Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff
Generally, Bill Belichick’s most entertaining press conferences come Friday, and this week was no exception.
Wednesday is circus day in Foxboro, where pretty much every media outlet in New England invades Gillette Stadium to hear the coach and players speak for the first time about the upcoming game. The stories you read the rest of the week are usually gathered on this day and run Thursday through Sunday, as the smaller news outlets can’t send someone down the entire week.
The TV cameras are also out in full force on hump day, which kind of puts everyone on high alert not to say something inflammatory. You see, you can always claim you were misquoted or taken out of context in a newspaper story. That’s harder to do when your face and voice are on video. So as a result, Belichick and the leaders of the team, always cautious not to rile up the opposition or say the wrong thing, get even more tight lipped. Woe is the rookie or young veteran who dares speak his mind.
By Friday, only the real hard-core beat writers and football junkies are there (very rarely are the television crews), the ones the coach and players are most familiar and comfortable with. As a result, the atmosphere is more relaxed…the serious X’s and O’s stuff has already been discussed…and the conversations turn somewhat reflective and nostalgic. Such was the case on this day, as Belichick touched on a number of interesting topics you rarely hear him discuss.
Rather than bore those of you who don’t care, I won’t publish every word here. But if you want to hear Belichick talk about players skipping out on curfew, whether he has a favorite Super Bowl, the Bills dynasty of the early ‘90’s, or how facing them with the Giants compared to facing the Rams in the ’01 Super Bowl, click on the link at the end of this post.
(Hint: It's the tiny blue script on the bottom left that says "continue reading Bill's Blurbs"...then scroll down a bit....Hey! We're trying some new technology here...work with me!)
As for my single favorite quote of the day, here’s BB talking about getting to 4 consecutive Super Bowls only to have lost them all:
"I’m sure for whatever good feelings they have about getting there, they had more disappointment about having not won those games. I'm not saying it isn’t better to be there. It’s better to have loved and lost than to not loved at all. I'm sure it's better to have been in the Super Bowl and lost than to not be there at all. Anybody I've talked that has lost that game, and I’ve been a part of that one time, it still doesn't give you a very good feeling even in the offseason."
Pretty good quote for a normally reserved guy, wouldn’t you say? How about those of you who read the rest of it…was there anything you found interesting there? Anything revealing about the coach? I get the feeling he wasn’t particularly impressed with the Bills run there.
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK
PRESS CONFERENCE
October 20, 2006
Q: Did you stay up late watching the St. Louis game last night?
BB: I did see the end of the game. What a game. What a game. What a catch. Well, I’m happy for Tony [La Russa]. I’m really happy for Tony. I know he works hard. The team plays hard. It was a great series. Like I said, I’m not against anybody. I’m just for Tony.
Q: Is that shirt a good luck charm?
BB: Well, we have a lot of people in this building pulling for another team. They will go nameless. We’ll go nameless on that. I’m sure I’d be looking at a whole lot of Mets gear though if that game had turned out differently. But anyway, we’re trying to focus a little more on football today. What are you guys working on?
Q: How has the week been? A good week?
BB: Yes. They’re a team that we know well and had a lot of problems with. We started working on them a little bit last week and [we’re] trying to do some things just on our end that generically we need to do, but it has certainly been more Buffalo specific this week. We'll find out Sunday.
Q: Can you gauge during the week on how you’ll be on Sunday?
BB: I wish I could. It’s hard, but I do believe in practice and preparation. I think the better that is, then I know the better chances we have for success. That doesn't guarantee anything. The other team is practicing hard. They're working hard too. But I know when it's bad during the week, it's never great during the game. It might be, you might get by with one every now and then, but long term that's not the way to do it.
Q: How much does your regimen vary from road trip to road trip?
BB: We try to keep everything pretty much the same. We try to keep it pretty much the same. Our Saturday schedule in the morning is usually the same whether we travel or play at home. Then our Sunday schedule during the day it’s basically as much the same as we can make it, if it’s a one o'clock game, a four o'clock game, 8 o’clock game, whatever. We have a night meeting Saturday night, home or away. We have Saturday morning meetings and walkthrough, home or away. It’s just a question on Saturday afternoon whether we travel or whether we’re here at the home hotel. There's always a couple of logistical things. For the most part we try to keep it as consistent a week as we can, regardless of where the game is being played.
Q: Since you’ve been in the league, has there always been a constant with road trips? Were they always broken down the same way?
BB: I've been with teams where it wasn’t, where the home games were quite a bit different than the away games. I've been in situations where the team didn't stay at a hotel the night before the game on home games. They stayed home and obviously that's different when you travel. There were things like that. I don't think there's any necessarily right or wrong way to do it. I think you can make anything work depending on what you believe in and what your philosophy is and the team understands it and everybody is on the same page with it. There’s a lot of different ways to do it, but that’s just kind of the way we've done it. We’re comfortable with it and it seems to work. It works for me. I think it’s the best way for me and it’s the best way for us, but we always talk about it. If there is something that we can do to improve it, then we’ll try to change it. We took the train down to New York a couple of years ago. We did that on that trip. It's nothing set in stone. Sometimes we've gone on Fridays instead of Saturdays on certain games. Like I said, I don't think there's anything that we’re locked in on, but for the most part we try to maintain the consistency unless there’s some reason to change it.
Q: Have you every had a problem with a guy sneaking out on a Saturday night in your career?
BB: Well, I think anytime you have a large group of people you need to have some type of way to manage that group within a certain set of rules and/or policies. Usually situations are different. There’s not necessarily every situation is the same. It's hardly ever that way. Whatever it is, then I deal with it accordingly. If there's a problem then we would address it. I've been on teams where there have been problems on road trips. There have been problems on home games and problems during the week. As they come up then you deal with them.
Q: Is the reality is that different guys get different treatment? I’m sure Lawrence Taylor kept a different schedule that others didn’t get, but you had to have that guy on the field, right?
BB: As an assistant coach, most of the time I wasn't involved in those types of decisions. Those are handled between the player and the head coach. Again, a lot of times there are circumstances that as an assistant coach you're not totally aware of that could be involved when you have a lot of players. I would just say that in situations where I've been a head coach, I've tried to deal with the situations with regard to the team in the best way that I could and to be as fair as I could to everybody involved. Sometimes things come up, but on the other hand we all have a responsibility and obligation to the team and that's how you try to manage it and balance it. I don't know if there’s any book on, ‘This is the way you do it.’ because again there are some situations that are just gray, even though there are policies and so forth. Sometimes there's some gray area in there for one reason or other and sometimes there isn’t. That makes the decision a lot easier. A lot of times when you make a decision like that not everybody is happy, but that's part of the decision and part of the job of the head coach.
Q: Is it typically more of a headache in a place like Miami or New Orleans versus Buffalo?
BB: No, I don't think so. I don't think there's any set formula for anything. In my years as a head coach, overall, I don't really feel like there have been very many problems. There's a lot of other things that I spend a lot more time on that are a lot more of an issue for me than stuff like that. I would say it's one percent, maybe if that, of the total picture for me. Probably not even one percent. Whereas there’s other things that are 10, 20 30 percent that are multiple times more time consuming and more of a problem, more difficult than those. But, sometimes there could be an issue. I think you have to have a policy and you have to handle it.
Q: Where would you put Buffalo in terms of the kicking game and being the most challenging place to kick in the league?
BB: It’s a tough place to kick. The conditions, we've played in all different type of conditions there. We've played in snow. We've played in rain. We've played in heavy winds. We’ve played in cold and we’ve had a couple of hot, warm days there where the ball really carries. Buffalo is as good as anybody in the kicking game. They’re strong in every phase of the game – kicking, coverage, returns, rushes, blocked a punt against Miami. They’ve come very close to blocking four or five this year. They pretty much either get one or are very close to getting one in every single game. Their field goal rush is good. They’re strong in every area. They have good players. They’re well coached. I think Bobby April continues to do a good job there. They’re strong every year in every phase of the game. That’s a big challenge for us and the conditions are also challenging too, especially with a guy like [Brian] Moorman who can probably kick the ball as far as any punter in the league. He can change field position on a 65, 70-yard punt, which very few guys can do. We’ve also seen situations with him where he can take off and run on a fake and run for 20 or 30 yards. He’s fast. There are a lot of things when you put it all together, and Buffalo’s special teams, between their coaching their talent, and as you said the conditions in Buffalo, that make it a very critical part of the game.
Q: Is it harder to kick in Buffalo than here?
BB: Well it depends on the day. You could pick out some days here or some days there. It depends what you’re compare them against. But, they’re a challenge and it's almost never just a warm, still day. We had the opener there, of course we never had a kick in that game, but you get a warm, still day, there's not very many of those in Buffalo. Here we are early October and they got two feet of snow last week. So you have to be ready for anything. But it's almost always windy there, just like it's almost always windy here and at The Meadowlands. Those are places where you can pretty much count on some degree of wind. It’s not always the same way either. A lot of times there are crosswinds, but we've been in downfield winds as well.
Q: How close is Chad Jackson to making an impact?
BB: He's the same as every other player on the team. He prepares every week. He is ready to play. I couldn't tell you what any of our players are going to do this week. That's why we’re going to play the game. He'll be ready to go.
Q: He said that knowing a play and executing it at game speed are two different things. What kinds of strides has he made in that area?
BB: I think Chad has made good strides since he's been out on the field. He basically missed the whole preseason and training camp and has been able to practice on a regular basis and improve consistently since the start of the regular season. He’s certainly coming along a lot faster than he did in training camp because he's been out on the field more consistently. Now he's still learning the plays and was in the walkthroughs and I think it was still valuable learning for him, but it's still not as good as being able to actually go out there and do it. He's been able to do that. That’s good. It’s good to have as many out there as possible and we’ve had more lately. That’s been a positive.
Q: Is he limited to any particular sets?
BB: Not that I know of. Again, there are certain things that by game plan are set up one way or another, but no there isn't anything that, ‘He can’t do this. He can’t do that.’ No. Again, by personnel groups and by play and so forth, we have a number of players who we feel are talented and we utilize them in certain formations and certain plays. It doesn't mean other people can't do them. It just means that sometimes a play that Kevin Faulk is in there for doesn’t mean that [Corey] Dillon or [Laurence] Maroney can’t do it. That’s a play that we have Kevin Faulk in there for. Just because Dillon is in there doesn’t mean that Maroney or Faulk can’t do it. It’s the same thing at receiver.
Q: Are you looking at him in one spot right now or is he able to do more?
BB: In any skill position, you don't have enough guys and everybody is going to have know more than one spot. The tight end had to know both spots. The receiver has to know at least two spots, in some cases he's responsible for three. The guy that plays one spot is the quarterback.
Q: Are you guys going to be okay when [Bill] Polian comes here?
BB: Stacey, are you in charge of that? I’ll refer that one over to you.
Q: Have you warned your personnel to keep their distance?
BB: No. I haven't talked to anybody about it.
Q: There was a report that you guys petitioned the league to provide security or make sure that he stayed away.
BB: [Stacey’s] your man.
Q: Do you see teams throwing a little bit more to [Terrence] McGee’s now? Is that maybe a product of how Nate Clements is playing?
BB: They're both tough. It's like we've talked about before. You could take any corner in the league and find some plays where passes were completed. You can find every receiver that has dropped the ball or run a bad route. But I think that McGee is a good football player. He's a good tackler. He's a good cover player. He's fast. He's quick. Clements is a good corner too. They have two good corners that can tackle, that can support the run, that are fast and cover the deep ball and they have the quickness to break up the short and intermediate routes. Again, part of the problem with the Buffalo’s secondary is you run short routes and those guys are very sure tacklers and they come up and there's not a lot of yards after the catch. I think they have two really good corners. I think that McGee is a really good corner. He is obviously the best kickoff returner in the league. He adds a lot of value to their team. He's had a couple of plays that I'm sure he'd like to have back. He's an aggressive player and he's been beaten on a stop and go or a double move type of route. There's very few times where he's not right there on a receiver. Even if you complete a pass against Buffalo's corners, it has to be a good route, a good throw and a good catch. There's very few times where they're very far off their coverage.
Q: With that said, has Clements gotten to the level where he is the type of corner that a team will avoid throwing at?
BB: In Buffalo's secondary, you have to be careful about any player you throw on. You just have to be careful that you have a good read and you run a good route. If you run a bad route against them or make a bad throw, they’re going to make you pay the price. That's just the way they are. They’re fast. They’re quick and they make plays. If a receiver runs a crummy route and the defender undercuts it and reads it, then they’ll make the play. If the quarterback makes a crummy throw, those guys, they have the speed and quickness to make up for the coverage and get the ball. You need to be sharp in the passing game against them if you're going to throw the ball successfully. They’re underneath coverage is fast. [Angelo] Crowell and [Takeo] Spikes and [London] Fletcher – they cover a lot of ground underneath there. In their zone coverages, it’s the same thing. You have to have good spacing, good distribution on the pattern and do a good job of throwing and catching the ball. They really don't give up a lot a yards after the catch. They're a good tackling secondary. They're a good tackling team. A lot of times whatever the guy gets on the throw and the catch, that's pretty close to the end of the play. They don't give up a lot of extra yards. I'm not saying they don't give up any, but relative to other teams I'd say they give up a lot less than most. They’re a good tackling team.
Q: I know they didn’t win any of them, but how impressive it is that Buffalo went to four straight Super Bowls? It hasn’t been done by any other team.
BB: I don't know. I guess it's good to be there and not be eliminated earlier.
Q: How hard is it to set that standard in your conference? There’s a lot that goes into that.
BB: I guess that's good. But when you play in that game, there’s only one champion. I’m sure for whatever good feelings they have about getting there, they had more disappointment about having not won those games. I'm not saying it isn’t better to be there. It’s better to have loved and lost than to not loved at all. I'm sure it's better to have been in the Super Bowl and lost than to not be there at all. Anybody I've talked that has lost that game, and I’ve been a part of that one time, it still doesn't give you a very good feeling even in the offseason. You're so close, but then to come up short, it's a tremendous disappointment when you're in that situation. You want to get there, but that's when you don't want to lose.
Q: Is that maybe the best team that you saw that didn't win a Super Bowl over a long period of time?
BB: I don't know. They had a talented team. Only one of those games was really a competitive game though, right? The game against the Giants. The rest of them, I don't even think it was [close]. 55-10. Whatever they were. There were a couple of them though that weren’t even really very competitive.
Q: Was that one competitive game something you look back on?
BB: Sure. That was a tremendous season for us. I don't know that we were the most talented team in the league that year, but we played the best and that's what championships are about. We played well in some big games at critical times. The win out in San Francisco the week before. That was against a really good football team and then a one-week Super Bowl traveling down to Tampa with everything that was going on with security and so forth. There were a lot of distractions down there. Buffalo was a team that had beaten us at the right end of the regular season in Giants Stadium and we had a lot of respect for them and we played a really good football game all the way around. We played well on defense. We played well on offense. We controlled the ball. I'm not saying we totally shut them down defensively, but again that's a very explosive offensive team. To hold them to 19 points was hard. They had a good quarterback. A good running back. Good receivers. Good tight end. A really good offensive line. It was a very talented offensive team, as they continued to produce through the next four years as well. It was a great feeling for our team, obviously, to win and like I said, for those of us that have more than one child, they are all special. Five Super Bowls, they've all been special. I wouldn't want to be without any of them. It's hard to put one over the other because they're all special, but that was a special year. Losing [Phil] Simms. We were 10-1, and we lose Simms for the year. Who’s your starting quarterback? [Jeff] Hostetler came in. It looked like it was going to be kind of a bumpy road there toward the latter third of the season. We had some great players. They were able to come through and make plays at critical times in the game and we were able to win them. That's the way it always is if you win.
Q: What was your vantage point on the field goal kick at the end?
BB: I was right there at midfield. I couldn't really see whether it was going to be in or not. It looked like it had the distance. Once I saw our guys jumping around it was...that was the play when [Thurman] Thomas broke the draw. Probably the biggest play for us was Everson Walls making that tackle in the open field on Thomas. Everson was a good football player and had 56 career interceptions and all of that, but I wouldn't say that he was known necessarily for his tackling. I’m not saying it was bad, but I wouldn’t say that was the best thing that he did. That was a huge tackle on Thomas. What was it 47 [yards]? How long was it? 47. Out there in practice in ideal conditions, that's a pretty tough kick. Then you put everything else into it and he didn't miss it by much. That's probably about what separated the two teams. A few inches.
Q: Not to take anything away from that game, but subsequently how Buffalo played in that game, Thurman Thomas not having his helmet, just the uncompetitive nature of some of those games, does that speak to what that team was? Was it there something flawed about that Buffalo team?
BB: I don't know. You have to ask them about that. I don't know what all happened. I'm sure that they had a lot higher expectations than what they were able to produce in those other games. I'm sure they had higher expectations in our game. Like I said, they beat us in Giants Stadium, whatever it was, a month before that, or six weeks before, whatever it was. They were a good football team. To come into Giants Stadium and win. We didn't have too many of those games back in those days. We were pretty good at home. We knew right away. We knew getting ready for them about the no huddle offense. That was something that [Ted] Marchibroda just started running during the year, that year, it had picked up and they had a lot of success with it. As the years went on, at least you could kind prepare for it and know it was coming. Not that we didn't know it was coming in the Super Bowl, but again it was something they really had only been doing for about eight or nine weeks or whatever it was. It was a very challenging offensive team to prepare for.
Q: Were they at all similar to preparing for the Rams 11 years later?
BB: Well similar, but different. The Rams, they didn’t run the huddle attack, but they were every bit as explosive offensively as Buffalo was. Absolutely. With their quarterback and the running back and the receiver corps that they had, as fast as they were. They kind of had a different style of game, but they were every bit as explosive. I felt like playing against Buffalo in the ’90 Super Bowl and then playing against the Rams in ’01, they could have the ball on their own two yard line and you’d feel like they were about to score. Even though they’re 98 yards away, one pass to [Isaac] Bruce. One pass to James [Lofton]. One run by [Marshall] Faulk. One pass to [Andre] Reed. One draw to Thurman Thomas. One seam to [Pete] Metzelaars. You felt like they were on their one-yard line even though they were 80 yards away on every single snap. That's the way I felt with St. Louis. Every play they were about to score, even though they could have been 65 yards away. That's the kind of offense they have. The difference with Faulk is Faulk was really a great pass receiver. He was a wide receiver for the Colts when he played for them and they split him out. He was their best receiver. So you talk about a team’s top receiver. I know they have Bruce and [Ricky] Proehl and [Torry] Holt and all of those guys and Az-[Zahir] Hakim, but then you take a back that had the receiving skills that Faulk had put him into the equation, as a back, and God, who do you double? Who do you stop? It’s hard. So those are two great offensive football teams. Two very explosive offensive football teams that we faced. Yes, they're similar in that way.
Buffalo had their streak ended at 10 games, losing Saturday night in a shoot out to Atlanta. The Sabres now share the best record to start a season with the 1993 Maple Leafs. It was an amazing run for Buffalo and don't be surprised if they go back on a winning streak, hey maybe, just maybe, the Bruins can capitalize and serve Buffalo another loss Thursday night at the Garden ... I can hope can't I?....
Speaking of the Bruins... Captain Zdeno Chara led his team to victory over his old squad, Ottawa, Saturday at the Garden. One thing that impressed me was the Bs actually skated for 60 minutes and the only goal they allowed was the full 5-on-3 penalty kill ... Tim Thomas looked pretty solid in net, but I'm still not ready to call Belfour to order the rings and wait outside Gov't Center to see the Cup hoisted.....
The Flyers are now officially last in the entire league with a record of 2-7-1 for 5 
Speaking of the Pens... Sidney Crosby got his first career hat trick in the game and his counter part, Evgeni Malkin registered his 5th goal in as many games. Pittsburgh sits in second place in their division (1-point behind the Devils). Who would have guessed the Penguins would have gone from worst in the league last year to what they have done thus far....
Joe Thornton scored his first goal of the season in San Jose's 4-2 win over Tampa Bay Saturday night. Thornton has 13 assists to go along with his lone goal this season so far....
The Devils erased the memory of a 6-4 loss in Springfield Friday night when they beat the same team 4-1 at the Tsongas Saturday afternoon. A scary moment came when Captain Dan McGillis went down in the second with a stick to the face. McGillis returned for the 3rd and after the game this is what he had to say about it...
The Baby Bs won both their contests this past weekend with a 5-4 shoot out win over Bridgeport and 7-4 at Portland.
Talking to McGillis after the Devils game I realized how much he still cares about his roots.
The Riverhawks skated to a 2-2 tie with Providence Saturday night at the Tsongas after defeating BU 2-1 the night before. BU will look to get revenge when they take on Lowell Friday night at the Tsongas. The Riverhawks currently sit in second place in Hockey East with 3 points, just one behind BU.
Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
The Bs won their home opener, but got killed by the outstanding Sabres, Saturday night 6-2; I have said all along that Hannu Toivonen is not a #1 goalie - but hey what do I know? I have also said from the beginning of training camp that the one thing that truly worried me about this club is the goaltending tandem and my worries have not gone away - yes again, I know it's early in the season - but the Bs have two back-up goalies on their roster and until they change that - I'm very skeptical of this team making it to the playoffs. Believe me I still "BLEED BLACK AND GOLD" but I am not delusional. The Bs don't hit the ice again until Thursday when Montreal comes to town- welcome back Sammy....
The Eagles split their weekend games with a 7-1 loss to Notre Dame and a 5-1 victory over Bowling Green. Boston College is off to a 2-1 start thus far; they beat, well, NU for their first Hockey East game of the season with all of their graduated players in the stands cheering them on....
The Terriers are off to a great start in Hockey East beating Merrimack 4-1 this weekend. Boston University is 2-0-1 overall with the 2 victories coming in Hockey East match-ups (yes, they beat my Huskies)....
OH, and for the record - I did watch the Bruins in 2 for both the Calgary and Buffalo games - it's great to hear Dale Arnold again! I may not agree with everything Dale has to say on WEEI - like when he still says that Hal "No Skills" Gill got more booing than he deserved in Boston or that trading Andrew Raycroft was a good thing for the Bs, but again I LOVE the way he calls the Bs' games. Thank God, it's a 6-game home stand- I need a break from the forever dull and well, annoying Jack Edwards...
Once again, THE best picture of Hal Gill ever...LOL
Telfair was at Justin’s restaurant, not a club, having dinner with his fiancee around 10 p.m. when he went outside alone to move his car and had his chain stolen from him.