Coach Bill Belichick on WEEI 11/27: "It's frustrating that we've come up short so many times"

Greg Hill (0:00)

Hey Bill, how are you doing? Oh, we gotta get that micro, I think we have to flip that on.

There we go. How are you Bill?

Bill Belichick (0:07)

All right, how are we doing this morning?

Greg Hill (0:08)

Doing well, tough one yesterday, but you were in it at the end.

Bill Belichick (0:14)

Yeah, yeah, well, it's been quite a few of those this year. We had our chances, obviously couldn't convert.

Greg Hill (0:22)

What went into, from your perspective, the decision to start Mac Jones in that game yesterday?

Bill Belichick (0:30)

Yeah, just trying to move ahead there. Thought a decent week of practice.

Greg Hill (0:36)

He said post game that he wasn't on the same page as the offense. Is that concerning to you?

Bill Belichick (0:48)

Well, I mean, offensively, we certainly need to execute and perform better. So, keep working towards that.

Greg Hill (0:56)

What does that mean, though, in your mind? Not on the same page as the offense?

Bill Belichick (0:59)

Yeah, I don't know. You'd have to ask him exactly what he's referring to. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_3 (1:04)

Bill, when you look at the, I think the key is, you know, the week of practice.

What were the rep distribution? Was Mac getting the majority of the reps or was Zappe, was it a 50-50 thing? Or was it really leaning more towards Mac? And then when you guys made the decision to go with Zappe in the second half, did he get enough opportunities in practice? Where were you guys at with that?

Bill Belichick (1:28)

Yeah, I got the majority of the reps, but Zappe got plenty of reps this week.

SPEAKER_4 (1:33)

Mac also told the broadcast that he needs to work on not making a bad play worse.

We saw him do that a few times during the game yesterday. How does he fix that? Is that a mental issue that he needs to correct?

Bill Belichick (1:45)

We just need to stop turning the ball over offensively, period.

SPEAKER_4 (1:53)

Do you find that if he tries to force a play, that's when that happens?

Bill Belichick (1:59)

I think there have been multiple things this year. We just need to do a better job on all the ball security, decision making, so forth.

There's too many turnovers. Turn the ball over too much.

SPEAKER_3 (2:14)

Bill, when you look at interceptions, a lot of the times, part of it is maybe defensively not being able to see what the scheme was, or maybe they did a good job at disguising things, or maybe it just is bad decisions.

What's kind of been with the quarterbacks, especially for Mac, what's been the biggest issue? Has it been the disguise of the defense, which has led to those interceptions, or is it just them making bad reads?

Bill Belichick (2:42)

I'd say it's been a combination of things.

Obviously, they're all a little bit different, but just the combination of things. In the end, just too many. Just too many turnovers.

Curtis (2:53)

Why at the end did it seem like you guys were content for playing for overtime? You know, you're down three points, you have the ball at the plus side, you know, 30-20 yard line. Why not be more aggressive there offensively before settling for a field goal?

Bill Belichick (3:07)

We were trying to be aggressive. Do the ball on the second down and thought we could get outside on the sweep on the third down.

Greg Hill (3:14)

You said on this show a few weeks ago that, you know, being a head coach and essentially handling everything personnel wise, that's a couple jobs. When it comes to Mac Jones and that pick, were you 100% sold on that or was that something that Robert Kraft pushed you toward?

Bill Belichick (3:36)

Yeah, well, organizationally, we thought it was the right thing to do.

SPEAKER_3 (3:42)

Bill, when you look at defensively, you know, watching the games, you look at the defense doing a good job being able to hold teams to, you know, it's pretty impressive that you think of you're only giving up 22 points a game and I know the rest of the league is in the teens, but is it a frustrating thing for, excuse me, defensively for you guys to go out there, do a good job, hold team to 10 points or 17 points or 15 points and then lose games like this where you have an opportunity, but offensively you guys just can't make enough plays to be able to win those games?

Bill Belichick (4:17)

Yeah, well, as you know, it's a team sport and, you know, we just got to play better defense than they play. We got to play better offense than they play, play better in a kicking game than our opponents play, so we got to win in all three phases. So we could have saved a couple of points here in the game yesterday, defensively, and we certainly could have scored more. So a combination of both things.