Bill Belichick on WEEI 9/18: "There's nothing more important than ball security"

Greg Hill (0:00)

Hey, Bill.

Bill Belichick (0:01)

Greg, how are you doing?

Greg Hill (0:03)

How are you doing?

Bill Belichick (0:05)

Apologize for running a little bit late here this morning. I had a couple of things come up that I had to deal with. But sorry for the whole job.

Greg Hill (0:13)

No, wait, listen, we're here waiting for you as always. And so obviously not the result you were looking for last night.

Bill Belichick (0:28)

Yeah, tough game, division game, and we had our chances. We just weren't able to do enough.

Greg Hill (0:36)

I mean, obviously from the outside looking in here, it seems like these two games at least offense a little slow to get going. Is that something you think you need to work on?

Bill Belichick (0:47)

No, definitely. Yeah, definitely, we make sure we can move the ball here.

But yeah, we got to, we need to do it for four quarters and not be, you know, not have those inconsistencies first. But playing from ahead would definitely help us.

Greg Hill (1:06)

When it comes to moving the ball, running the ball specifically, is that from your perspective kind of more of an offensive line thing?

Bill Belichick (1:18)

Well, it's a team thing, everything goes into it. But I mean, obviously, the biggest thing that's hurt us the last two weeks has been turning the ball over early in the game. And we've got three turnovers early in the game in the last two weeks. So that stops you more than anything, in the two of those three cases we were moving the ball, that was the first play of the drive.

We were moving the ball and then gave it away. So that's really top of the list.

SPEAKER_3 (1:51)

Bill, one of the things that you kind of look from an offensive standpoint that I look at in the game is that trying to see some of those explosive plays in the passing game. Unfortunately, you guys didn't have any of those yesterday, 20 yards or longer.

What can you do to maybe fix that? I know that's something that as an offensive player, that's something that you always want to make sure you have a couple of those in the game.

Bill Belichick (2:19)

Yeah, right. Well, we need to create some of those. You're right. Some of those can be catch and run plays. Some of them are, you know, downfield throws.

We throw the ball down the field. We haven't hit them or haven't hit enough of them, but we'll obviously need to work on that.

SPEAKER_4 (2:40)

Bill, the call to overturn the first down didn't go the way you guys wanted, but to see Gasecki's awareness to lateral that ball to strange while the game, I'm sure in his mind, is going a million miles a minute. The fight that they both had out there, is that something you practice, or is that just Gasecki's innate ability and talent?

Bill Belichick (3:00)

Yeah, that was a real, I thought, a very instinctive head to play by Mike. I mean, a smart player. We have a lot of guys like that.

But that was a smart player, and the right decision on his part, probably in that situation to do something to try to get a first down. And unfortunately, I guess we came up a couple inches short.

SPEAKER_4 (3:27)

For those watching at home like us, I felt like it was a first down from your point of view. Did you think it was as well?

Bill Belichick (3:33)

Yeah, it doesn't really matter what I think.

SPEAKER_3 (3:39)

Bill, when you look at Miami and their offense, what goes into your thought process of going, okay, maybe we bring a little bit of pressure to maybe get to a little bit uncomfortable, or does he get the ball out too quickly where it's hard to bring pressure?

Bill Belichick (3:59)

No, we brought pressure.

Yeah, we mixed it in there with some man pressure, some zone pressure, and yeah, I love their good offense. They have some very good skill players. We had our moments, and we gave up, obviously, an explosive play in the fourth quarter, and a bad two-minute drive, but the rest of the game we played pretty competitively, but those two situations obviously really hurt us over half their points.

Greg Hill (4:39)

Bill, our player of the week was Christian Gonzalez, who had a nice pick last night. A little bit on what you're seeing from him.

Bill Belichick (4:47)

Yeah, Gonzalez learns every day. Smart kid, really pays attention, and tries to do what you ask him to do.

You know, it was an outstanding interception that he had. That was sort of a little bit similar to the play that came up in Miami last year, where Tyreek went up and kind of took the ball away from us. And the play was tipped. It was a little different play, but the same idea. And this is one where Gonzalez went up and took the ball away from Hill. So it was a really good play, not only a break up, but made a good catch and pulled it in. But there were other coverage plays that he had. Obviously, he's gone up against some of the best receivers in the league the last two weeks.