Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Belichick questioned on Spygate
Courtesy of the New England Patriots
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK
PRESS CONFERENCE
September 12, 2007
BB: First of all, I think everybody has a copy of the statement that I made a little bit earlier this morning. Really, until we get a ruling from the league, I don’t think there is anything more that I have to add to it. We’ll just move on to San Diego. Watching the tape on the game from Chicago and going through the preseason, and back to our game last year, I think there’s a lot of similarities from the team that we faced in January, but there are also a lot of differences and a lot of things we have to get ready for. A lot of their key personnel is back but with a different coaching staff, a little different system, some different emphasis points, but they’re a very explosive team in all three phases of the game. They’re a very physical team. So that will be a big challenge for us this week. I think we have some familiarity with at least playing against a 3-4 defense, but they play it very well. They led the league on first down last year. They’re very hard to run against. They had a lot of turnovers against the Bears and I’m sure that [Ron] Rivera is part of that coming over from Chicago with that type of mentality. We know they can put a lot of points on the board. They’re good in the red area and they’re explosive on special teams. A big week ahead of us and they’re a good football team.
Q: Do you worry at all if this incident is going to be a distraction?
BB: We have a big week here with the Chargers. We know that. That’s what we’re working on.
Q: When you spoke with Roger [Goodell], did he give you an indication of when the decision would be made?
BB: I don’t have anything to add. I’m sorry; I’ve said all I can say about it for right now. When something comes in, I’ll have another comment on it. Until then, I don’t have anything to add.
Q: Are you making any contingencies in the event that you are suspended and unable to coach the game on Sunday?
BB: I don’t have anything else to add. I’ve said all that I can say for right now.
Q: Are you embarrassed by it?
BB: Are there any questions about the Chargers? Do you want to talk about the football game? That statement pretty much covers it for me.
Q: Do you think you put the players in a tough situation?
BB: I think we’re getting ready for San Diego, that’s what we do on Wednesday. That’s what we’re doing today. Okay, any questions about the game?
Q: How are you going to shut down LaDainian Tomlinson?
BB: It’s not just him. It’s [Michael] Turner. It’s [Darren] Sproles. They have a great running game, a good offensive line, he’s a very explosive guy, not just in the running game, but also as we saw, and the Bears saw, and everybody else has seen, screen passes, passes out of the backfield, so he’s tough. He’s a tough guy to stop. You just hope you can slow him down. He’s tough.
Q: Were his comments a concern as well?
BB: I think the Chargers are a concern. Their football team is a concern. That’s what we’re concerned about. Whatever happens out there Sunday night out there on the field, that’s when everybody will make their statement. We’ll try to put our best game out there. I’m sure they’ll put their best game out there and we’ll see what happens.
Q: Every week obviously making the proper fits in the running game is important, but is it heightened this week with a guy like LaDainian Tomlinson?
BB: Of course. Absolutely, because he has great vision, he can see them all and of course when he cracks the line of scrimmage, he has the ability to go all the way. Some weeks it could be a six or an eight yard run. This week it could be a touchdown, it could be 80 yards.
Q: Is that something that you’re going to really stress to the guys?
BB: Absolutely. It has to be team defense. It’s all 11 players. Everybody has to do their job and he has the ability to find that weakness, find that crack in the armor, if he gets into the secondary, if we don’t play proper leverage on there or tackle him well in the secondary, he’ll take it all the way to the house. It’s all 11 guys. They’re going to be really challenged this week in the running game.
Q: Do you have to guard against over pursuit because they are so aware of LT and they want to get to the spot where they think they’re supposed to be? Do you just tell guys, ‘Listen, just play your fit. Don’t try to do anything outside of the ordinary to bring this guy down?’
BB: Well, believe it or not, that’s what we usually try to do. We try to get everybody to take care of their job. That’s right. If you try to get to somewhere where you think he’s going to be, then that’s when he cuts back into your gap. Again, I don’t want to underestimate Turner or Sproles or anybody else they have carrying the ball. If you look at the end of the Chicago game when they were ahead, they just gave it to Turner and Turner put the game away. They have a great running game no matter who the back is. Certainly Tomlinson is the marquee guy, I’m not saying that, but they’re all hard to stop.
Q: How are the Norv Turner Chargers any different from what they were last year?
BB: Are you talking about offensively or defensively?
Q: Across the board.
BB: Well, defensively, it’s a new coordinator obviously with Wade [Phillips] in Dallas and Ted Cottrell and Ron coming over from the Bears. They’ve had a lot of turnovers in preseason. They turned the ball over against the Bears. Again, a lot of the fundamentals of the 3-4 are the same, but I think the way they run some of their zone blitzes and a couple of their coverages and all of that, there are some subtle changes from what Wade and Ted do. Norv’s offense is Norv’s offense. We’ve seen that at Dallas, at Washington, at Oakland. He has a very comprehensive style of play. He’s well balanced. They run the ball. They throw it. They throw it deep. They challenge you in the deep part of the field. All of those elements are there that he has. It’s a little bit different from what Marty [Schottenheimer] did, although there’s certainly some carryover, but it’s different. The kicking game, it’s the same coach, Steve Crosby is there and a lot of the same cast of characters, [Kassim] Osgood and Sproles and so forth. There’s some subtle changes there too. Overall, this is a good football team. They beat the Bears, who we know are a good football team, were last year. I’m sure they will be ready for us.
Q: The Chargers were pretty agitated after last year’s loss. You must imagine that they would come in very much on an emotional high. How do you prepare your team for a team that would potentially come in here going 110 miles per hour?
BB: I think that’s what you expect every week. I think every week you go into a game you expect the opponent to be at their best, playing their best football and charged up to beat you. That’s the way we try to be every week. I think that’s what you’re ready for every week. I’m sure both teams will go out there and try to play their best and put their best game out there, but that’s what we expect on a weekly basis. That’s what we want to try to do.
Q: At times like this, do you think your team’s ability to focus and eliminate distraction would serve it well?
BB: I think every week we have our own challenges. Each game is a challenge and each team is a challenge. Certainly San Diego is one of the best teams in the league. They’re good in every phase of the game. I think we’re challenged to prepare for them and to do as much as we can between now and Sunday to be ready to go and then Sunday to play our best game.
Q: Is there more emphasis on the game San Diego just played than other games because there is a new coaching staff?
BB: That’s a tough question. It really is. It’s something we’ve talked a lot about as a staff – how much will they do the things that they were successful doing against us last year this year, or how much do they not really care about last year because they have their own program. I think we have to be respectful of all of that, certainly what they did in preseason and in the Bears game is very important because that’s this coaching staff, it’s their system, it’s their plays. Were there some things that worked well against us in the last game, yes, so I think we better keep our eye on those things too because it will be very easy for them to say, ‘Hey, let’s go back and do this, that looked pretty good.’ To me it’s not quite like opening day, but it’s the second week. There are still a lot of balls in the air - how much have they held back that they didn’t use against the Bears that will show up in the second week, how much of what we saw in preseason was really them, how much of that was just their basic stuff but their going to modify it, how much will they go back to last year. As you go through the first month of the season, I think there’s progressively less of that each week, but I think that element is still there until you get to about that first quarter of the season. Then you have four regular season games to go with and I think that’s pretty solid.
Q: The stuff that San Diego was successful at against you last year, is that stuff that Norv Turner usually used?
BB: Well some of it is the same. I think some of the things that San Diego hurt us with last year that they’re doing this year, there’s no doubt we’re going to see those and a lot of other things that they’ve had success with in preseason and in the Chicago game. I think there are other plays and formations and some matchups that the Chargers hurt us with in the playoff game that I could see them looking at them and say, ‘Hey that looked pretty good, let’s do that this year,’ or they might look at it and say, ‘Yes, that was good, that’s what they do, but that’s not really what we do. We have some other ideas.’ I’d say a little bit of both.
Q: When you signed Adalius Thomas, I know a huge part of it was his versatility, but was it also in particular his ability to cover guys in the conference like [Antonio] Gates and [Dallas] Clark because you’ve had some trouble with those guys in the past? Was that big for you?
BB: I think it was the total package with Adalius. It wasn’t for one game or one player. His work ethic, his toughness, his versatility defensively and in the kicking game, he has some pass rush skill, he has some coverage skill, he can play the run. He’s a good pursuit player. He has a lot of strengths and I think you take the total package of the player and that’s what you get.
Q: With his size-speed combination and you have all of these tight ends in the league now, you have [Tony] Gonzalez and Gates and Clark that have a size-speed combination that’s really tough to matchup, maybe he’s the type of player who can do it and maybe is as capable of doing it as anyone in the league.
BB: Well, I think Adalius is competitive against a lot of players. I think one of the problems with Gates, particularly in Norv’s offense this year, is finding him. You don’t know where he’s going to be. A lot of times he’s split out of the backfield, he can line up as the ‘x’, he lines up as the ‘z’, sometimes he lines up as a second tight end, sometimes he’s on the line, sometimes he’s in the backfield, sometimes he shifts and motions. Maybe by the middle of the game, it will be a different story, but I think at this point it would be hard to sit there and say, ‘Okay, this is where Gates is going to be. This is how we’re going to handle him.’ We don’t really know where he’s going to be because they move him around quite a bit and they have different personnel groups and he moves around within each group too. It’s not just like, ‘Okay, they have two tight ends on the field. Here’s where he’s going to be.’ They have two tight ends in there and he could in any one of three spots. They have three wide receivers in there and you have to find him. You kind of have to find him no matter who they have in there. They make you work for it.
Q: Is there a lot of carryover because the two of them worked together between Norv’s offense and Cam [Cameron’s] offense?
BB: I think there are some similarities. I think there is some carryover, but I think there are some differences too. How much they’re the same and how much they’re different I really think you would need to see four or five regular season games to know the answer to that question for sure. I think they know, but I don’t think we know.
Q: How is what a linebacker dropping into coverage to cover a tight end different and the same from a cornerback covering a wide receiver?
BB: The leverage is completely different. When you’re defending a receiver on the outside part of the field, you’re a lot further from the ball, you’re leverage is a lot different than when you’re defending a receiver in the middle of the field where basically he can go to his side of the field or he can go to the other side of the field and obviously he can run deep so you’re defending much more of the field. If the guy is split all the way out to the outside, he’s not going to get all the way to the other side of the field very often. I think you have a different type of route tree and combination of patterns that can come up in there, but sometimes you have more help. A lot of pass defense is you taking away the pattern that you can take away and then use your help to help you on the other patterns as opposed to thinking you can cover everything. There are a few guys in the league, the Champ Baileys or whoever that can maybe do that, but for the most part if you’re in a competitive situation, you have a good defender and they have a good receiver, you can take away certain things, but then you’re not going to be able to take away those complimentary routes. You just can’t get on the other side of them or if you play underneath the route you can’t get on top of it. If you play on top of it, you can’t get underneath it. Whatever leverage you take, you give something up. At the same time, if there are other players that you can kind of push that route to and use his help, then that’s a little better way to defend it, even though they’re not maybe necessarily doubling the guy, but at least you have somebody in the proximity to help you. It’s about playing leverage. It’s about playing the proper position and every once in a while you’re going to have guys covered and a good quarterback and a good receiver are going to make the play anyway.
Q: Are you going to look at the Bears and what they did against Tomlinson? They did a pretty good job.
BB: The Bears did a real good job. The problem with the Bears is their scheme and their system is a lot different than ours is. I’m sure they see that when they watch us play. It’s just different. I think there are some things that maybe we can take from that, but there are a lot of things…they’re in a four-man front, they stunt a lot, we’re in a three-man front and we don’t stunt nearly as much as they do. Their linebackers play different. It’s just a different system. I’m not saying good or bad, it’s just different. In a lot of cases, it’s hard to take what they do and then apply it to our players. It’s like when we were watching that film this morning with the players. You’re kind of watching the Chargers, and you’re not really watching the Bears so much because we don’t lineup where they line up, we don’t stunt like they’re stunting on that particular play and so you’re kind of just watching more of the Chargers.
Q: What was your interpretation of the NFL rule to Commissioner Goodell?
BB: When we get a ruling, we’ll make a comment on it. This is all I have so far. That’s all.
