Bill Belichick joined The Big Show with hosts Glenn Ordway, Fred
Smerlas, Steve DeOssie and Pete Sheppard during Patriots Monday on Boston's Sports Radio WEEI 850 AM.
GO: Well, we ready for some football now?
BB: Well, we are, yes. We're looking forward to it. Yes, we're looking
forward to it.
GO: Do you get anxious at this time? Do you think players start getting
to the point when you get through that fourth
preseason game, you just want to get into a real game?
BB: Well, we've been at it for six weeks. We can always use the extra
time, but I think on the other hand everybody's ready to go. We're ready
to start playing games on the regular season schedule and just see where
we're at.
FS: Does it ever get easier for you to make cuts? You know, I mean, at
the end sometimes you find a
guy's been with you for a long time, does it ever get emotionless?
BB: No, no, I think it gets harder, because the longer the players are with you and
the more established your relationship is, the harder it is to sometimes
tell them that things aren't going to work out. Unfortunately, that's the bad part of the business.
But that's part of it and you just have to accept
it and move on. I think everybody understands how competitive the National
Football League rosters are and everybody knows that everybody can't make
it, as much as you'd like for it to happen.
FS: Did you get to see the movie Invincible?
BB: I didn't.
FS: After the meal, at the end they called that, you were around, I
played against that kid. The coach at the end called him in and said, he
handed him his playbook so you know they're going to cut him. He goes, 'No, you
can stay.' I almost...I'm sitting there, a big fat guy, started almost
crying.
[Laughter and crosstalk]
FS: Because, you know how emotional it is for a lot of players; you see
it when you're a coach.
BB: Sure.
FS: Were you
ever the Turk?
BB: I was. My first year with the Colts, I was the Turk. Yes, "Billy Bad
News."
[Laughter]
BB: It was Billy. Yes, that was it. I'll tell you, when they saw me coming,
it was always bad news.
[Laughter and crosstalk]
FS: What was the worst case? Did anybody ever hide from you?
BB: No, no, not really. But the best one was when we had two running
backs at that time Lydell Mitchell and Don McCauley
and they were both pretty good. It was preseason and Ted [Marchibroda] was...I
think it was our first year there and I don't think we had really
established who was the starter and who wasn't. So Lydell, I think, had
started the first couple games, and Ted wanted to start McCauley in the
next game just to let him start and see how that went. So it was about 10:30 at
night in the staff meeting and he said, 'Why don't you go get McCauley. I want to
talk to him tonight so he can start getting ready for tomorrow,' or
whatever. So I walked down there at like 10:30 at night...
FS: Billy Bad News.
BB: It was before
bed-check...
[All: Yes.]
BB: And so they see me coming down the hall...
SD: Everybody's still awake.
BB: Yes, and
they know. Then I walked into McCauley's room. Donny saw me in his room
at 10:30 at night and he's like, 'Oh no.
Either I'm gone or I'm traded or something.' But I couldn't tell him
what happened. So I said, 'Don, Ted wants to see you.' So he's like, 'Oh boy.'
[Laughter]
BB: But then Ted gave him the good news that he was
starting. But it was pretty funny because Don was a great guy and a great
competitor, and I'm telling you, I think he lost five pounds just
walking down the hall because he was sweating bullets.
[Laughter]
PS: All your cuts you say are difficult, but considering
how Bam Childress played in the preseason, was it a more difficult
situation, to cut him this year?
BB: Yes. Oh yes, Bam's improved a lot. Bam had a good
preseason; he was right up there at the top of the league in terms of
production and yards, made some big plays. Sure. I mean, really, they were
all tough, but Bam especially. He's worked hard, he's the ultimate college
free agent wasn't drafted, wasn't even with us in minicamp and passing
camp. He signed right before the start of the season last year, then ended
up playing played corner and played receiver, and returned kicks. Bam will
do whatever you ask him to do. He's a great hard working kid. A lot of
similarities between Bam and Troy Brown.
FS: Now give us a little run-down on the two new receivers,
[Jonathan] Smith and [Doug] Gabriel from the Raiders. How
have they fit it, have they picked everything up real
well? And pros and cons on these guys.
BB: Right. Well, Doug Gabriel came out three years ago. He played with Asante [Samuel] at Central Florida. Big, physical guy 6'2", 215
he's
big, he's strong, he's got big hands, and he's got pretty good speed. He's
been in a different system and a different offense, but I think that we'll
be able to utilize him in our system here. He's been working hard so far the
last couple days trying to get all the information down the terminology is
different and all that. So we'll see how that goes; we'll see how far he
can come along in a week. And Jonathan Smith was a little bit of a...well, he's
smaller compared to Gabriel. Almost everybody is. He's about a little over
5'10", 190. Quick, returner returns punts, returns kickoffs. Played
in the slot for Buffalo. You know, he had a punt return against us a couple years ago.
Good after the catch, good hands. He's played different positions for Buffalo. So we'll see how that goes, too. But he's another guy that's coming to
us from a different system, a different offensive terminology base, and so there's
going to be some learning involved there. But he's worked at it hard, too, and
we'll just see how those guys come along in the next few days.
GO: Bill, I know you don't like to talk about guys that aren't with your
team, so let's talk about guys that are with your team.
BB: Good.
[Laughter and crosstalk]
GO: I wonder how comfortable you feel with this wide receiving corps. The
fact that you've picked up two guys here in the last couple days. Because
that's what a lot of people that are looking at the Patriots are saying: 'They really lack...they've lost their #1 and #2
receivers.' How comfortable do you feel with this wide receiving group right
now?
BB: Well, where we are with the roster moves the last couple days is the
same place that we always are at. And that's 'anything we can do to improve
the football team.' Then we'll consider it and we'll end up doing it. And
that's what we did. The moves we made were moves that we feel like were in
the best interest of the team. That's why we did them. I think that
we've hopefully gotten better. We'll see.
SD: Are your moves done in terms of the receiving corps? Because there's
a few other names that came up on the waiver wires.
BB: I would never rule out anything that we thought could help our team,
Steve. If it was something that we feel could benefit us, we'd certainly
consider it. Now, whether that would happen or what it would take and all
that, that's a whole other matter. But we're going through it and I think
every other team in the league is doing the same thing. There were over 650 names
on that waiver wire that came on Saturday night. Even though we evaluate them, that's a lot of people to really stay on
top of. So we'll just keep sifting through it and see if we feel like there
are any people that could help us. But I think there's always an opportunity
for movement on your roster or practice squad.
FS: How much can they assimilate, I mean the receivers? Your system
is much different than theirs. You do a lot of sight adjustments and a lot
of recognition with the quarterback and receivers, so it's a little more difficult than just running
basic patterns.
BB: Right. Sure, it is; there are a lot of moving parts. That's why
you like training camp and passing camps and minicamp and all that, is to
get all that installed and get everybody familiar with it. But this is the
timeframe we have to work with and so we're just going to have to make the most of it.
FS: Are they in awe at the brainpower of Tom Brady?
[Laughter]
BB: I can't imagine there's any receiver that wouldn't want to
play with a good quarterback like Tom.
FS: His ability to go down and progression and make the reads. So many
quarterbacks come in and can't do that.
BB: And plus, it's not like he's locked in to one guy. I
think all of the receivers know, if they're open, he'll throw them the ball.
Or if they're not, then they need to find a way to get open.
PS: One of the bigger names on the waiver wire was Charles Rogers, a
guy who struggled in Detroit. But everybody struggles in Detroit.
[Laughter]
PS: Is he a guy that you might look at?
GO: They have enough receivers out there in Detroit.
PS: I know, but he's one name that kind of stuck out.
BB: Right. Well, we've done work on him, Pete, and again, really all
the guys that were on there. I think there's a certain level of interest in a lot
of different players some could be now, some could be later, some could be
in the practice squad. So we'll just have to see how all that works out, but
I think for the time being, anyway, we are where we are and we'll go with
it.
PS: Just one other name: the Indianapolis Star Tribune reporting today
that J.T. O'Sullivan was going to be in for workouts. Is that true?
BB: He was, and we're going to put J.T. on our practice squad.
GO: Talking about [Doug] Gabriel, I noticed in your press conference
yesterday you mentioned the fact that he's a guy that you kind of earmarked;
you've been watching him during the preseason. How much of those guys do you
watch? If you see a guy that you figure is on the bubble with an individual
team are there a lot of those guys that you're looking at?
BB: Well, I wouldn't say he that was on the bubble...
FS: He was a #2 receiver, wasn't he?
BB: Yes. I think it was more a question of teams that had a lot of depth at a
certain position.
GO: Right.
BB: And it doesn't really make any difference what that position is,
whether it be receiver or linebacker or offensive line or
whatever. When you know a team is a little heavy at a certain spot, or they
have a lot of depth at that spot, I think there's a natural tendency to make
sure that you evaluate those players in case one of their
guys that doesn't make their team, or even one that would make
it, like Gabriel, ends up being available, that you know how he ranks with
the players that you have and whether you would want to be
involved with that player. Whereas if a team's only got one or two quality players at a particular position, let's say at
defensive line, the chances of those players being available are
probably not very good.
GO: That's what I meant by bubble. Actually, I think he was starting in the preseason.
Wasn't he
starting in the first couple games in the preseason?
[Everybody: Yes.]
FS: Another question: a guy that, during the preseason, early, we thought would never make it [Johnathan] Sullivan. The kid that came from New Orleans, was a high pick, came up here,
he
had some problems early but seemed to develop a lot
his quickness, his conditioning looked like it
got better. How much of an improvement
has he made from the time he came to the final cut-down of making the
roster?
BB: Well, he's made a lot of improvement, Fred. But I also think that
he probably had one of the furthest journeys to make, given where he
started. So, he did, he got off to a slow start, but he's made up some ground
and he's improved. So I think as long as he continues to do that then he's
got a chance to help us. Hopefully that'll continue to go in that direction
and not level off.
FS: Could you see signs of what made him, what was he, a #6 pick? I mean,
I've seen him play, in stints, but could you see more in practice? What are his greatest
attributes? Is he quick, strong, a combination?
BB: He's big, he's strong, I mean, he's a hard guy to move off the line of
scrimmage. He's got some quickness, he's made some plays in pursuit, in chase.
I think he runs fairly well...for a 315 pound guy. So he's got some tools.
GO: How different is it, scouting this first game, in that you've got
a different coach, different offensive coordinator, different defensive
coordinator? I guess you can't look at last year's Buffalo offensive
films; I guess you're probably better off looking at St. Louis films,
are you not, to try to figure out what they're going to do? Use [Willis] McGahee, maybe, as a receiver in the slot and kind of change things
around a little bit?
BB: Well, you know, that's an interesting question, Glenn. It's
kind of like when you walk up to that roulette wheel, which number
are you going to put your chips on? There are a lot of variables here
there's the St. Louis stuff, there are the things that
they've done this year in preseason, [and] I don't think you can discount totally
what they did last year because they had quite a bit of success doing it, and
there are some coaches on the staff who were retained, like the offensive
line coach Jim McNally, in particular. I know that when you retain somebody
like that on your staff, like I did with Dante [Scarnecchia] when I came
here, that there are a lot of carryover things in terms of protection and
sometimes blocking schemes and things like that that if they were successful
previously that you might want to keep those. And I think there is an
element of that in just watching them play in preseason. And I'm sure they're
holding some things back that we haven't seen yet. I'm sure of that. So
we've got a lot to get ready for; but at the same time I don't think we can
paralyze our team by worrying about every single thing that's ever been run
in the history of football. We've got to put our chips on something like
these are the most likely things to come up, these are the things we have to
be prepared for and then adjust if there's something else.
GO: Well when you're dealing with the unknown, early on, do you try to
read into it and say, 'This is what [Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Steve] Fairchild would do?' Or, are they going to follow what Chicago did last
year, since they brought over their secondary defensive...
BB: Right. Yes.
GO: Right. Do you do a little bit of that when you talk about the
roulette wheel? Do you kind of say to yourself, 'We need to follow a lot of what this coach has done in the last couple of years because he's probably
going to try to install some of the stuff that they've been doing
successfully in the past'?
BB: Yes. Again, I think you have to keep your eye on that. But don't
forget they've played four preseason games. That's
well over 600 plays of football that we have on film that we can evaluate.
So when you come into a new system, which I've done a couple times in my
career, when you spend all of training camp and all of preseason
working on certain things, you don't want to go into opening day saying, 'Okay fellas, forget
about all that stuff....'
FS: 'We were just doing it to trick them.'
BB: Right. 'We're going to come out and run the
wishbone,' or, 'We're going to run the run-and-shoot offense.' You just can't execute it.
You've got to rely on some of your fundamentals that you've installed through the course of
training camp and the preseason games. So I'm sure that will be the basis for
it. Now, how much they have added to that, or how much they have held back
and not shown but have worked on in practice, we won't know that until opening day.
But again, it's really hard when you start coaching your players to watch
out for these 50 things and then they do two of them. Well, you might not even get those
two right because they're worried about the other 48.
GO: Well, what have you see so far in the preseason? Are they spreading it out offensively?
BB: Well, they have a good mixture, which is what they did last
year. They run a lot of two backs, with [Daimon] Shelton as the fullback
and [Willis] McGahee as the tailback. They run a lot of two tight ends, with
[Kevin] Everett and [Robert] Royal, and they run some three receivers with a
combination of [Lee] Evans, of course, as one of them, and then either two
of Peerless Price, Josh Reed or Roscoe Parrish. They run three receivers,
with three of those four, and then they run four receivers, where they put
Parrish and Reed in the slot. So they give you a lot of personnel groupings,
from their regular grouping to multiple receivers. They also keep
McGahee in the game on third down in those multiple receiver groups, which
they didn't always do last year, when they went with [Kyle] Williams. So
they've maintained a lot of versatility that they did last year and they've
also got some new things to go with it.
PS: JP Losman's also struggled in the limited time you've been able to
see him after he took over for Drew Bledsoe, which I think is one of the reasons why he ended
up in Dallas, but have you seen in Losman an improvement from him from
last year to this year? I know he was banged up last year a little bit, but
what does he bring to the table? How is he dangerous?
BB: I think Losman has a lot of talent. There's no doubt about that. He
can run, he's got a good arm, he can make all the throws. Last year he
started out basically as a backup, and then kind of after our game then they
installed him back in there and he played more. Then we played against him
in the
second game up in Buffalo. And this year they had a little competition
going for a while, and then they, I think, made him the starter after the second game. I
think he's gotten better with each game, so I would imagine what they'll try
to do is to keep him in there and hope that he keeps improving. I think that
that's probably the right thing to do with him, is to let him go here for a while and
see where he develops to. I think that he has improved in each of the
preseason games. They're working with a guy that's athletic, a guy who can
make some plays, who can make the throws; they've got a talented group of
receivers, their skill players are very good and they're very dangerous.
We've seen...they've all killed us. [Willis] McGahee
they ran for 150 yards
against us last year in the first
game. [Lee] Evans blew by us for a big gain on the second play of the
game. Josh Reed took that little quick screen at the end of the game, ran
through the whole game twice out there in Buffalo in the snow. [Roscoe] Parrish is tough, and we've certainly had a hard time with Peerless Price in the
past, too. So their skill players are very good.
SD: Are you satisfied with Rodney Harrison's progress and will he
be in the starting lineup on opening day?
BB: Oh, I expect Rodney to play. I think that Rodney's made good
progress. I think he's still got a ways to go and can improve, but I think
he's worked hard and I think he's made good, solid, steady progress. We
all have
a lot of confidence in him. You're just happy to see him out there
because he went through a long rehab, but he's coming out on the other end
of it and that's great to see.
FS: How about Junior [Seau]?
BB: Junior has picked things up pretty well. He's been in camp now for
a couple weeks and at first there were as
there always are defensively different terms
and things like that that are still quite as...they don't come as naturally to him as
they do other guys who've been in the system for multiple years. But I
think there was some carryover from what he did in
Miami; there certainly is. I think that he's doing things better this week than he did last
week, and he did things better last week than he did the first week, so I
think that that's starting to come together. Playing behind Vince [Wilfork]
and with Richard [Seymour] and Ty Warren and those guys, that he's starting
to get a feel for where they fit and where he
fits on the running game and things like that. So I think that's coming along.
FS: Is Dan Koppen...where is he now? He's been playing pretty well?
BB: Dan's had a chance to play a little bit in the last two preseason
games. He hasn't played a lot; I don't think he's
played past the first quarter, or not even to the end of the first quarter.
But he's gotten in there, gotten his feet wet, gotten a little bit of
action, and he's had a couple good weeks of practice. So I think Dan will be
ready to go.
PS: Tedy Bruschi is there a possibility that he'll
play on Sunday?
BB: We'll give out the injury report on Wednesday, Pete.
[Laughter]
GO: [to PS] Don't you know the rules? What's wrong with you?
[Laughter and crosstalk]
BB: But Tedy, he's come along well. He's stayed on top of everything
been to meetings and walkthroughs and all
those things. I know he's looking forward to getting out there.
FS: You know what's amazing? Matt Cassel, a guy that was never drafted [sic]. This
year he seemed to make some big strides, reading defenses and not just trying
to run all the time. Has he made as big a stride as we've seen since on the
TV?
BB: Oh, I think he's improved probably more than any other player on the
team.
FS: It's amazing.
BB: He can run the offense, he can handle all the checks, all the adjustments.
I'm not saying he doesn't screw up out there and make bad plays, but he makes a lot of
good plays and I think everybody has a lot of confidence in him
the players, the coaching staff, the receivers
that he knows what he's doing, that he can make the plays he needs to
make, and he's been pretty consistent. There's
still plenty of room for improvement I mean,
he's only a second year player but he's come a long way. When he's had
an opportunity to play he's gone in there and done a good job, both in running the team and
minimizing the mistakes and
delay of game penalties and stuff like that, bad
decisions in 2-minute, we haven't had much of that. And his reads and
his recognition of defenses and where to go with the ball and his accuracy
throwing it have all been pretty good.
GO: Did that play into your...the fact that he's played so well in the preseason
and
improved so dramatically, did that play into the decision of not going out and trying to bring in, let's say, a seasoned veteran, a guy
that you could pluck in there that's been around, that's had a lot of snaps?
BB: Well, I think that, clearly, we feel that he's our backup quarterback.
We're happy with him. We're confident in him. I can't imagine anybody
coming in at this point, or even
through training camp, based on the players that were available, of coming in
and having an opportunity to, or think that they were going to, play
better than the way Matt was playing.
GO: Troy Brown can't beat him out for that spot, is that what you're
telling me?
BB: Well, maybe with a little more work...
[Laughter]
BB: But it's hard to get three quarterbacks ready. We're just going to
have to concentrate on the first two.
[Crosstalk among the hosts]
FS: How many guys [inaudible] get drafted were backups? Wasn't Priest
Holmes a backup, in college, to...?
BB: To Ricky [Williams].
FS: To Ricky, yes. I mean, how many guys...there's not a lot, but
for some of these people...
BB: Thurman Thomas, Barry Sanders.
[Everybody talking at once]
PS: If [Patrick] Cobbs didn't fumble in the Giants
game, would you have let Troy throw the ball? I mean, was he just
going to hand off, or...?
BB: Oh, yes, sure. No, we have passes in there. We can't run it every
single time.
PS: No, I know that. I'm saying...but for that...
BB: Sure. Yes, well we...I'm not sure which ones we would have called,
but yes, we have pass plays with Troy in there and...
FS: How's his arm?
BB: It's not bad.
[Laughter]
GO: Let me ask you about Buffalo's defense for a second. I know Takeo Spikes is back, but Aaron Schobel is a guy that seems to
cause you difficulty from time to time...
BB: He's a good player.
GO: Yes. And for some reason just seems to...against most teams. He's
got a motor. What type of attention do you have to apply to a guy like that?
BB: Well, I think you've got to know where he is. He's an outstanding
pass rusher; he's got a great motor and he comes hard all the time. A
lot of his sacks and pressures come after he initially gets blocked, but he
just keeps working and he counters and he finishes the rushes, and sometimes
the quarterbacks step up or scramble or hold the ball for an extra
split-second, and then he gets there. And he's got good initial quickness
and he can get up the field. So we know on that left side there, whether
it's Matt [Light] or Logan [Mankins], or our
tight ends or backs who can end up over there on him, that we've really got
to do a good job. You've got to set him right. You can't give him a little
bit of an edge on the pass rush or he'll take advantage of it. You've really
got to set him square and make him go the long way and the hard way, but
even then he works hard and he gets there. He's not a real big guy
he's maybe 260-265
but he's quick and he's got a good motor and he's got really good
pass rush techniques. He's a very effective player.
FS: Are they still a one-gap, mostly penetrating team? Last year...
BB: Absolutely. Yes, this is the Tampa defense all the way. This
is what you've seen Tampa run and what we've seen the Bears run and Indianapolis and now Detroit. They're all from that school.
This is a team that's a one-gap team; they do a lot of blitz
zones. They play a very similar defensive style to what the Bears and
what Tampa played, based on preseason.
FS: You can put a lot of pressure, but also you can make a lot of big
plays if you hit it right, on those gap...
BB: They play a lot of zone defense so it's hard to get behind them.
I mean, you can throw the ball down the field, but it's hard to get behind
them. They usually have at least one guy, usually [Troy] Vincent, back there, but a lot of time play split safety, half-field
coverages. But they get up the field, they rush the passer hard, and they're
fast and they're active. A lot of times guys get the ball and it looks like
it's going to be a big play, then they gain four yards because they're fast
and they can run them down. The secondary is probably the best tackling
secondary in the league. [Terrence] McGee and [Nate] Clements are outstanding. [Donte] Whitner, the rookie from Ohio State, is a very good safety. He's very fast and he's very good
in the open field.
FS: How big is he?
BB: He's about 5'10½", 205, so he's not a huge guy,
but he's fast. Similar to Bob Sanders, the kid who plays at Indianapolis.
He's got that same kind of speed that you just see him...like [Troy] Polamalu does,
just, you
don't even see him in the play and all of a sudden they fly across
the field and make the tackle. Whitner's got a lot of range and he's a tough
kid.
SD: Will your offense have any different look this year based on
personnel? It seems with the tight end situation you have, and maybe your receivers, will you have different looks, formations, personnel groups, moreso
than last year?
BB: I think it will probably be about the same amount, Steve. It might be some
different ones from last year, but probably about the same amount of
looks. And again, a lot of that's dependent upon what we see that week and
how we want to create the matchups and the game plan and so
forth. But everybody knows we're a multiple formation team. We try to keep
the defense off-balance with different looks and moving people into
different spots so they can't just zero in on one or two things and try to keep
them off-balance. So we'll continue to do that. I'm sure that you'll see a lot
of formationing from us this year.
FS: How difficult would it be...we talked about changing because the
coach changed...but you can only do so much with the
personnel you have. If a team has a certain set of personnel, you can't all
of a sudden change to the West Coast offense if they're [inaudible]. So a
coach is limited. You know, you came in here your first year and you have
certain personnel. You can't change them all.
BB: No, you can't. Although, Buffalo, they've changed about half
of them.
GO: They have 20 new guys.
BB: They have 20 new players. And,
understandably, some of those players are not probably going to see a great
deal of playing time, but still, that's a significant portion of your roster
you've turned over. So they're trying to establish a little bit different
style of play than what was there under Mike Mularkey and Gregg Williams. I think
based on where they are in preseason that there's evidence that they've got some
good productive players for their system, maybe not everybody that they
want or not the exact player they want for every position, but certainly
enough to be good, and I'm sure they will be looking for more as they go
forward and develop the system.
FS: What was your turnover your first year?
BB: It was quite a bit. It was close to that.
[Crosstalk]
BB: There were only 37 players when I got here, so we were working form a
little bit smaller base.
GO: [Stephen] Gostowski has been perfect so far in the preseason. You know how this works, Bill.
Everybody's going to be looking every time he goes out there because the
last guy never seemed to miss when
the game was on the line. What is the makeup of this guy and how do you deal
with a younger guy, because you've done this before in replacing an
older kicker and bringing in a younger kicker. How do you deal with any of
that? They're a rare breed, those kickers....
FS: They're very odd.
GO: They don't hang around the fat guys and they're a little bit
different, you know?
BB: That's interesting, because I was here in Adam [Vinatieri]'s rookie year when Matt Bahr was the kicker, and went through the transition with Dave Jennings in New York
[at the Giants]. But that's just part of football. Players change and players
get replaced by other players at all the positions, and kicker is no
different, except there's only one of those it's not like you have three or four tackles or
linebackers, you just have one of those. But I don't think it really makes
any difference what went on here in the past; I don't think he can worry
about that, he wasn't a part of it. It doesn't really make any difference in his performance, all he can do is go out there and prepare and do the best he can. And that's what he needs to do. I don't think he's looking back too much; I don't think he should be. He should be looking forward and working with Josh [Miller] and Lonie [Paxton] and the protection unit
and the kickoff
coverage team and all that, and getting everything done as closely to
perfect as he can and those units can.
FS: Is he from Buffalo? Wasn't he born in Buffalo?
[Laughter]
[Crosstalk among the hosts]
GO: Go ahead, Bill. Look it up in the Media Guide.
[Crosstalk]
BB: Madison, Mississippi.
[Roaring laughter]
BB: Born in Baton Rouge.
[Laughter and crosstalk]
GO: It's time right now for the Eastern Mass. Volkswagen Dealers' Coach's
Question of The Week. Pete is in
Cumberland, R.I., and he wants to know, 'Coach, does field position
determine what personnel you put in the game for punts?'
BB: No, not really. We pretty much have the same personnel out there with
our punt team, regardless of whether we're on our one-yard line or we're on their 40.
It's basically the same unit. The big part of that is to make sure that your protection is consistent.
I don't think you want to be switching people around. Now every once in a
while a team might switch its gunners, its outside people. Sometimes, when you're
punting in the plus 50, you might want to put in a receiver or somebody who has
maybe good ball skills that can actually catch the punt if it goes over the
returner's head, to down it there inside the 5 or something like that. But I
think for the most part you try to keep those special teams units as much
intact as you possibly can so they can develop their consistency and teamwork.
GO: Alright, there's your Eastern Mass. Volkswagen Dealers' Coach's Question of The Week. Pete is now registered to win a trip for two to the pro football championship in Miami.
You know what that game is? Can't say it; we can't call it by name. Stop
by your local Eastern Mass. Volkswagen dealer or log on to WEEI.com, submit a
question to the coach and register for a trip to the big game. Well, good
luck on Sunday. One o'clock game on Sunday.
BB: A good way to start it out.
GO: A good way to start it off. Good luck, Coach.
We'll see you back here on Monday.
[Thank yous and good byes]
GO: Bill Belichick, right here on The Big Show.
MP3 available in WEEI's Audio Vault |
