Glenn Ordway: Alright, back down here in Foxborough at Gillette Stadium, it is Patriots Monday here on The Big Show and it's time for Coffee With the Coach. It's brought to you by Dunkin' Donuts. America runs on Dunkin'. Bill Belichick, congratulations, your 100th win here with the New England Patriots.
Bill Belichick: Thank you, Glenn. [I] appreciate it. Pete, Fred, Steve, how's it going today?
Steve DeOssie: Did you know it was your 100th win?
BB: Somebody told me that after the game. I didn't count them.
GO: Fred got up early this morning – actually, he didn't sleep last night – he baked you some cookies.
BB: That's so nice. Thank you.
[Crosstalk and laughter]
GO: Alright, let's get to yesterday's game. No surprise from Pittsburgh, we saw a lot of blitzes, we saw a lot of different looks.
BB: It was like 90% blitzes.
GO: So how did you deal with them and how did your game plan change at all as you were watching this thing unfold?
BB: Well, we really didn't have much of a chance to run the ball based on being in spread formation and them just bringing a lot of guys close to the line of scrimmage, and bringing six, seven guys really just about every play. So, it was a blitzathon. I thought our offensive line did a great job with the pickup, as did the backs and Tom [Brady] in terms of getting sometimes the protection redirected to where they were coming from. We had to throw it hot a few times, but not too many. And overall we had pretty good execution in the passing game. It wasn't perfect, but for the most part the quarterbacks and the receivers being on the same page and the overall protection against, like I said, a lot of blitzes. I mean, that's…
Pete Sheppard: No sacks, though.
BB: No. But as I said, the protection was good and there were times when we had guys coming free that we didn't have blocked because of the blitz against the protection that we had and then we got rid of the ball. We hit a couple slip screens and balls out there to try to kind of…the glorified running plays. He have about six or seven of those. So that helped keep them off-balance a little bit.
Fred Smerlas: Down the stretch it seemed like you were able to get the ball out early, but down the stretch were you able to recognize that mismatch with [Wes] Welker a lot. When you have a linebacker on Welker and continue to do that, that's something you took advantage of, and you took advantage of it what, seven times? I don't know, how many you catch in a row?
Everyone: Five. Five or six.
FS: Yeah, so he recognized that matchup from the go and kept going to it.
BB: Well, you know, they didn't do that very much early in the game. They had [Deshea] Townsend on him, and then after [Rodney] Harrison stopped [Hines] Ward on the one and we put that four-wide group in, they left their regular defense on the field. So that did force the outside linebackers…
FS: They anticipated a running play.
BB: Right. On the first play actually that was [James] Farrior that tried to get out there on Welker. So getting the ball to our slot receiver there against that coverage was a pretty favorable matchup.
FS: Were you surprised they kept with that?
BB: Well, you know, we've been on the other side of the ball on that one. When you're stuck in a defensive grouping and they go no-huddle and they keep…then it's hard to sub. So I think they were caught in it for a little bit and then they tried to adjust out of it. But we were able to get the ball off the 1-yard line. It was a six and a half minute drive, even though it was all passing. But it was a lot of short completions and some catch-and-run plays. I thought Tom did a good job of really bleeding the clock so that even though we were in no-huddle, he going at a pretty slow pace at the line of scrimmage to where we used up, as I said, it was about six and a half minutes on that drive coming off our 1-yard line. So that was good.
SD: Was it just an accident that Anthony Smith happened to be the victim of a number of creative plays, or was he just a link you were going to attack in that defense?
BB: You know, Steve, it's sort of hard to tell with them who's going to be the deep safety because of their blitz zones. Sometimes they blitz zone off one side and drop one safety down, and sometimes they blitz zone off the other side and drop the other safety down. So I think on the double pass, that he was the middle field safety on that one. On the post to [Randy] Moss, I'm not sure whether he was supposed to give [Ike] Taylor…it looked like Taylor was looking for help, and I'm not sure whether he was supposed to give that help to Taylor or whether he wasn't and Taylor just got beat on the post by himself. I'm not sure. But again, it's hard to design plays like that because they mix up who…whether it was him or Tyrone Carter, it was hard to know for sure which guy was going to be the deep safety. I'm not unhappy that they turned out on him, but…
[Laughter]
FS: Brady seemed to be happy.
BB: That's right. You couldn't say with a hundred percent certainty that's who it was going to be.
GO: Brady said he was actually taunting him before the game during warmups. Does that often happen in a game?
BB: No, and that's been cleaned up a lot by the league in the last few years from some of the incidents that had gone on before the game when, I remember [Joey] Porter got kicked out…
[Everyone speaking at once]
BB: …I think it was Cleveland-Pittsburgh where they had some problems before the game. Yeah, you don't usually see that, but…
FS: But you'd figure he'd been talked to by the coach about opening your mouth, and he's not a high-end player to start with.
BB: Amen.
FS: He's kind of a turd. (That's Pete's word.)
GO: This was his fourth game starting, right. Fourth game for him.
FS: He may not make it home.
PS: I want to get back to the double-lateral real quick. How often do you work on that? Is it something that you focus on specifically during one week of practice, or is it something that you work on throughout the year? And from what I understand from Rodney Harrison, the scout team usually defends it pretty well.
BB: Well they should, they've seen it.
[Laughter]
BB: You know, those are the kind that…we had it in a while ago, Pete, and then you work on it and then if you feel like, 'Well, we didn't get a chance to run it this week but it'll be OK the next week,' then maybe you leave it in and run it again. Sometimes you put in a play like that and the next week you say, 'Well, this really isn't a good play against this team. We didn't get a chance to run it last week.' You drop it and maybe you bring it back the following week or something like that. But this was a play we had in for a couple weeks and I thought we might get a chance to run it against the Ravens, but we didn't. But we left it in; we thought it would be a good play for the Steelers. And obviously it worked out well.
FS: What do you actually call that? When the call is made, what is that call?
BB: The name of the play?
FS: Yeah.
BB: It's just, 'Raven.'
FS: So it's a double-lateral, basically, right? You could almost call it a flea-flicker, but a flea-flicker is basically a fullback running, or a halfback, running to the line and throwing it back.
BB: It's a special play. So whatever it is, it's just the lateral to Moss, and then Randy's going to try to hold the attention of the defense out there as long as possible. But by dropping the ball, he didn't really have much time to do anything other than pick it up and whip it back to Tom. But you could see when the ball went back to Tom that there was really nobody within about 20 yards of him. And Pittsburgh's a fast-pursuing team. It was good because they were all over there chasing the pass to Moss, and then Tom really had a lot of time back there to get the ball, grip it, load it up and let it go.
[Everyone speaking at once]
FS: [Inaudible] thought of running.
BB: Well, I think if he had…
GO: Yeah, he had daylight.
PS: A ton of room.
BB: …he would have made 20 yards.
GO: You were joking about it yesterday that by fumbling it he actually sold it better. But what amazed me is Moss, to be able to pick it up and, again, almost slow the whole play down, never panic. A lot of time guys will dive on it or they'll pick it up and try to run with it. He knew exactly what he had to do, which was pretty amazing.
BB: Well Randy, he's got a lot of poise out there. He almost always does the right thing. And again, we've run the play a few times in practice. And different things have happened in practice – sometimes the defense gets there quicker than others. So it's a little bit of an acting job out there of trying to suck them in as far as you can before you throw it back to Tom and let him look downfield.
PS: Also, during that play I think it was [Donté] Stallworth that was in the slot, made a nice little chip block there just for that extra half a second…
BB: Yes.
PS: So Moss was able…if he doesn't make that block, I don't think that play gets run.
BB: That's right. Yeah, that was a key block by Donté, and then the linebacker [Clark] Haggans was coming out there and he got to Moss just as he let it go. So again, the timing on it was good, but yeah, the key block. We thought there would be one player up, because they usually have one guy to defend the slot and then Stallworth was responsible for him, and then we just had to get it off before the inside pursuit got to us, because we didn't have them blocked.
SD: Were there any specific defensive adjustments you made in the second half in limiting it to, what, zero points in the second half? Anything that you saw that you came out after?
BB: Well, after the first drive we played a lot better on third down than we did on that first drive where I think they picked up three out of four or whatever it was. But we tried to tighten the coverage down a little bit, and obviously keeping the quarterback in the pocket was an emphasis the whole game. We had a couple times where he got out of there, but the big thing, I think, was just getting him in some longer yardage situations and trying to apply a little bit more pressure. I think that a couple times our pressure kind of helped throw him off there a little bit. The pass rush, as we kept him in the pocket and made him throw over it, we did a better job than when he scrambled out and, one time, ran for, well, he didn't get the first down but he set up fourth-and-inches so he might as well have. And the other time was on the scramble play to [Najeh] Davenport. So, keeping him in the pocket and a little bit of pressure, I think that helped us some.
FS: Coach, speaking of pressure, [Mike] Vrabel was killing that kid on the outside. How many times did he horsecollar him coming around the corner? I mean, we counted like seven times. They called it once, I think, but he would have run free at least four or five other times when he came around that corner. Was he, he watched the films. He was horsecollaring him. How do they miss that, wide open?
BB: I'll tell you, Mike does a good job. He's good out there. He's a very good technique pass rusher. He does a good job of getting the tackle's hands off him and trying to dip. But I thought he did a nice job coming in from our left side, the quarterback's right. And that's the key side because that's the quarterback's, the side that he can see.
FS: One tackle – when [Vince] Wilfork hit the quarterback, I thought he was going to knock him into the bleachers. [Laughter]
BB: He hit him hard.
FS: He hit him hard. He played an outstanding game.
BB: Oh, Vince did a great job. Yep, Vince did a good job.
FS: Nice two-gap.
GO: Red zone defense. Something that you guys have had a little bit of difficulty with. Three times they get down there, they get three points out of it and that's it for the afternoon. What did they do differently?
BB: Well, I think we were just fortunate. We had some real good plays. I thought Rodney's play in the end zone on the fade was just an outstanding play. I mean the ball was well-thrown, Rodney played it perfectly, went up there and, with his back to the ball, was just able to knock it out. Big stop there on Hines Ward. And again, we just didn't allow them to…it doesn't take much down there. They only need a couple yards and we just didn't allow them to convert those third downs in the red area. That's really what's been killing us. We've actually been OK on first and second down, but a lot of the touchdowns we've given up have been on third down in the red area. So yesterday we were able to just play one more good down.
GO: Let me ask you about Rodney on that Hines Ward, where he goes in motion, empty backfield, looks like they're going to throw the football and Hines is going laterally along the line. How does Rodney pick him up and not get burned in pass coverage if they're throwing the football. How does he commit there?
BB: Well he had him man-to-man, so he basically just ran with him and mirrored him across the formation, and had they not handed it to him then Rodney would have just basically been stride-for-stride with him on the other side of the ball. But I thought Mike Vrabel was a key guy in the play because there was a wing there and he kind of pushed the wing back to about the 3-yard line, and so when Ward took the ball he didn't really have any depth, he was just running parallel to the line of scrimmage there. And when the tight end got knocked back into the backfield a little bit, then Ward had to sort of stop and either cut in or if he would have kept going he would have had to give some ground to get outside, and I don't think he would have made it that way. So he kind of stopped there and then when he tried to score it in, Rodney was right there. So Vrabel really was a big part in that play too because he forced Ward to pull up and didn't really get a good chance to attack the goal line.
SD: I imagine with a guy like Davenport, who's had ridiculous success on third-and-short over the year, I imagine you guys would have been geared up for something coming right up the middle.
BB: Well, we know that the Steelers love to run the ball and run it in, so we put our goal line out there on third down, which might have been a little early because they had two receivers in the game, so I'm not sure whether that's what they were looking for. But they checked to a fade and, as I said, Rodney made a great play on that.
FS: Seven minutes to go in the game in the fourth quarter, did it surprise you when they started running the ball? I mean, you guys were in nickel and prevent and they continued to run the ball even though they were down by 21 points. It seemed like that was…
BB: You know, it was kind of similar to what Miami did in kind of the same situation. After Miami had come back and we threw the interception, it seemed like Miami took sort of the same approach as Pittsburgh did yesterday, which was more just 'run our offense,' and not make it a go back and throw every down, just run our offense. Mix in the runs and passes. We were a little light on some of those plays, making sure that we didn't give up anything behind us, not giving up any big plays. But maybe they thought they could pop one of those runs, like they did on that 30-yarder earlier, or something like that.
FS: So with the defense they were running – because they had basically a pressure defense, they weren't going to allow you to rush – they were forcing you to do specific things.
BB: Well, we spread out, so if we had brought one or two of those players back into the formation, then we would have just brought one or two more of their guys back into the formation, and now it's just sort of harder to see who's blitzing and what their doing. Whereas when you spread them out like we did, as least when they detached a couple more guys then you're dealing with fewer bodies inside and it was easier to see what was what and who was who and not have to account for guys that weren't blitzing but they were right up there threatening to blitz. And Tom did a great job of identifying that. And our offensive line did a good job of blocking it and, as I said, sorting it out. Along with the backs, along with Laurence [Maroney] and Kevin [Faulk].
FS: Kind of like a blueprint.
[Laughter]
PS: But getting back to the run defense, I know Willie [Parker] had over 120 yards but 13 out of the 32 times they ran the ball, you stopped them for three yards or less. That's a significant improvement, I think, from the last couple of weeks. That's why the stats sometimes can be very deceiving. In this game.
BB: I thought that we overall played our run defense better. Still not as good as we want to play it, for sure, but I thought it was better. We had a couple plays where they broke out for some big gains, and we have to get those fixed, there's no question. But I thought that, as you said, on a more consistent basis, play after play, there were a lot more good plays, even though there were some not so good ones sprinkled in there, than just a lot of bad plays.
GO: What is the issue with stopping the run right now, in that it seems from time to time that they've had some difficulties? Is it tackling issues?
BB: It's team defense. It's team defense. You've got to have everybody doing their job or a good runner will find that spot. And sometimes it's the defense that we're in. I mean, some of that's coaching and that starts with me. If we're not in the right defense or really have a good leverage angles on the play then that makes it a little bit easier for them to run the ball. But in the end it comes down to, you know, there's always somebody assigned to block everybody; they don't run the ball and not block this guy or that guy, they block everybody. So it comes down to the defenders being able to deal with those blocks and still get off the blocks and tackle the runner. And the more space you give them the harder it is to tackle them. It's team defense – everybody doing their job. And if there's a breakdown, a good back will find the hole.
SD: Rodney Harrison stepped up big these last two weeks. Between his play in Baltimore and against Pittsburgh, I think he had 11 tackles.
PS: Philadelphia, too.
SD: Yeah, [against] Philadelphia he played well, too. He seems to be coming around tremendously and it seems to be right at the right time.
BB: Rodney, he's a good football player. He's a really good football player. He does so many things well. He can tackle well, he can stop the run, he can cover, he's a good blitzer, he disguises coverages well. He's a smart football player. He's a tough player. He's got very good speed and quickness. He's made plays for us on kickoff coverage as a safety…so he's just really a valuable player for us all the way around. He does an outstanding job. He works hard, works as hard as anybody we have, and that's a great example for…I could say for the younger players but he's a great example for all of us.
SD: Are you using him any differently, or maybe more than you were earlier on in the season?
BB: No, I wouldn't say so. There have been some times, Steve, as you've seen in the last few weeks, even going back to the Indianapolis game, where we played some three safeties, and he's certainly a part of that, where he plays closer to the line of scrimmage. But that's kind of a package that we've been using for almost half the season now, so it's not really, it isn't that new.
FS: Coach, did you see a difference – we were talking about [Ben] Roethlisberger, his ability to read defenses and not be confused like you guys did the last time you played them. Over the film dissection that you watched, did you see him improve player, a guy that sees the field better and makes better decisions?
BB: Yeah, I think he's much better than his rookie year, sure. No doubt about it. He does a good job in the drop back passing game. In the play action passing game, they really, they try to go deep. They don't drop back to throw to the fullback in the flat and that kind of thing; they drop back to heave it. And that's why Vince's play was such a big play because really that pretty much knocked them out of that type of play. They didn't come back to it, and maybe they didn't feel like they could protect it well enough to run very many of those. But that is a tough thing for the defense to stop because you want to get up there and stop the run and then they pitch it deep. So he does a good job on the deep ball and of course I think the best thing he does is when he scrambles out of the pocket, get his eyes downfield and pick up those deep receivers and make big plays like the one he made to Davenport. So I think he's definitely developed as a quarterback from, what was it, the '04 season? Was that his first year? Yeah. He's much better than he was then and I think he continues to get better each year.
FS: Is that the big difference with this team? When he gets in trouble it looks like they look deep instead of just look for the outlet pass…
BB: I think when he scrambles he looks deep. I think that if he doesn't scramble, if he's in the pocket he'll throw the ball out of there on time. They run a lot of out-cuts and curls and some read routes inside, and he does a good job with those. He didn't turn the ball over; we didn't have our hands on any balls. He made good decisions with the football. But he does a great job when he can scramble out of the pocket. He does a great job of seeing the receivers open down field, and their receivers do a good job of getting open on those scramble routes, and he's hitting them. You know, he had four touchdowns against Baltimore on that stuff, so…
SD: Coach, what was the thinking with Chad Jackson on the kickoff returns?
BB: Well, we had six receivers for the game and we thought we'd be in some spread offensive sets, so we had a little more depth at receiver. And Chad's been working back there since he's come back here for a few weeks so we thought we'd give him an opportunity. I thought he did a good job on that, after they kicked the field goal, to give us some field position and get us started back there. So that was, how long was it?
SD: About 40.
BB: Yeah. I thought he hit that good. So, we have a number of guys that can return kicks – Ellis [Hobbs] could do it, of course Maroney was at the top of the league last year, Wes and C.J. and Kevin, and Willie [Andrews] has had one – so we've got some good depth at that position. I think Chad gave us a couple good plays there.
GO: What's the thought of using different guys at that position?
BB: Well, I think it's just trying to break down your overall roster and give everybody, try to spread the jobs out so everybody can really be productive at what they do. And Ellis has done a great job for us returning kickoffs, don't get me wrong. I think Ellis has been outstanding, but he has a lot of defensive responsibilities, and a lot of times when he has to return those kickoffs it's right after a long defensive series where we've been out there for however many plays. And he's in great condition, I don't mean it that way. I'm just saying it's adding a lot of responsibility to him. I love having him back there. How much he'll be back there, again, depends a little bit on some of the other things that are going on. And if we have other people who can, I'm not going to say do it as well as him, but do it close to as well as him, then maybe we can spread the load a little bit.
FS: You have that old-timer Troy Brown if you ever get desperate.
BB: Troy was inactive for the game, but sure, we know what Troy can do, too. You bet.
FS: He'll always catch the safe ball. One question on a play: you guys didn't run the ball a lot because of obvious reasons, but you had a play action pass probably as good mechanically as I've seen. Steve and I were talking about that during the game when Brady had the play action pass and the safety bit and he had the wide-open pass to Randy Moss? You hadn't run that much; I was surprised that the safety bit so heavily on that play action pass.
BB: Are you talking about the touchdown?
FS: The touchdown, yeah. It did seem…he had a great fake, but were you surprised they bit so hard on that?
BB: Again, Fred, I'm not sure exactly what coverage they were in. In other words, if he was supposed to give help to Taylor then he bit on it hard. If he just had the tight end and wasn't going to give help, then he could come up and play the run and then take the tight end if he came out, which in that case was Kyle [Brady], who wasn't releasing on the pattern. So I'm not sure exactly how they ruled up. But in any case, there's only one guy back there. But I thought the other play that was well-executed was the third-and-one where, again, Brady hit Moss over the middle. I mean, this time it was only for 10 or 12 yards but it was on a third-and-short situation. And again, the whole defense came up and attacked the running game very aggressively and Randy had a lot of space back there. It was an easy conversion.
FS: Does that surprise you though that when you do such a beautiful fake – and Peyton Manning does it – why quarterbacks don't emphasize – Brady does a great job of it – when you really fake and hide the ball it give so much more difficult reads to the defense. I don't know why more quarterbacks don't really work it. You know, like kind of half-ass, flaky…
BB: Right.
FS: …put it out there. It really helps confuse the defense.
BB: Yeah, it does. And as you know there's a lot of offensive linemen that don't really want to sell it because they're afraid of getting overaggressive and getting beat in pass protection, so they kind of set like a pass even though it's a run. But if you can get your team to really sell the play, then it's tough on the defense because you have to respect the running game, and then it just creates a lot of separation between your linebacker level and your secondary level. There's a lot of space to defend back there.
GO: You got a short week last week having played Monday night. You gave the guys Wednesday off. Did you think backing off would give them a little bit more energy? Because certainly the guys talked about that after the game yesterday, that they felt that they had a lot more in the tank yesterday.
BB: Well, I think that was good, but I also think that helped us from a coaching standpoint to have a little bit more time Wednesday to prepare for the game. We got back late…early Tuesday morning, so we lost all of Monday with the game. And then Tuesday just wasn't a normal Tuesday because we were tired from the trip and up all night and all that. So I think Wednesday it helped us a little bit to get a good night's sleep Tuesday, to come in, to review the game plan – make sure that we had everything right for the players – and then we could really move forward. Once we started moving we could really move forward. One of the worst things that can happen, from a coaching standpoint, is you give a team a game plan and then as you're going through it you kind of realize as a coaching staff, 'Oh boy, this isn't really what we want here.' And you're kind of backtracking the whole week, 'Well, we said we were going to do it this way but now we're going to do it that way.' Or, 'We said we were going to do this but now it looks like when they do these other things it's going to cause some problems.' And then by the end of the week you've spent a lot of time…if you just got it right in the first place you could have spent less time and gotten more done. So I think there was a little bit of that last week, too. We wanted to make sure that going into the game we gave the players a good, clear definition of how we were going to play some of the very challenging things that Pittsburgh presented us with.
GO: That's interesting. So you're telling us the coaching staff needed that extra day.
BB: Oh, sure. Absolutely.
FS: See, we'd always say that in Buffalo, but it was during the game.
[Laughter]
GO: Alright, let's get to this week's game. Who are you playing this week? I forget.
BB: We're going to the Jets.
GO: Oh, it's the Jets this week!
[Crosstalk]
SD: Now, I've been in locker rooms and coach…where it's true that guys really don't know who the next week is.
BB: Right.
SD: But for a lot of people around here it's unimaginable that people can't, that guys on team don't know that the Jets are playing next. But there's that hyper-focus on the mission at hand. How could you not…the public doesn't understand how you can not know…
BB: Well, when you're going up against a team like the Ravens, all you think about's the Ravens. And then you go against the Steelers, and they're 9-3 coming in here and leading their division and all that, and all you think about's just getting past the Steelers and you worry about next week next week. We've had a very challenging stretch here, and certainly the Steelers took all of our attention. And we needed to give it all of our attention. And now we'll turn the page and move on to the Jets.
PS: Are you prepared for the onslaught of ridiculous, dumb, stupid questions from the media about what happened in Week 1?
[Crosstalk and laughter]
PS: Because all that crap's going to come up again, unfortunately.
BB: Well, it is but it isn't, Pete, because I'm not going to get into all that. We've already talked about it, and if that's what comes up there will be some very short press conferences this week.
[Laughter]
BB: We'll talk about the Jets but we've already talked about all of it – my relationship with Eric [Mangini], the handshakes, what happened the first week of the season, all that. So…
GO: [Brian] Billick's got a nice kiss. Have you tried that one?
[Laughter]
BB: We're not going through that this week. We're going to concentrate on the Jets and the game, and all the other stuff, like I said, if that's the way it's going to be, there'll be some short press conferences.
SD: Yep.
[Crosstalk]
FS: Well, they're playing better. They beat Pittsburgh a few weeks ago, they could have beat Cleveland last night, you know?
BB: Oh, they've been in a lot of close games. We saw a lot of the Pittsburgh-Jet game. We saw a lot of that in getting ready for Pittsburgh because it was a recent game and some of the things that they do offensively and defensively had some application to what we do. The Jets played very well against the Steelers and, of course, beat them in overtime. They're very good in the kicking game. They have a great returner in [Leon] Washington, and they're a great field position team, and they're running the ball well with [Thomas] Jones. Defensively, they have a very complex blitz package that we're going to have to be ready for. And they came up here and got us last year, so I think we have a lot of respect for what the Jets are capable of doing.
GO: What's [Kellen] Clemens do for them? How would you break his game down?
BB: Athletic guy, good arm. I think he's got all the skill. We really didn't see much of Clemens; he played just a little bit after our game. We saw him prior to the Buffalo game because [Chad] Pennington got hurt. Even though he finished our game he missed the next week, or whatever it was, or part of the next week. But Clemens had a real good preseason. Again, athletic guy with a strong arm, smart kid, has good poise back there, so I think he's certainly been capable of running it. And they must have a lot of confidence in him because they took out Pennington, who's, I mean, we know how good Pennington is – Pennington took them to the playoffs last year. I think he's an outstanding quarterback, I really do. So for them to feel that confident in Clemens, they must really like a lot of what Clemens did.
FS: They move the defense around a lot, so you can't lock on what the strength is. But last time when they beat you up here, they were all over the place – up and down and over and around. They seem to move the players to keep you from getting the blocking scheme correctly.
BB: Are you talking about the regular season game?
FS: The regular season game. And they blitz from all different angles. Probably blitzed as much as we've seen. I don't know if they blitz as much as Pittsburgh, but…
BB: Right up there with them. Yep, right up there with them. Certainly if they can get you on the run with it then they'll keep coming. But they have a lot of different blitzes – they blitz the secondary guys, they blitz the linebackers – and as you said, they move and stem around a lot. So it's a hard system to get ready for and we'll really need to do a good job of focusing in on that. You know it only takes one bad play and you get a strip-sack or you get a ball tipped and run back for a touchdown or something like that. Those are the kind of plays that beat you. So we'll really have to do a good job of offensively taking care of the ball and making sure we have them all accounted for.
FS: What was with the Hulk jacket yesterday? You had that big, puffy…
PS: I was going to say, we got a lot of calls about the George Costanza GORE-TEX-type jacket. Have you ever seen that episode of Seinfeld?
[Crosstalk]
BB: I just kind of grabbed that on the way out and it felt good there in pregame warmups, so I…
GO: You blow that thing up?
SD: It's Reebok official pump-ware. [It's actually the Reebok New England Patriots Commando Heavyweight Jacket .]
FS: You know what you'll have? There will be 20,000 people wearing those next week.
BB: That's never going to replace the gray sweatshirt .
[Crosstalk]
BB: It'll never replace that.
SD: The hoodie is a classic.
PS: Did you see that stupid plane that was flying overhead yesterday?
BB: No, I missed it. No.
[Crosstalk]
GO: Alright, it's now time for the MVP Volkswagen Dealers' Coach's Question of the Week. And right now your seven MVP VW dealers can slide you into a new '08 VW with no money down, no down payment, no first month, no security, zero due at signing. Just sign and drive. Sarah from Watertown asked this question, Coach: When I hear commentators talking about the gaps on defense, like the A gap and the B gap, what are they referring to? Can you explain the different responsibilities that certain players have?
BB: Well, I think the way most teams do it, Sarah, is they identify the gaps from the inside out. So the center-guard gap is the A gap, the guard-tackle gap is the B gap, the tackle-end gap is the C gap and the tight end-wing gap would be the D gap, if there's a wing there. So if you say, 'Well, this play went in the B gap,' it's like the same thing as saying it went between the guard and the tackle. And if you were to say on a defensive play, 'Who's responsible for the B gap?' Fred's responsible for the A gap, Pete's responsible for the B gap, Glenn's responsible for the C gap. It just clears up the defensive responsibilities. And the next play it could be Fred in the B gap, Pete in the A gap, Glenn in the C.
[Crosstalk]
BB: It's just identifying, really, the gap responsibilities, is all it is. And those letters are pretty uniform, pretty standard. I think most teams talk in that term.
GO: Alright, if you'd like to ask the coach a question, swing by your local MVP Volkswagen dealers, like Southshore VW, they're in Hanover, VW Gallery in Norwood. Be sure to ask about nothing down, sign and drive. See mvpvw.com for more. You got a question?
BB: Did we ever find out when we pay for that VW?
GO: You pay for it eventually, but there's zero due at signing.
[Lots of joking around.]
GO: You got anything you want to throw out there?
BB: Let's see, question for the week…
[Crosstalk and nervous laughter]
SD: How come we all look away when he says there's a question?
[Laughter and crosstalk]
BB: I'll tell you, a tough play – but it was a good play – Pete, what did you think about the turnover on the punt?
PS: Oh, that hit the guy in the groin? … Think about it as far as what?
BB: Let's say you were coaching the Steelers, what would you say about that? Who's fault's that? The guy's out there blocking the gunner and all, what are you going to do there?
PS: That's interesting. I think it's just a tough break, to be honest with you. A play like that. There's other times where I think guys should be aware of the ball when it comes down. That one seemed like it was…because I didn't think it was a great punt.
BB: It wasn't.
PS: It wasn't a great punt by [Chris] Hanson to begin with, so it caught [Randall] Gay off guard. I just thought it was a good break for the Patriots.
BB: It was a good break. That was a good break.
GO: That was one of those things last week, people were calling up and saying, 'Oh, the Patriots were lucky' or whatever. And we were trying to explain, No, luck is when you win the lottery. You execute the right plays at the end of the game – that's how you win a game. That might be one of those plays that was lucky, that you could look at and say you got the right bounce.
FS: Well they have to track that. Right, Coach?
BB: Right. Well, certainly the ball could hit the ground and not him, but when you're on the punt return team, the number one most important thing is you get the ball at the end of the play. So, everything else is secondary to that. And not getting hit with the ball, or mishandling the ball is number one on the hit parade.
PS: If that was your guy and that had happened, what would you have said? Would you have been angry?
BB: I would put the responsibility on the returner and the guys who are blocking to see that. Now, it was right in front of our bench, so if that had been us on the punt return, then I think our guys on the bench would have been yelling and hopefully they would have heard it and got away from it. But, say it had been on the other side of the field…
GO: Well, what about the one that bounced off of Jackson's foot in the course of the game? The kickoff, off of his foot. That was like one of those where he might have been able to handle it better.
BB: Oh yeah, but I'm saying at least that wasn't a turnover, because he had enough time and enough space [because] the returner was handling the ball. But in this case, these are guys blocking who, the ball hit them and it ended up being a turnover. So you've got to have some kind of communication between the returner and the blockers to get away from the ball, and there's got to be an accountability of the blockers to not let it hit him, or you'll be fumbling a lot of them.
SD: And not that you can necessarily coach that kind of scenario, but I can remember [former New York Giants special teams coordinator Mike] Sweatman many times, every single punt return practice or meeting he would talk about that possibility. Every single time. That you've got to…I don't care how engaged you are in your block or whatever, you've got to know where the ball is … especially when you're that close to the returner, because you know the returner's screaming…
BB: Right.
SD: The returner's yelling about it, so it's…not that it's something that you strictly coach, per se, but a constant reminder like Sweat used to do all the time, that's going to keep you on your toes, too.
BB: And as soon as those guys know that the ball's not going to be caught – whether it be a signal or a verbal call from the returner – then what they should do is get out of bounds. Is get out of bounds. And they were within a yard or two of being out of bounds. And had they just…Gay reacted a little bit quicker and just jumped out of bounds, then either the ball doesn't hit him or it hits him out of bounds. But it's a fine line between a good block and maybe a good field position punt, and a turnover. But James Sanders made a nice play on that. James Sanders made a real nice play on that.
FS: Again, congratulations on your 100th win.
BB: Thank you. Thank you, Fred. [I] appreciate it.
[Joking around]
GO: Alright, Coach, congratulations. A hundred wins, 13-0. Next week Jets, right? It was the Jets next week?
BB: Does it seem like 100 wins?
GO: You tell us.
BB: I don't know.
[Joking around]
BB: In some respects it seems like a lot more than that, and in some respects it seems like a lot less than that.
FS: It went fast.
SD: Well, there's a lot of big wins in there, too. You're not just talking about…
BB: There were some big ones.
SD: Yeah. Some ridiculously exciting games, too. So I don't know, 100 games doesn't sound like a lot.
BB: We're going to try to make it less exciting though, Steve. Yeah, we're going to try to make it a little less exciting than we did down there in Baltimore.
FS: Don't do that, you'll disappoint those guys…
BB: That was good for the ratings. The TV ratings.
FS: Do you believe what Baltimore played like yesterday? My goodness! They didn't even cover anybody. They come out and play you guys like they're on fire and then it looks like they vaporized.
BB: I didn't see one play last night, so I can't comment on the game. I didn't see one play.
SD: Speaking of ratings, CBS moved your Miami game to 4:15.
BB: Oh, great!
[Laughter and crosstalk]
GO: And then the next week you have to play on a Saturday.
BB: Yeah, we knew about that one.
GO: So they move you up three hours and then the next week you're playing on a Saturday.
[Everyone talking over each other]
GO: Alright, Coach, congratulations again. Good luck next week.
[Crosstalk]
BB: Thanks, Glenn. Alright. Thanks Steve. Pete, Fred, thank you.
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