Bill Belichick
Bill Belichick
William Stephen Belichickis an American football coach, and the long-time head coach of the New England Patriots of the National Football League. Belichick has extensive authority over the Patriots' football operations, effectively making him the General Manager of the team as well. He was previously the head coach of the Cleveland Browns...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth16 April 1952
CityNashville, TN
CountryUnited States of America
There are 11 guys on the field, including the coaching staff and everyone else on the sideline,
When you have a football team, everybody has a role on it. And Ro's role, for the most part in the last couple of years, . . . was to get the defense ready. Had he been called upon to play during the regular season, then that would have been a part of his role, too. But, for the most part, it wasn't. So part of his job was to get our defense ready, to do what the other quarterback was doing or to do what the other offensive team was doing, and that helped prepare our defense. In no way can I minimize that.
We've got the same amount of time that Jacksonville has to prepare for the game, so we're on a level field there. We just have to do a better job. You've got to play your best football in January. It's that time of year.
When we turn on that tape, we see them beating Cincinnati, we see them beat Pittsburgh, we see them beat Seattle. There are not a lot of teams who are saying that.
We're treating this like a regular week. Put it in the headline. Bold type. It's a regular week. The players know that, the staff knows it.
We knew it when he went there that he was going to make them a powerful team and a force in the league and a force in this division. He already has. That's no surprise to me, believe me.
We thought it would be in the best interests of the team to be in here. This is probably similar to the conditions we'll be playing in, in terms of wind.
We thought he'd have a smaller role. Turns out he has a bigger role.
We're not on a sightseeing tour here. We have a job to do. We all have something that we want to try to accomplish. That's really what we're going there for. Understanding what the setting is and what the stadium is and all of that, yes, we are all aware of that.
Why? Because he is slightly less than 100 percent.
This year, we have an extra third and an extra fourth. Having those extra mid-round picks in a full draft certainly gives you flexibility to move up, but there's only so far you can go in the first round. From 21st, you're not going to be able to get into the top 10, but you could move up a couple of spots.
We had a couple of turnovers early in the first half, but bounced back offensively and we were able to get some points on the board. And our defense came up with some big plays.
We had a chance to look at a lot of our younger players. We are in a much shorter window now than you would be if you opened a week from Sunday.
The conversation was, 'Look, we're taking him. We're taking a good football player. We don't know what we're going to do with him exactly, but we figure we'll find something.