Bill Belichick Interview Transcript 1/12/11

On Wednesday New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addressed the media.  Here is the transcript courtesy of the  Jets.

On how much better he feels the offense has been since going to a “small ball” approach…

“I don’t know. Every week is its own week. We’ll see how it goes this week. We have our pluses and some minuses along the way, but in the end, none of that really matters. It just comes down to how we do this week, so we’ll see how it goes.”

On some of the things that concern him most about the Jets…

“They’re a good football team all the way across the board. They’re good on offense, defense (and) special teams. (They) beat the Colts in Indianapolis. We all know how tough that is. Everything concerns me. They’re good all the way across the board.”

On whether he has noticed any difference in Mark Sanchez’s play lately…

“He’s done a great job this year. There have been a lot of close games and (he has) brought them from behind, like in the Detroit game and the overtime games. (In) Cleveland, he made a bunch of big plays there. He’s done an excellent job in some tough situations and brought the team back and won for them. I think anytime a quarterback does that, that’s what you want on your résumé.”

On whether he saw a change in the Jets style of play after they got behind in the last game they played…

“I think, if that’s what they said, that’s the answer to the question right there. They’re the ones that are on their side of the field. They know what they were doing and how they felt and what they felt like they did, so I’d go with that.”

On whether he has any issue with how Tom Brady celebrates after a score…

“No.”

On how much he used pictures of the Bills being fitted for Super Bowl rings as motivation when he was defensive coordinator for the Giants…

“I really don’t even remember being aware of that story about the rings. If it was, I’ve forgotten about it, but I don’t remember.”

On four of the 12 playoff teams having general managers that worked under him at some point and what he tried to teach them about building a team…

“I think those individuals are all very talented and they’ve done a great job in their situations. They did a great job in my association of working with them in different capacities along the way. I think they, obviously, have done very well. They did a great job for me. Each situation, each team, each one is a little bit different, so I think in the end, it comes down to just doing the right thing for your team, making good decisions and finding a way to put the best team on the field. They’ve all done a great job of that.”

On whether he is proud of having people that work with him go on to success with other teams…

“Sure. I have a lot of friends in the business at that end, on the coaching end, players that I’ve coached and so forth, but when you compete against them on the field, then that’s competition. You have to put all that aside and compete. Then, when it’s over, you can go back to resuming whatever degree of friendship you have there, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the continued competitiveness of the situation.”

On what he thinks of Darrelle Revis…

“He’s an excellent player. He has had a great career and we’ve seen him have a lot of great games against a lot of great receivers. He competes very well against a lot of different receivers. He did it again against the Colts. We know he’s an outstanding player and we’ll just do our best to compete against him.”

On Antonio Cromartie’s comments towards Tom Brady…

“I’m really trying to focus on getting our team ready to play on Sunday.”

On Cromartie as a cornerback…

“He’s had a good career. He played in San Diego. We saw him out there and (then he) came to the Jets. He’s done a good job there. He’s a big corner who can run well and has good ball skills. The play in the Baltimore game, he made an excellent play on the ball and made a great kickoff return last week. It was a huge play against Indianapolis. It really put the team in a close position to score and then they got a couple more first-downs (for) the winning points. He can hurt you in a lot of different ways. He’s a good football player.”

On how much emotion goes into executing on game day…

“There are so many things that go into executing on game day. If you wrote a book, you still couldn’t include all of them. It’s really a combination of a lot of things and how it all comes together. It’s a long game that takes place over three-plus hours. Whatever it is, a lot of things happen within that span of time. How it all comes together is all very unique and that’s what makes football such a great game. Emotions are a part of it and so are a million other things.”

On Deion Branch saying the Patriots made a lot of mistakes in their 45-3 win over the Jets…

“You’ll have to ask Deion about that specifically. I think after every game there are always that you do well, hopefully, and there are things you don’t do as well and need to correct or make adjustments to. That’s pretty common after every game. The Jets are a good football team. They certainly cause a lot of problems. We’ve played four games since Rex has been there. We split on all four of them. We made some plays, they made some plays. In the end, both teams have won two games. We know it’s a very competitive situation. There are things we always want to try to do better. They give you problems in their schemes, their players, their coaching (and) in all three phases of the game, as I said earlier. We have a lot of respect for them. We know there are a lot of things we have to do well in order to come out on top.”

On if you can coach emotion…

“I think you try to coach a team the best that you can. As is said, there’s a million factors that go into that. They are all important.”

On if the game is personal to him…

“We’re going to do our best to win on Sunday.”

On if he’s going to have a pregame race with Coach Ryan…

“I think we’ll do our best to win on Sunday.”

On the advantage of having many different personnel groupings….

“I think in every game, you’re always looking for matchups . You try to create the ones that you feel give you an advantage and try to minimize the ones that you think don’t give you an advantage or give your opponent an advantage. However you want to look at it. I think that’s part of every game, whether it’s offense, defense (or) special teams. It really transcends through any sport. You try to find matchups that are advantageous. If you can find them, you try to utilize those and get the most out of them. If you don’t think that’s the case, you try to move on to something that’s better for you.”

On how they’ve used their two tight ends to create favorable matchups…

“We try to do it with our whole team, it’s all the players that are out there. Each of your linemen, each of your skill players, all of the guys on defense that you have to defend on the other side of the ball. It’s a constant challenge. Part of the competition is trying to put your players in a position where they can be successful on different plays and to try to do the same with your opponent. (You want) to keep their playmakers from making a lot of plays against you.”

On what it means to be a part of five 14-2 teams…

“There’s time to reflect on things, but right now I’m just trying to focus on the Jets and get ready for this Sunday’s game. We can talk about all that other stuff later.”

Tyson Rauch

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