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 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'.
[Greetings and crosstalk]
GO: Well I have to tell you, Coach, that was more like it yesterday,
wasn't it?
BB: Yes, it was. It was really good,
Glenn. The players did a great job. They played well in all three phases of
the game. And I'm doing a lot better than I was last week coughing to death.
[Laughter]
GO: I remember a few weeks ago, we
had this conversation: you talked about how you've changed over the years and
how you've learned better to be able to take the throttle up when you have
to on players, and, when to put the pedal down. I'm wondering, this past week
you put pads on for a couple of days. I've heard players earlier today
say, 'That really
made a difference it the way we approached it, maybe a little bit more
physical or whatever.' Is that an example of it, of being able to see
that maybe the team wasn't being as physical as you wanted
them to be?
BB: I don't know. I think if that's all there was to
it we could have done that the previous week. I don't know if that
would have made the difference or not. I just think more than anything, it
was a good week of preparation and good focus by the
players, and then that carried over into the game. Whether we were in
pads, not in pads, inside, outside, whatever, it was just a good focus week
of concentration in all three phases of the game. We complemented
ourselves well in that game, and that's the way we need to play
Patriot football. We need to play more of that.
SD: Was there an emphasis on a fast start,
and did that influence the fourth-and-goal call?
BB: We've done that before. You know,
Steve, I know
it doesn't look like it, but we always try to start fast.
[Laughter]
BB: We always try to put together our best stuff early
in the game and try to get on top and get the
upper hand. But it was really a nice drive, and being able to convert – we had a couple of fourth downs that
we converted on – we had real good execution on those plays and that's
really the key to it. That play action pass, Tom [Brady] and
the line really sold the fake well...
SD: It was a gutsy call, too.
BB: It was well-executed. I
think that's the bottom line.
FS: Coach, going back a second
to the
pads, because a lot of times when you're a lineman you don't really get the
proper timing to get your hand to fit properly, guys are
standing up. I know I played for San Francisco for a year,
but prior to that we hit all the time. I mean, it was customary every day,
even on Fridays with shorts and shoulder
pads. San Fran, every once in a while they put the pads on because guys started raising their center of gravity.
Does that have something to do with it? Because linemen can't get a real
good read unless you do go pads once in a while.
BB: Well, I think that the pads
certainly help your timing in the
running game. I think it also helps you in pass protection [and] blitz pickup,
so there's some benefit to that. But on the other hand, you kind of want to try
to take care of the
health of your players, so we try to balance it there. Again, I think
the most important thing in the game was that we played a smart football game. All three phases were
on top of it for sixty minutes, and that's
really what it took.
FS: Well, I know you can't stretch the field
because you don't have receivers that can run. [Laughter] But obviously,
beautiful hook-up with Reche Caldwell and Brady; [Benjamin] Watson in the corner. It looks like, I mean this team
wasn't a great team against the pass, but the timing looked well.
Was it something to do with the field, the good footing – because they could get timing easier, they're not slipping. They
were
very sharp in the timing in Brady's passing yesterday.
BB: Certainly there's no question that
the fields that we've played [on] away from here have been the best
fields that we've played on. Maybe that will change this week; I'm sure it
will. But I think, again, it just came down to good execution – play action, the safeties got just held a little by the action, and Reche got
on top, Tom put it out there and it was a perfect throw. So that
was good. The Packers play a lot of split-safety
coverages, and sometimes if you can get them to just freeze for a
minute you have a chance to get down there and get on top of them. We'd seen other
teams do that. But again, more that anything it was just good
execution.
GO: How much time will you spend out there this week on
that new field? We've all been out there and
tested it out. [Crosstalk and joking around] It feels great.
FS: Have you been on it yet?
GO: Yes, how much
time have you spent out there?
BB: You know, I haven't been out there yet. Maybe
I'll walk out there this
afternoon.
[Crosstalk and joking around]
PS: Listening to Tedy Bruschi earlier
today – Richard Seymour, Artrell Hawkins,
those guys – Tedy basically said after
the game against the Jets, he's like, 'I have had it with
this.' So those guys seem thrilled that this new field is
in. And I'm sure you're thrilled, too.
BB: I think we're all looking forward to it,
but right now I think the most important thing is just
getting ready for the Bears. No matter what field you play them on,
or play them in a parking lot or whatever, they're a great football team. So we need good
preparation [and] we need to be on top of everything. We'll let the people that
are working on the field worry about the field and we'll just worry about
the Bears.
GO: Will you spend time out there
with the team this week?
BB: If we can get on it later in
the week, we probably will.
FS: Special teams – kickoff coverage was much better. You didn't have
to punt too much, but the coverage was much better. What
did you see out there? I mean, the lanes were together, they executed
well...
BB: Yes. I thought we tackled better
and the lane coverage was good. We were aggressive, we were using our
hands more in coverage. Even some of those runs that don't get outside, if they're able to stretch the field and
stretch your coverage, and then take it up inside, then there's just more
space. I thought our outside players, our
contained players, did a good job of squeezing things down, and that just
condenses and restricts the lanes for everybody else and just makes it that
much easier. And if we play well with our hands and wrap up on the
tackles, and we have pretty good field
position.
SD: How did Steven Neal play
in his first game back from the injury?
BB: I thought Steve held up
fine in there, I thought he did a good job. Our offensive line gave us
good protection. Really other than the
false starts, and we had a couple loose balls on the ground there that
we fumbled, that offensively we had a real productive day.
FS: [Doug] Gabriel didn't play much till, when did he play, second quarter? Was he banged up,
or just...
BB: No. No, we got all our receivers in
there and I think that's really the way we want to try to play, is use
all of our personnel that are receivers. We can get some different
combinations and get them doing some of the things that they do best, and keep
everybody involved in the game, keep them fresh. That seems to be a good format for us
and hopefully we'll be able to continue to do it.
FS: How difficult is it for
a guy coming into this system? Because it's a bit more
complex on offense; you have more reads than some teams do.
A guy that's been taught one way for a while, is it more difficult for him
to learn this?
BB: Oh, sure. It's adjustment anytime you go from one passing system to another. First of all, it starts
with just
how it's called and what the terms mean and the nomenclature and so forth,
and then it gets into the specific route techniques and adjustments and that type
of thing. But that's the NFL, that's the passing game. We meet on
it, we practice it a lot and we feel like what we can do, that's
what we do. So I think that we should be able to go out there and execute it at a pretty good level.
GO: Seemed to be far more separation
for those receivers who, we were talking about it earlier, there was a lot man-to-man coverage. Why did
they have so much separation in this game? We haven't seen that a lot during
the course of the year.
BB: First of all, for a receiver to
get open against man-to-man coverage takes a lot of different elements
to the play – getting off the line of scrimmage, getting
into the route at the top of the route, being able to shake the defender and get free,
and being able to
run the route in such a way that the defender can't recover and get back into
a position to cover it. I think our receivers work really hard. Last
week Brian Daboll our [wide] receivers coach, and Josh
McDaniels, spent a lot of time working specifically on man-to-man routes because
that's what the Packers play a lot of. But the players did a good
job. They used those
techniques, the timing was good. You know, we had some plays where we kind
of ran close together and crossed off each other and that type of
thing, and that, again, was good timing, good
execution by the players to get those guys coming together and meshing
and then breaking out of it and kind of exploding into a pattern so it
was harder for the
defenders to stay with us.
FS: Now back to the defense for a
second. Ty Warren came back. I mean, his two-gap technique and pass
rush off of two-gap was, he looked like he was controlling the line of
scrimmage very well, and...
BB: Ty's really playing good.
He's an excellent player; he's doing a great job. The running game...plays with his hands very well.
He's had a very, very productive season,
either getting off blocks making the plays, or putting the line in
a position where they can't really run in his area and have to
make kind of a severe cut to go somewhere else –
and that's not the best way
to run the ball, you want to be running downhill. But Ty, he's
done an excellent job for us, and played very well against Green Bay.
FS: You know in the 3-4, when
your line does not get pushed
back it enables your linebackers to run freer and make better entry
points at the line of scrimmage to make the tackles.
BB: Well, of course that all starts up front.
It all starts up front with the offensive line being able to control the line of
scrimmage and open holes for the running back and keep them off the
quarterback, and the defensive line
doing the same thing – controlling the line
of scrimmage, giving the linebackers room to run, and being able to
collapse the pocket on the quarterback. So it all starts
up front.
GO: Bill, once again you
required Troy Brown to play on both sides of the ball.
BB: He played a lot on defense.
GO: [Laughter] Except this time he
had to do it a lot earlier than we've seen him in past games. How does that
work, during the course of a week, when you need him to know about both
teams on both sides of the ball? How do you arrange that, how do you
work that out? I mean, do you always know how much you're going to need
him?
BB: Well, no, not always. But we did feel going into this Green Bay game that he was going to start for us on the nickel,
which he did, so we wanted to make sure he got plenty of work and plenty of
time there. Basically, on Wednesday we work on first and second down. On Thursday, we
work on reviewing first and second down and adding third down and short
yardage and a couple special situations –
two-minute, that type of thing. And then Friday, we get into the red
area and goal-line and things like that. So Wednesday's really a big third
down day for the defense, and the offense. And, of course, he's
involved in both of those, so that's a pretty big day for him – he gets all those third
down offensive plays and then swings over and gets them on defense. But from a meeting standpoint, he spends a lot of meeting time on
Thursday with the defense so he can get caught up on all of the nickel calls
and adjustments and so forth. And then usually on Friday we can split it up a
little bit, depending on what the requirements
of the week are. So he has to get a little extra meeting time on
offense to get those patterns down and plays down, but again, he has such a
great background and so much experience over there that that's probably the easier side of the ball for him.
PS: Did you have a feeling on
Wednesday or Thursday that [Eugene] Wilson and [Asante] Samuel weren't going to play and that Troy...[did you] tell
him you better get ready for this one because we're going to need you on D?
BB: Well, they both missed a
portion of practice. That
always concerns you a little bit more than if they're able to go
out there and practice – even though they might be a little bit limited, you
can kind of see them getting better through the week. Both Asante and Eugene missed some practice time, so we felt like if Troy had to be ready to go that
we'd need him as a reserve
at the worst, and possibly as a starter. But as you know, Eugene and
Asante didn't travel. So we knew by Saturday that it was going to be Troy.
SD: Well, this is the time of year when
a lot of rookies hit
that wall. This will be the most football they've ever played. How are your rookies
holding up so far?
BB: You know, I think they're holding up pretty
well, Steve. Laurence [Maroney] has really been a
consistent guy for us and he kind of seems to be getting better each week.
I hope it doesn't come from him [Laughter], but he's done a great job. And,
you know, Chad [Jackson] really missed so many practices
there in training camp that
for him, I think he's maybe only halfway to whatever the proverbial time
is.
So for him, he's just kind of starting to get his feet wet and is
really getting better
every day. It's kind of like the end of training camp for him – he's just
improving on almost a play-by-play, day-by-day basis, and it's exciting to
see him out there. He's starting to work harder and pick up some of
the little things that maybe he wasn't as aware of three, four, five
weeks ago. So that's been very encouraging. And Dave [Thomas] has
done a good job for us; he's a
very mature, focused kid. We've gotten some plays from from Willie [Andrews]
and Pierre [Woods] and those guys, so, you know, it seems to
be okay so far.
FS: Is he as fast, Bill? Jackson.
Coming out of college he was supposed to
be this lightning-fast guy. Is he as fast as...
BB: Chad's pretty fast.
FS: He's like a 4.3 40. 215.
BB: Whatever. I don't think we're
going to come in here and do this Monday radio show talking about Chad
Jackson not being able to run, let's put it that way.
FS: We hear about [how] you don't
have the speed to spread the field...
BB: No, I don't think we're
going to hear that he can't run.
FS: Let me ask you a question about
the defensive backs. The depleted backfield looked like coverage was
real well. Was there some breakdowns where there was open...? Because it looked like...
BB: Yes. You know, there are always
open receivers. And any time you play zone coverage – which we played a pretty fair amount of – and you're
reading the quarterback, in order to cover the receivers to the
side the quarterback is looking you have to kind of slide away from the other side.
So there's always an element of that. But the most
important thing is to be close to the receivers when the quarterback wants to throw the ball. That's the time when you need to have them
covered, is when the quarterback's ready to get rid of it. So until
he's really ready to throw and is into
his drop and the patterns develop, then you can be working toward the receivers. But once he gets set up and is ready to pull the trigger,
then that's when you have to be on him.
FS: You had three starters out
and it didn't seem like they missed a beat that much. That's miraculous.
Especially for DBs with
all the different coverages you have to go against with what Green Bay runs.
BB: Well, I think Chad Scott has
really played very well for us all year. He's done a terrific job,
and Artrell, I mean, those two guys are
as professional as any players on our team. And James [Sanders]
stepped up there and had a real good game in there at strong safety.
And Ellis [Hobbs] played well, played
very well. So I think you've got to give those guys a lot of credit. They
were up against a good passing game, good receivers and they stepped up to
the competition and met the challenge and met it head on. They
did a good job, on all downs – first and second down, when
they tried to pump some deep balls and some shots at us, and
on third down, the key down about getting off the field, we had pretty good coverage there, too. So it was good.
GO: Getting back to the rookie
question, you were saying a couple weeks ago that you play people based
on whether they're
ready to play or not. I'm wondering, do you take into consideration at all the
fact that Maroney might be playing at a high level, but on the other
hand you're fearful that he
might hit that wall? As you're going along in these games, is there a
tendency to maybe pull back on him a little bit as far as how much time he touches
the ball, figuring you've got to get 16-plus games out of him?
BB: I think that the big challenge for the
rookies is mentally. I mean, it's a long, physical season for every player, I'm not saying that,
but I think that the mental part of it is the hardest thing for any football player, and any
coach. But especially for the young guys because there are those extra
games, and every game is a big mental game. You have new personnel, you have
new formations, you have new tendencies, you have new things that you've got to study and
prepare for and learn. Then when that
exam's over, Monday, you start getting ready for another one. That treadmill just keeps going.
It just comes week after week. It's the mental part of going back over...especially now, we
played Green Bay and that was a team we didn't know. And then
we play Chicago – that's another team we don't know very well.
Then we're into Detroit – that's another team that we haven't played in a while. So
when you start
playing teams that you don't know very well, I mean, the only way to
know them is to put in the time, study them and watch film. I think that's where the mental
toughness comes in and that's what everybody in this league has to
learn how to do. That's what it takes to play on this football team, is
to be mentally and physically tough, and that means putting in the time and
putting in the preparation to be ready to go.
GO: Let's get to know Chicago a little bit more because that's the opponent Sunday afternoon. We'll start
with the defense because the defense is phenomenal. [Brian] Urlacher is a great player, but have you ever seen him play at this high
level that he's playing at right now?
BB: Well, you know, [laughing]
luckily we haven't seen a whole lot of Chicago in the last few years.
We haven't seen them in three years. But they're very good defensively;
it goes without saying. They pretty much lead the league in defense,
they're right at the top of the league in scoring offense, they're winning games by 14, 15 points a game.
They do everything well. You know, we talked about the Colts a couple weeks ago setting the standard offensively of
being like 40-whatever-6 percent on third down and how they were like ten or
whatever it was, they were almost ten
percentage points ahead of the next best team. Well that's where the Bears are on defense. They're 26 percent on third down conversions. And
you feel like if you're under 35 you're really playing good third down
defense. So, they get off the field, they stop the run, they've had...haven't they had two turnovers in every single
game?
GO: Yes.
BB: So they take the ball away, they stop you on third down,
it's hard to run it, it's hard to throw it. When you have the ball you just
want to keep them
from scoring. [Laughter]
GO: Well that's what killed the Jets yesterday. The Jets played a pretty good game against them; but again, the
turnovers killed them.
BB: They're fast, they play with very
good technique, they have a good scheme, they're strong up the
middle, you know, [Chris] Harris and Urlacher, they're
just tough inside. You can't really get away from them. And then
when you try to go outside you've got [Alex] Brown, the speed
at linebacker, [Adewale] Ogunleye, and the speed at corners, [Charles] Tillman and [Nathan] Vasher, so it's... [Laughter] They have a lot of
great football players on the defensive side of the ball.
PS: [Rex] Grossman has
struggled against the AFC East this year. I mean, the Jets, he had
kind of an okay game yesterday, really a sub-par game for him, 50 percent
passing, but Miami really got to him. Are those the two games you're
going to focus on as far as how to attack him? Because they've had the most
success against him than anybody else. Nobody in the NFC has had any
success against them.
Everybody: Arizona.
PS: Arizona. That's
right, Arizona did that one...
[Crosstalk]
BB: And Minnesota played
them pretty well, too. But I think you
look at all the games. There's nobody that plays the way we play, and we don't play exactly like
anybody, but I think that you can take different elements from the opponents
and watch them play and then try to apply it to what your style of play
is, or your gameplan.
PS: You've seen him in those two
games, the Jets and Miami – and
against Arizona – sometimes to
really be throwing off his back foot a lot, and making a lot of unorthodox throws, and
to me it seems like the kind of guy that you guys have had tremendous
success against over the last few years.
BB: Well again, I think the big thing
with the Bears is number
one, you have
to stay in the game. I mean, the worst thing that can happen against
them is to turn the ball over and however it happens get
down by 10, 17 points and try to play from behind. That's
really suicide. You've got to come in there and play
competitively early and hopefully play from ahead like Miami did,
or play it from very close like Minnesota and the Jets and those teams did. Even Arizona –
they had their chances, they just ended up getting beat
with a turnover of course, but I thought they had that game certainly
in a good position to win it. So that's number one – don't put yourself in that kind of hole. And then if you can ever
force them into a passing game, make it a one-dimensional game, then rushing
the passer and all that always plays into the defense's hands.
FS: Does it benefit you at all
that the Jets played them, and they have a
similar...you know, with [Eric] Mangini being over there,
similar type game-planning, so you can look at it a little bit...
BB: Yes, I think there will be some elements that we can take
from that. Probably it was more of an advantage for them, really,
because they don't play a lot of 3-4 defenses in that division, and
they don't play it themselves, so to be able to see a 3-4 team and
then come back and kind of keep the gameplan or at least some of the rules and
that type of thing the same with another 3-4 defense probably helps them
more than it helps us.
FS: Depends on what they see – 3-4, 4-3.
BB: Well, I'm assuming they'll
prepare for a 3-4 defense. I mean, we've played both and we'll continue to
play both, but we've played the majority of the year in a 3-4.
FS: Like you said, it's not their offense that
gets them most of the games that they've won, it's because the defense
put them into situations...
BB: Well, don't forget now, Grossman's had five
hundred-rating games, [Bernard] Berrian's what, second in
the league in average-per-catch? And [Mushin] Muhammad, I
mean he's killed us before. [Desmond] Clark's a very good
tight end. They have two good running backs in [Thomas] Jones and
[Cedric] Benson...
FS: They have a hell of a center,
too.
BB: They have a good offensive line.
They have Ruben Brown, [Olin] Kreutz. And you have [Roberto] Garza, and at left tackle John Tate over there. I mean, that's
a good football team all the way across the board. Punt return – [Devin] Hester has already broken a
couple of Gayle Sayer's records, and we're only halfway
through the season. And [Robbie] Gould hasn't missed a
kick.
GO: I was going to ask you about Hester, have you made note of the fact that he has a tendency when you
think he's going to down it, that he just kind of casually fakes it, and the
next thing you know he's running? [Laughter]
BB: Oh my god, yes. You can't go to sleep on him.
[Undecipherable crosstalk]
GO: So what do you do with
stuff like that? Because you know the guy can fake you out and stuff like
that. Do you show film, or do you...
BB: Sure. We faced that a couple times this
year where guys are catching the ball inside the ten yard line – and
not giving a fair-catch signal, but just standing there, you think they're
going to block or it's going to go over their head, and then they take it inside the
ten and run it out of there. So you just have to stay on your toes.
It's just being alert in the kicking game; being alert for
sixty minutes. Especially at this time of year. You get into the end of November and
December with the wind and whatever the field conditions are, you know
anything can happen when that ball
hits the kicker's foot.
SD: Does going against a defense
like the Bears present, is the tendency to get more
conservative offensively, maybe try to slug it out? Or is it to maybe try
to throw some wrinkles in there and show them something they haven't seen
before?
BB: I think that's an interesting question,
Steve. I think that number one, you have to find a way to take
care of the ball. I don't think you want to get in a situation where
you're so exotic and so spread out and so trying to trick them that
you end up letting them come in there and pound you. But at the same
time I think you've got to
give them something different to look at – just sitting
in the same thing all day and think that these guys aren't going
to be able to play it well, I think that's kind of wishful thinking, too.
So, I
think there has to be a little
bit of a marriage between keeping them off-balance and changing up on
them a little bit and doing the things that you do well and that you're sound on,
so that you don't cut somebody loose and end up having that
game-changing play.
GO: All right, Coach, here we
go. The Eastern Mass. Volkswagen Dealers' Coach's
Question of The Week comes from Joanne in
Avon. [Crosstalk] Coach, could you please explain Cover-2, Cover-3, Cover-4,
and what the quarterback looks for to determine the defense?
BB: Well, Joanne, I guess the easiest
way to put it would be that those numbers signify how many players are in
the deep part of the field. So in Cover-2 you have the two safeties that are
in the deepest part of the field and basically five players in the
underneath zone. In [Cover-] 3, you have three players in the
deep part of the field and basically four players in the underneath
zones. And in 4-coverage, you have four players potentially in
the deep part of the field if they send four
receivers deep; if they only send three receivers deep then
you'd only have three and if they only send two, you'd only have two.
But it's how many players defend the deep part of the field and that,
naturally, is reciprocal to how many players you have defending the
underneath areas. So if they're throwing short, you'd like to be Cover-2 and
have that extra guy down there. If they're throwing deep, you'd like to be
in Cover-4 and be able to carry four vertical receivers. If you want to be
somewhere in the middle, then that's kind of Cover-3. So that's sort of
where that comes from.
SD: That sounds so simple. How
come I had so much trouble when you were trying to coach me?
[Laughter and crosstalk]
GO: There's your Eastern Mass. Volkswagen Dealers' Coach's Question of The Week.
Joanne is now registered to win a
trip for two to the pro football championship. It will be held in Miami. Stop by your local Eastern Mass Volkswagen Dealer, or logon to WEEI.com,
submit a question for the Coach and register for a trip to the big game.
Well, congratulations on yesterday's win. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
[Crosstalk]
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