is fast. They're fast on defense; the kind of Buffalo style, which they run down a lot of plays. This Mario Williams now, he's the real deal. He makes plays from the backside at 290, or whatever he is, that guys that are...it looks like Troy Polamalu running across the field making a play. I mean, he's fast-fast. But as good as Williams is, and I think Williams is a very good player, don't get me wrong, I think he's very good. I think he might be the second best rookie on that defense. That DeMeco Ryans is tough, he's made a ton of plays. He's just a very, very productive inside linebacker. So, they're young, they're fast, they're athletic, and they're fast in all three phases of the game.

FS: Aren't they rated in the top ten in offense and defense? I think as far as yards and yards allowed? You talked about balance.

BB: Yeah, I'm not sure about that, Fred. I'm not sure about the stats, but I don't think they are, to be honest with you. But I know that they're very fast and very explosive. And again, in the kicking game...now, on special teams I'm sure they're up there at the top of the league.

PS: A guy had a 60-yarder a couple weeks ago.

BB: Well they've been good the last two or three years; I mean, they're right at the top of the league. But I think offensively they have a balance, kind of like Denver. Denver's not at the top of the league in offense, but they're a very well-balanced offense, and they're an efficient offense when things are going well for them. And it's the same way with Houston – they can run it, they play action, they can get the ball down the field, and Johnson's a big-play guy.

FS: How much copy cat will there be if they see the Jets game or they see the Miami game where the offense wasn't as efficient or as productive as it could be? How much stuff do you think you'll see as a copycat for this team, or do they have the personnel to run it?

BB: I'm not exactly sure how much of the Denver game planning was [Mike] Shanahan and how much was Kubiak, I'm sure it was a combination of both of them, but for the most part they try to run their plays, they just try to formation you in a way that kind of allows them to run into the soft spot of the defense. So after they kind of see in the films how you're going to run force and where you're going to put your safeties and how you're going to rotate and things like that, they try to set up their formations so that they can run those plays into the softest part of the defense. And they do a very good job of that.

GO: Time right now for the Eastern Mass. Volkswagen Dealers' Coach's Question of The Week. This one, Coach, comes from Herb from Avon [who] would like to know, 'Which opposing stadium crowd provides the best home field advantage?' Denver, Kansas City, Buffalo, I don't know. What do you think?

BB: The best...

FS: Green Bay? Seattle?

BB: I think I'd have to put Kansas City up there. It was no picnic playing in San Diego, and it was no picnic playing in Oakland, either.

GO: I guess it's easier playing in those places when you come in with a good team, too. ... You go in with a bad team and it's...forget about it.

BB: Or a bad day ... once they kind of get it going.

SD: Kansas City has some smart football fans, too. They know when to get loud and...

GO: They start tailgating at like 6 a.m. out there. Have you ever been out there? It's unbelievable.

[Crosstalk]

GO: So Kansas City would be your choice.

BB: Well, yes. I would have to put them up there...

GO: The old Denver stadium you said before you thought was louder than the new one, right?

BB: I did. Yes, I did.

GO: Yeah, that one end zone was just unbelievable.

FS: And the Dawg Pound in Cleveland. Remember when that was all Dawg Pound?

BB: Oh yes, I sure do.

[Crosstalk]

BB: I'll tell you, the ones I remember the loudest, Glenn, are the games that didn't go well.

GO: [Laughter]

BB: It's like in Green Bay. You're ahead 21-0 at the half which...it's only going to be so loud. Now, when we went out to Cincinnati a couple years ago in the opening day, that was loud. Buffalo opening day in '03...

GO: So when your team's not doing so well, that crowd's really into it...and you can't do anything...

BB: Of course! Of course. They're lighting it up down there. So, Kansas City last year when they beat us out there; San Diego in, what year was that?

FS: Pittsburgh.

BB: Yes, Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's loud, now. Pittsburgh's loud.

[Crosstalk]

GO: All right, there's your Eastern Mass. Volkswagen Dealers' Coach's Question of The Week. Herb is now registered to win a $6000 trip to his favorite sports destination. Stop by your local Eastern Mass. Volkswagen dealer or logon to WEEI.com, submit a question for the coach and register for your sports fantasy trip. You have any questions today?

BB: The Philadelphia thing though, Steve, that reminds me...

[Laughter and crosstalk]

BB: When they do the introductions down there...I think that was part of what started the whole team introductions. We were playing in Philadelphia and they introduced each person individually, you know, 'And playing inside linebacker, Steve DeOssie,' and then the whole stadium yells.

SD: Yeah.

[Laughter and crosstalk]

BB: And then they'd introduce the next guy. So, you know look, there's no sense in each one ... let's just go out there together, just take one big...

SD: Yeah, let's get called that nasty name as a group, not as an individual. It affected my self esteem quite adversely, from what I remember.

[Laughter and crosstalk]

BB: And then it's, 'Coached by Bill Belichick.' ...

[Laughter and crosstalk]

GO: But that might be the most vicious crowd. They were awful at the Super Bowl though, two years ago. There was a documentary that I just saw here a couple of weeks ago about the old days in Philadelphia, when the team was really bad, with Santa Claus. Have you seen that?

BB: Yes. Yes, yes.

GO: That is classic stuff. By the way, talking about that...

BB: I remember in '81 when I was with the Giants and we played them in the playoff game. They had a good team ... [Wilbert] Montgomery and [Harold] Carmichael and [Ron] Jaworski and those guys. They ended up going to the Super Bowl. They went in '80, so it was like a year or two later. It was like the middle of the third quarter, and I was up in the press box and Bill [Parcells] was down on the field, and there was a fight in the stands. It must have been about three thousand people. Nobody was watching the game. [Laughter] And it was like, 'What's going on?' 'You should see this riot that's going on behind their bench.' I'm telling you, they were.... We were there one year with the Giants and somebody got tossed out of the upper deck! I mean like over the railing.

[Crosstalk]

GO: There was a terrific piece the other night with Inside the NFL on HBO with you and your kids. I can't tell you have many people have said to me, 'God, Bill Belichick is really human.' I mean, it's a whole other side of him. Now, I'm wondering, because it seems to me you've been reluctant in the past to have yourself mic'd up; you haven't done that on a regular basis. Why did you suddenly agree? Are you surprised to suddenly hear, because we see you every week and we see probably a different side of you than a lot of other people see, are you surprised to hear that from people – 'Oh, now there's another side of Bill.' I mean as a coach, do you put up a shield here?

BB: Well you know, being mic'd, that's not really my thing. But when NFL Films approached me on this story, it was just going to be like a three generation story – my dad [Steve], who played with the Lions, and I coached there for two years, and then trying to relate it to the kids because we were playing the Lions. So it was kind of a three generation thing: a little bit of a perspective of what I learned from my dad, and then kind of the experiences that Stephen and Brian have had here doing different things – charting plays, being here in training camp and stuff like that. So that was kind of the pitch of it. I thought it was an interesting thing ... three generations and trying to tie it into the Lions and all. I thought it was a good storyline so I agreed to do it. That's the reason why.

GO: Your kids were busting on you. It was good.

FS: Do you want your kids to be coaches?

BB: Oh, I don't care. Whatever makes them happy, I'll support.

[Crosstalk]

GO: Now, do you shy away from getting mic'd up because you're afraid of what you're going to say, or is it a matter of you start becoming conscious of the fact that you have this little thing [on]?

BB: I think it's just a little bit of a distraction, really. You know, I just want to try to think about the game and think about the decisions that I need to make. You don't really want to be thinking about, 'Well, I'm mic'd, what am I going to say? How is this going to sound?' and all that. I've done it for a couple preseason games but it's not really my thing. Like when [Hank] Stram did it in the Super Bowl. That forever is his trademark.

PS: That was a classic.

BB: Right. He had some classic lines in there ... 'Matriculate the ball down the field,' you know. And I'm sure he was very comfortable with it, as those who know Hank knew he would be. Which is fine. That's great, but I don't really know if that's my thing. They'd probably have to edit out a lot of it anyway.

[Crosstalk]

GO: All right, Coach, good luck next Sunday. We'll see you back here on Monday. Have a good week.

BB: OK, thanks Glenn, Pete, Freddy, Steve.

GO: Bill Belichick!

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