Patriots HC Bill Belichick

PATRIOTS HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK

POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

SEPTEMBER 17, 2023

BB: All right. Well, not too much to say after that one. You know, tough loss. But got to learn from it. And, you know, just keep working harder and move on. So there’s really not too much to say.

Q: Bill, on the last play with Cole Strange, did you get a good view of the play and how close Cole came? And did you get an explanation from the officials on what they saw to be able to overturn the call?

BB: Yeah, you should talk to the officials. I’m sure they’ll do a pool report on that.

Q: Bill, what can the team learn from this game?

BB: We learn from every game. We’ll learn from all of them.

Q: Seems like the slow starts are – you know, well, two games, but both games slow starts. To what do you attribute that – the slow starts?

BB: Can’t turn the ball over.

Q: Bill, what went into the decision to keep Demario Douglas off the field after his first quarter fumble?

BB: Yeah, we played all of our skill players. They all played.

Q: I don’t think we saw him take another offensive snap after that play.

BB: Look, we had a lot of production on offense. [DeVante] Parker had a good day. [Mike] Gesicki had a good day. Hunter [Henry] had a good day, JuJu [Smith-Schuster], KB [Kendrick Bourne]. So, you know, a lot of good players. Can’t play everybody.

Q: Bill, the Brenden Schooler blocked field goal was perfectly timed. Was that a designed thing? Did he come in from the sideline? Was he flexed out? Because the TV camera didn’t show where exactly he came from.

BB: Yeah, he timed it up – timed it up and hit it well. Made a good play, made a really good play on it.

Q: Bill, was the plan to not use Demario Douglas after the first half on offense?

BB: He returned punts.

Q: Well, on offense –

BB: We played all of our – yeah, look, we could talk about this every week. And there will be somebody that played less than somebody else. We’ve got a lot of skilled players.

Q: That seemed real – he didn’t get on offense after the fumble, though.

BB: Yeah, okay.

Q: Bill, it seemed defensively you guys sold out to kind of take away the deep pass and they didn’t connect many deep ones. But underneath, how difficult was it controlling their speed with the underneath stuff tonight?

BB: Yeah, we could have done a better job on some of those. So, yeah, I mean, they hit a few of them. And it was possession passes.

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