Patriots HC Bill Belichick

PATRIOTS HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK

PRESS CONFERENCE

October 16, 2023

Q: Did you get a chance to meet with any of your former players after the game, like Jakobi [Meyers], Brian [Hoyer] or Adam Butler?

BB: I didn’t get out of the locker room until late. I saw Josh [McDaniels].

Q: Wanted to just kind of get your feelings on how the starting over process worked in terms of better fundamental play, being more competitive and if you thought that was an effective approach and paid dividends, obviously not in the results, but in terms of some of the process stuff?

BB: Yeah, I think we definitely did some things better this week than we did last week or the week before that, but in the end, still not enough. But, we’ll keep working, keep grinding.

Q: You mentioned you had an opportunity to see some of the penalties last night. I was curious your thoughts on the [Hunter] Henry hold, which negated the touchdown, and also the PI they called on [Anfernee] Jennings but seemed to be more focused on J.C. Jackson?

BB: The calls are the calls. Look, this group calls a lot of penalties. They called a lot of penalties yesterday. That’s out of our control, other than trying to do things fundamentally as well as we can. Obviously, some of the penalties were all our fault, false starts, things like that. Some of the other ones, we have to play good fundamental football, and that’s what we’re trying to do.

Q: From a coaching standpoint, is there anything that you would coach Henry differently on that or J.C. Jackson on how he defended that play?

BB: Probably not too much.

Q: On the last offensive play for you guys, the play where Mac [Jones] took the safety in the end zone, obviously the pressure came on pretty quickly, but what are the coaching points on that play in terms of what Mac should try to do? Obviously, you want to avoid the sack there, but what do you want to see Mac try and do to avoid taking that sack in that spot?

BB: Yeah, unfortunately, there were a number of problems on that play. There were a couple of breakdowns we had, and so, we just didn’t do a good enough job on it, obviously.

Q: Has anything changed in your mind in regard to how you’re going to handle first-team snaps for quarterback heading into this next week, especially with Malik’s [Cunningham] status changing?

BB: We just got through with the game here. We can talk about next week’s game plan and all that. We’re not even close to that.

Q: On Malik, just curious what you saw from him during the leadup to this game that made you want to sign him to the roster officially rather than, say, using a game day elevation for him?

BB: Yeah, Malik’s improved a lot during the course of the year, both at receiver, in the kicking game and some of the snaps he’s taken at quarterback. Didn’t really get much of a chance to see him yesterday, and it was a tough situation. They made a good call, hit us on a perimeter blitz there. But, he’s been good to work with. He’s made a lot of improvement, and we’ll see where it goes.

Q: Going back to the Thanksgiving game against Minnesota last year, in every game since – except against the Jets – you guys have fallen behind by double digits, and it’s happened this year, 16-0, 17-3, yesterday as well, and obviously the Dallas and Saints games. What is it that’s happening at the start of games? Are you not prepared? Are the players not executing? Is this a coaching issue? Is it a talent issue? What is the issue?

BB: If I had the answer to that question, maybe it wouldn’t be that way. We’ve tried a number of different things, and we’ll keep working on it, and just keep working and try to get better. You’re right, it’s been hard to play from behind. That’s not the way you want to play in this league, or really in any competitive sport that I can think of. We’ve got to do a better job of that, there’s no doubt about it. We just have to do a better job. It’s a team thing. It’s not one particular thing, but when we get our opportunities early in the game, we just haven’t made the most of them, and we have to do a better job of that. It’s coaching, playing, all of the above.

Q: Does it at times kind of, for lack of a better word, trash the game plan to an extent? It changes and alters the way that you planned all week to play the game?

BB: It could. It could alter it a little bit, sure. It would depend on the circumstances, but it could. They do something that maybe you’re not expecting, and you’re not having much success, then how much do you want to keep doing that? I wouldn’t say that’s been the case very often, but it might be situational – third down, the running game, the red area, or it could pop up here or there. Just in general, obviously, we haven’t done a good job of getting control of the game early, and that’s made the rest of the game harder, for sure.

Q: How come you keep taking down the microphones at the beginning of postgame press conferences? They’ve got them all nice and set up. They were ready to go.

BB: So I can see you guys.

Q: Along those lines, how challenging have the last couple of years been for you? Particularly as you’re trying to find answers for this season, how has that kind of weighed on you as you’re trying to figure out where to get this year? Is it different than the seasons when you’re having a lot of success, or is it more process oriented?

BB: I’d say it’s very process oriented. The NFL’s week-to-week. Every week’s its own challenge. No matter what happened or didn’t happen the week before, it’s a whole new challenge the next week. That’s what the job is, and I enjoy that weekly challenge.

Q: Malik Cunningham again, you’ve said before that being a backup quarterback requires a lot of preparation and knowledge and time, and so forth. Do you feel that he’s there in terms of backing up the team? Or, is he more somebody you’d like to use in a consistent basis – you mentioned moving him around, wide receiver, and a down at quarterback here and there?

BB: Yeah, well, we’ll continue to evaluate that going forward.

Q: I know injuries are a fact of life in the NFL. Can it become difficult to do what you want to do on both sides of the ball when you’re just down as many bodies as you guys are?

BB: Well, again, you control what you can control. The guys that are out there have an opportunity, and some of them have worked hard and, in some cases, waited a while for that opportunity, so they’re excited to get it. We’d like to have as many healthy players as we possibly can. That’s always the goal, but unfortunately, every team, including us, deals with some players that aren’t available, and there’s great opportunities for other players?

Q: I know you’re not about moral victories, but how much do you view the fourth quarter as a building block going into Buffalo week?

BB: Each week’s its own week. So, we get ready for Buffalo. Buffalo’s different than Las Vegas. Every team’s different than the other team. So, I think you learn from the situations that you’re in. Maybe those come up again, maybe they don’t, maybe they come up in a similar but different way. Again, all of that’s just part of the game, part of learning, part of building a team. There were things that we learned from yesterday, in all situations, not just the fourth quarter. There were some positives but, in the end, we came up a little bit short. So, we have to do more. I think that’s the only way to look at it.

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