Postgame Transcript – PS1 NYG – Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
August 11, 2022
BB: Well, that was a good competitive night for us. We thought we got a lot of good work in, in all three phases of the game. Obviously got to look at a lot of people that haven’t played a lot for us, and so whatever their individual situation was, that was really the common theme with all those players. Good to be out there, good to be playing and going through that process. There’s a lot of things we’ll learn from tonight and work on this week and try and improve next week in the next game opportunity we have. I thought the players responded well to the competition, and it was a pretty evenly matched game, a lot of good situations, and a lot we can learn from, so that’s what we’ll do.
Q: Bill, just your thoughts on Bailey Zappe coming in? Obviously struggled a little bit earlier in the first half but to calm down and play the way he did in the second half, what are your thoughts on his performance tonight?
BB: I thought he was calm all night. Again, we’re all going to learn from things. He’ll learn from things. He made some good plays. There’s some other things that – it’s part of the learning process.
Q: We saw both Matt Patricia and Joe Judge taking turns on play call duty tonight on the offense. Is that the plan moving forward, having them switch back and forth, and do you plan on naming a single guy or going with both?
BB: Yeah, well, we did this game. We did a lot of things in this game that are going to be beneficial in the long run, whether it was on the coaching staff, playing time, playing positions, players that played and so forth. That’s all part of the process.
Q: Bill, what were some of the benefits of having Joe and Matt call plays tonight?
BB: I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to do that.
Q: Do you know if one will call plays when the regular season arrives?
BB: Yeah, don’t worry about that. We’ll work it out.
Q: Have you decided?
BB: We’re going through a process. Just like everything else on this team.
Q: I know you released a statement earlier, but just on James White, kind of how that went with the team. I don’t know if he talked to the team or how they found out, and what do you think the reaction was from the guys on the roster?
BB: I talked to James, and I conveyed his decision to the team. That was a few days ago. And then James released a statement today. I’m sure he’ll have more to say about that. I’ll leave that to him. Look, he was a tremendous player for us, tremendous person. There’s not enough complimentary things to say about James or we’d be here all night and still have time left over. Ultimate team player, huge in big games, as professional as they come, and on and on and on. But respect his decision and I’ll leave any comments about his decision to him.
Q: Can you talk about the play of your special teams, the return game, and how that can add a spark to your football team?
BB: Yeah, it’s always good to see those guys get some opportunities. I think both teams kind of wanted to kick and cover, the plus 50 is the plus 50 because there wasn’t as much situational kicking, so it gave everybody a good chance to rush the punts, return the punts, cover the kickoffs, return the kickoffs and all that. Just part of the evaluation. Again, I think there were some good things, some things I’m sure we could do better. Again, there wasn’t a lot of, like in the area of scheming. We were just running our basic things, they’re running their basic things and evaluating the players and how they did. Myles [Bryant] had a couple nice runs in there, so that was good to see.
Q: We saw David Andrews, seemed like he was kind of acting as a leader on the sideline, talking to the offensive line…
BB: He’s a five-time team captain. I wouldn’t say that’s a big surprise.
Q: I just wondered with Matt Patricia kind of rotating through, did you all ask David Andrews to do that or did he just take the initiative?
BB: No, we had good leadership from all our veteran players, a whole lot of different guys out there. They were great on the sideline, encouraging the players who were playing and trying to help them out. Coaches were trying to do their job but at the same time the veteran players were very supportive, with great instruction and help. I’ll go right down the line. There’s a lot of guys that didn’t play, and I know I noticed many, many of them if not all of them being part of that. That was kind of their role tonight, and I thought they did a good job with it.
Q: Can you talk about Tyquan Thornton’s touchdown? It looked like he got pretty good separation there.
BB: Yeah, in a scramble I thought he just came back out of the route when Brian [Hoyer] scrambled to his right and Tyquan came back out, and that was a good red area scramble play. It’s fairly common. Those happen a lot. But they did a nice job executing it.
Q: Yodny Cajuste obviously didn’t play a lot his first few years, but it looked like he played well in training camp and it looked like he played well tonight before he got hurt. What have you seen from him so far this summer?
BB: Yeah, this is the best camp he’s had. He’s been very competitive and worked hard in the offseason and is in good condition, so we’ll see how things turn out here, but it’s good to have him back out there, and hopefully what he had tonight isn’t serious.
Q: How did you feel the communication went offensively with both Matt and Joe relaying signals in there tonight?
BB: Yeah, I didn’t think the communication was a problem. We had 12 men on defense on one play, but otherwise the play clock was pretty – we had plenty of time for the most part. We had a couple injuries and a couple substitution issues, but overall, those are more – it wasn’t the operation, it was a guy being heard or a substitute because that caused some other substitution things, so we can clean that up a little bit, but I thought we were on the ball quickly, had plenty of time to operate. We had to audible a few times and were able to do that. There’s plenty of room for improvement. I’m not saying we’re there yet, but getting there.
Q: You mentioned earlier with the offensive play caller you’re going through a process. What do you need to see?
BB: I don’t need to see anything, just we’re going through a process. Simple as that.
Q: It’s just a little bit of an unusual situation for us that have watched you guys before –
BB: What do you want me to do?
Q: I guess we’re just looking for a little clarity as to why we’re seeing what we’re seeing.
BB: Great. Yeah. Going through a process.
Transcripts are provided by the Patriots media relations department as a courtesy to the media and are edited for readability. All press conferences are posted and archived in their entirety on patriots.com. The duplication or posting of this transcript in its entirety as original content is prohibited. Media are encouraged to link to the complete transcript on patriots.com when sharing full quotes with their audiences.
–PATRIOTS–