Head Coach Bill Belichick on WEEI 11/6: "We need to be a more consistent, fundamental team"

Greg Hill (0:00)

Hey, Bill.

Bill Belichick (0:00)

Morning, Greg.

Greg Hill (0:01)

How you doing?

Bill Belichick (0:01)

All right, how you doing?

Greg Hill (0:02)

Good.

You've been coaching in this league for 48 and a half years, I think. Is this the most frustrating season that you've had?

Bill Belichick (0:12)

It's probably up there, yeah. But we just got to keep grinding away here and, you know, turn things around this week.

Greg Hill (0:22)

Is it coaching staff, you players, is it tough to when you're sitting at two and seven to get guys to keep grinding away?

Bill Belichick (0:30)

No, not this week. I mean, I think we, you know, worked hard this week.

Again, had our chances. We just weren't able to make enough plays to win.

SPEAKER_3 (0:42)

Bill, you talk about working hard this week in practice. One of the areas where, excuse me, where you really struggle is third down, both sides of the football.

What do you think's leading to that? Because if you haven't great weeks of execution in practice, is it just not execution in the games or is it just maybe schematically?

Bill Belichick (1:02)

You saw the game. You know, we missed some opportunities that weren't that hard. Should have been able to get them.

So just got to keep working on it.

SPEAKER_4 (1:11)

Bill, when it comes to the offense and you look at the first half of the season, there's been some changes week to week, whether it's injuries, are you putting the best guys out there? Do you think that that's led to maybe some chemistry issues between Mack and the guys that he's working with out there week to week?

Bill Belichick (1:25)

Well, it's always good to put the, you know, have as much continuity as possible, but sometimes that's out of your control. So, that is what it is.

Greg Hill (1:37)

Going to the Mack Wilson offside's call, you were pretty heated. What were you arguing with the officials on that call?

Bill Belichick (1:46)

Well, there's a couple of things there, but first of all, I'm not sure it was in the neutral zone. You know, we talked about the placement of the ball before the game.

But looking at it last night, I'm not sure it was in the neutral zone. I mean, he flinched, but I don't think it was in the neutral zone.

SPEAKER_3 (2:07)

So when you have that situation, and I saw you guys obviously on the sideline, what's their explanation? Like, you know, we couldn't really tell from the angle that we were getting it on on the TV broadcast. Like, we couldn't really see if he was in the neutral zone.

But what's the explanation that they're giving when you can clearly say, especially the line judge is looking right down the line and going, he's not in the neutral zone. What's the referee's explanation, the officials?

Bill Belichick (2:34)

Well, you have to talk to the officials about what they saw or didn't see or whatever.

SPEAKER_4 (2:43)

It has felt like there's been inconsistencies week after week, though, when it comes to officiating, not just with the Patriots, but league-wise. Do you feel like there needs to be a change when it comes to making sure that things are by the book every week and everybody's on the same page?

Bill Belichick (2:58)

Well, I mean, you always want everything to be done as right as possible. So, that's us, game operation, officiating everything, yeah, everybody's trying to do the best job they can. But, yeah, I'd say the big thing we have to do is worry about what we can control and do a better job of that.

But certainly, there's other factors, they're out of our control.

SPEAKER_5 (3:21)

Bill, on what you can control, it does seem the team is lacking of discipline, whether it's tackling or penalties. Do you think it's a disciplined team?

Bill Belichick (3:32)

I think some of our fundamentals are, yeah, they're definitely inconsistent. And we need to be a better, more consistent, fundamental team. There's no doubt about that. We work on that every week, talk about it. Some things are improving, some things didn't show up.

Not every team in the league has missed tackles in every game. So but we had a couple of bad ones on the scramble play, obviously, hurt us.

Greg Hill (4:00)

The interception to end the game, is that a ball that Mac should have thrown?

Bill Belichick (4:06)

Well, yeah, it's a close play, hands on the ball.

SPEAKER_3 (4:16)

So when you talk about the missed tackles, I know it's got to be, or is it difficult because of the new kind of format in the sense of, you know, trying to play our safety and not being able to tackle as much in practice, whether that's throughout training camp during the week. Has that affected, like you said, it's just everybody throughout the league, they're just some of the tackling because of the new kind of practice schedule?