Bill Belichick on WEEI 10/2: "Learn from it and move on"

Greg Hill (0:00)

Hey, Bill.

Bill Belichick (0:02)

Morning, hey Greg, how are you doing?

Greg Hill (0:03)

How are you doing?

Bill Belichick (0:12)

We're still fighting.

Greg Hill (0:14)

Well, you joined us as we were discussing Mack Jones, and I wanted to ask if you feel like he maybe at times is putting too much, and I guess this goes for anybody on this team, maybe is putting too much pressure on himself?

Bill Belichick (0:28)

Uh, well, it's the National Football League. It's a very competitive league, and so, you know, we're all under pressure every week, and that's the job.

But, yeah, I mean, Mack Vanplato himself, he works hard. Football is really important to him. He puts a lot into it. So, I mean, we all do this, again, at the NFL.

SPEAKER_3 (0:57)

Bill, one of the things that you talked about headed into this game is Dallas' ability to get to the quarterback.

I thought for the most part, you guys up front did a decent job of being able to slow those guys down and allowing the quarterbacks to have time, have time to throw the football. What was your take on your pass protection, especially against the Dallas defense that can really get after?

Bill Belichick (1:19)

Oh, it was good at times.

You know, we had a couple breakdowns. We got picked inside, you know, with some games, and looked to have a good pass rushing group, and with the score of what it was, they were able to kind of tee off on the quarterback. But I thought we hung in there. I thought that it was, you know, competitive. There's some things we need to definitely clean up on it, though, and nothing would help pass protection more than running the ball, just like we saw that last week. So, you know, those two things go hand in hand.

SPEAKER_4 (1:59)

Bill, what went into the decision to kick the field goal fourth and one at the six on your opening possession of the game?

Bill Belichick (2:08)

Just get down there and get points. It's a 3-3 game, long way to go.

Get on the board. Make sure it's positive points come out of the drive.

SPEAKER_3 (2:19)

Bill, you've been in this situation before, you know, when you start to look at, you go down, you lose in a game like that, in a fashion like that, but you still want to learn from it, but you want to keep the guys in a mental position of, let's learn from it, but let's move past it. How, what's your process for doing that, especially this week, heading out into New Orleans?

Bill Belichick (2:45)

I think it's exactly what you said, Wee. I mean, you hit it on the head, learn from it and move on. And that's what we'll do.

We'll learn from the things that happened in the game and move on.

Greg Hill (2:59)

Bill, we look at these things from the outside because we're not there every day, we're not on this team. So just looking at the offense, do you feel like there's enough talent around Mack Jones on this team to be winning these football games?

Bill Belichick (3:16)

Yeah, I think we have pretty good talent on offense. We just haven't been able to find a good, consistent group with it.

Greg Hill (3:23)

Does that end up being just from a scheme perspective or it's, you know, you've...

Bill Belichick (3:35)

No, I'd say it's more a consistency thing of, you know, one breakdown, you know, one or two breakdowns on each play with, you know, some of the good things being done, but ultimately that one breakdown causes the, you know, the play not to be successful. I think once we get hitting on a more consistent basis and can eliminate that, you know, that one problem or one technique or one, you know, fundamental thing, you know, that comes up on individual play, that it's, you know, the results will be a lot better, but we haven't done a good enough job on that. And, you know, until we get there, you know, it's still obviously a problem.

SPEAKER_3 (4:26)

Bill, when you talk to Mack in the game and you say, you kind of understand that your quarterback has a lot of pressure on him, and sometimes you see guys that they try to do too much, which leads to bad decisions, and he had a couple of those in the game. What was your message to him during the game or after the game about that?

Bill Belichick (4:47)

I just felt like at that point, there wasn't any point leaving him in the game at that point, so I just took him out.