Bill Belichick on WEEI 9/24: "We moved the ball ... just need to score more points"

Greg Hill (0:00)

Hey, Bill.

Bill Belichick (0:00)

Morning, how are you doing, Greg?

Greg Hill (0:01)

We're doing good, how are you doing? Nice to get a win?

Bill Belichick (0:05)

Always, always, yeah. Tough to win in this league, it's good to get it.

Greg Hill (0:09)

We're talking earlier about the weather, and post-game, you talked about points being the most important thing, and you put 15 up. I know the weather affects both teams on that side of the ball, but was that a factor when you look at kind of the offense working yesterday?

Bill Belichick (0:28)

Well, I mean, we moved the ball, we just, you know, we need more points, need to score more points.

You know, had a couple of field goal opportunities, and just weren't able to, you know, finish. We got across the 50 yard line a couple of times, but I mean, give it just credit, they're a really good defensive team. We've seen that, and they're good in the red area, good in plus 50, so, you know, we convert a few third downs, but ultimately, you know, they made a few stops, and, you know, kept us out of the end zone, so, you know, competitive game, tough competitive game, that's the way it is against them down there.

SPEAKER_3 (1:02)

Bill, one of the things that I think when you start to look, you obviously give the Jets a lot of credit defensively, but I think when you start to look at your own defense, the things that you were able to do, not just against Zach in the passing game, but also against their rushing attack, what do you feel like after maybe watching the film a little bit, was the difference on where you were able to defensively really keep the Jets bottled up and not really know what to do?

Bill Belichick (1:29)

Yeah, well, I think fundamentally we played a lot better than we did last week against Miami. Just played better fundamentals, used our hands better, red blocks better, had better run for us, tackled better, so all those things.

It always comes down to fundamentals. And you can exit out all you want, but you gotta go out there and win those one-on-one matchups and fundamentally it was a good game for us, a good tackling game.

SPEAKER_4 (1:53)

Bill, a lot of the players after credited Matthew Slater for talking to them, addressing the team, giving a big speech on Friday after practice. What was the main message after starting season 0-2 to make sure that the guys were ready to go against this Jets team and get a win?

Bill Belichick (2:07)

Yeah, Matt's always got good messages. He's got a lot of them.

But yeah, I mean, I think the team realized that, look, every week's a big week in this league and going on the road down New York, we knew it was going to be tough. And Matt's had a lot of experience doing that more than anybody else, so it's always good to hear from him.

SPEAKER_3 (2:28)

Well, I think the other thing that you guys were able to do a good job of was establishing the run. Was that something that obviously the weather played a factor in or just kind of going into this game, was it more put on the offense saying, hey, we got to do better running the football because then that'll open up things like play action?

Bill Belichick (2:46)

Well, again, I think against a defense like the Jets, you don't want to go back there and throw 50 times. That's really not a good, probably a good way to play them. And they have a lot of good pass rushers. And so if you can keep the distances shorter and punch some runs in there and make them play the run, that balances things off. And I'd say this is probably one of our better games, pass protecting against them in the last few times we played them.

So we had had a little more time, but I think part of that came from the running game and being able to keep them honest and playing the run. But they're tough to run against, they're tough to throw against, and they're a good defense.

SPEAKER_4 (3:24)

Whether it was the run game or Mack not getting sacked, was that a direct correlation of Trent Brown being added back in and the O-line playing pretty well?

Bill Belichick (3:33)

Well, it was good to be able to get guys playing on the offensive line together a little bit more than we had the first couple of weeks. But, yeah, of course, getting Trent back is good. And, you know, Lowe had, you know, was able to play again at right tackle. And, you know, Mike's able to play at right guard, you know, and so getting him back into it. And so, you know, Moffey and Cole had left guard. So just getting the same guys out there, letting them play together, and getting some continuity there, and that always helps.