Skins Quotes 10/1/19: Bill Belichick

October 1, 2019

Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick Conference Call

On his philosophy behind developing a young quarterback:
“Well, I think every situation is different. Really, we're focused on getting ready for all three of these quarterbacks for the Redskins. They all are pretty good. Obviously, [QB Colt] McCoy is an outstanding player with a great deal of experience and so is [QB] Case [Keenum], and those guys have played a lot of good football and they have a very talented group of skill players with them. [QB Dwayne] Haskins [Jr.] is a young, talented player with good size and can move, a big strong guy in the pocket, and great arm. We'll have to get ready for all three players and that'll be a big challenge for us.”

On how the Patriots have been one of the least penalized teams over the years:
“Well, a lot of penalties are really player-related, concentration and decision-making. There are some bang-bang plays out there in football, and that's football, but penalties are preventable. We try to prevent things that we can either by doing the right thing, avoid penalties and making good decisions. Sometimes they happen out there and I understand that, but try not to hurt yourself with penalties by coaching and player errors and poor decision-making. We've got to do a better job of that ourselves and hopefully we can improve on that going forward. We've had more penalties than we'd like to have.”

On the emphasis on offensive and defensive holding calls this season:
“I don't really know about the trends and all of that, I just try to focus on our team. There are things that we can do better and that's what we're going to try to do, coach the players better and emphasize fundamentals and techniques that keep us from committing any infractions, holding penalties, defensive pass penalties, blocks in the back in the return game, and so forth. We try to eliminate all of them and make our opponents beat us, and we can do that with good coaching and good fundamentals and techniques. That's the best way we can try to address it.”

On how Head Coach Jay Gruden's scheme has evolved:
“The offense is very much in Coach [Jay] Gruden's philosophy and background. I think it was a little less of that with [QB Robert] Griffin [III], he was kind of the guy who improvised plays and was very mobile. With [QB Alex] Smith who has had a great background in the West Coast offense and then [QB Colt] McCoy and obviously [QB] Case Keenum, those guys are very efficient at getting the ball into the hands of their very good skill players. The Redskins have great skill players at every spot, with [RB Adrian] Peterson and [RB Chris] Thompson, [TE Vernon] Davis, [TE Jeremy] Sprinkle has been playing more, the receiver core – you add [WR Terry] McLaurin to that group – [WR Trey] Quinn, [WR Paul] Richardson [Jr.]. So they've got a very good group of skill players and they get them out a lot in the West Coast passing game, it's up to the quarterback to make those decisions and get the ball to those open players and let them advance with their run-after-catch skills. I think that Coach Gruden is very good at that, he does a great job of game-planning and creating problems for the defense, and they have very good skill players to get the ball to. I think that's really what they want to be offensively with a balanced running game. There's a lot of balance in offense between the run and pass – I mean, there have been a couple situations where they've been behind and that got skewed a little bit, but generally speaking it's a well balanced offense. It makes you defend everything, the running game, the play-action game, the quick throws, the screens and the vertical passing game where they've hit a number of big plays and had other guys open that just didn't connect. Coach Gruden does a good job springing those guys free and getting them vertically into the defense for potential big plays. That's a consistent part of their offense, whether they do it off play-action or as part of their drop back game, just making the right reads on seams, go routes, double moves, wheel routes and things like that. It's a very well-balanced offense, they attack all the areas of the field with multiple players, backs, tight ends, receivers, and really force you to defend everything. Very well-designed and thought-out offensive scheme.”

On how to dig out of an 0-4 hole:
“Every year is a different year, every team is a different team. We were 1-2 last year. Sometimes you play good and lose, sometimes you play bad and win, sometimes you play good and win, sometimes you play bad – most of the time you play bad and lose, or coach bad and lose. Just take it week to week, you know every week is a one-week season in this league. Just try to go out there and match up against your opponent, and try to do the best job that you can to prepare your team and compete hard on Sunday. But every team in this league has good players, good coaches, good talent, so you've got to go out and do it every single week. I don't really worry too much about the record, I just try to prepare the team and hope the team does a good job of preparing and going out and competing that week. The records don't really mean anything this week it'll just depend on how the two teams compete on Sunday afternoon, that's all that really matters.”

On how mentally ‘nimble' players help to make adjustments in-game and weekly:
“Well, there's no substitute for players. There are good players and players who are smart, instinctive, and good communicators. They're great to have on your team, that's what you want on your team. I'm very fortunate that we have a lot of players that are smart, they communicate well, many of them have a lot of experience and they make good decisions in critical situations. That's really the key to coaching is having good players.”

On how teams use of play-action has changed and the belief that a good running game is necessary for effective play-action:
“Teams have different philosophies on that. Some teams combine the running game and the play-action game, some teams don't tie them together as well – they run play-action based more on scheme and the way they are trying to attack the defense – then, there are teams now that call the ultimate play-action, which is the RPO game. I think with the Redskins, you see a combination of all those. They do a very good job of using their running game formations and actions. They also have passes that, because of the action, are just hard to defend schematically. Then, you have the RPO game, which again the Redskins do a nice job of. It's kind of well-designed and they do it out of a number of different looks: three-by-one, two-by-two, some condensed formations, some spread formations, they move it back around, so it's hard to get a read on it. They mix all those in together and just as a way to keep the defense off-balance. In the end, play-action is like anything else in football, running game, passing game, play-action, bootleg. It's hard to be good at everything. You have to decide as a coach what best suits your offense and your personnel, and what you can do to try to do that well. There's a place for everything. It's hard to be good at everything, so you have to decide where you want to put your emphasis. That's usually what teams are the best at, the things that they emphasize and do repetitively.”

On FB Jakob Johnson's growth and what he adds to the team:
"'Jak' is a player that doesn't have a lot of experience, he just has some things at the fullback position that physically fit that spot. He's a big kid, he's strong, he runs well, he learns well. [He] just doesn't have a lot of experience playing football, certainly not at this level. He works hard and he improves – those are big positives. He's a great kid to work with. He's a good teammate, does whatever he's asked to do. He has a long way to go. He's improving every week. We'll see where it takes us. He has an opportunity because, unfortunately, the injury to [FB] James Devlin. Like most teams, it's hard to carry two fullbacks on a roster. ‘Jak' was on the practice squad and was elevated up when James was unable to play. We'll see how it goes. He's earned an opportunity. We'll see how he's able to perform with it."




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This is the kind of stuff Bellichick says to keep his team from overlooking even the weakest opponent.

This game is gonna' be like the '85 Bears playing Our Lady of the Worthless Miracle High School.

Like fattening frogs for snakes 😎

- John Thompson

Its like BB and Brady had a bet before the phone call.

Tom: Bill I dare you to give an interview praising Jay Gruden
BB: $20 and I`ll say he`s a good game planner & runs a balanced attack
Tom: you're on

Interview

BB: pay up bitch!
Tom: holy cow you actually did! (hands BB $20)

The Redskins are a get well Game here for New England.

We aren't physical like Buffalo and we don't have any playmakers like a Kansas City.

In addition the coach here makes no adjustments so if NE is successful early with what they run they can just keep to the script and not break a sweat.

We're gonna beat the Patriots. It's a lock.