PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Bill Belichick Press Conference Transcript

by

Bill Belichick Press Conference Transcript

Q: It seems like they use a lot of double ‘A’ gap coverage. How does that put pressure on your offensive line?

BB: Well, that’s what they do. [Kevin] Coyle came from kind of the Cincinnati program, which is what they do. That’s definitely a big part of their defense, particularly in third down or two-minute passing situations. It puts six guys really on five. Your tackles, guards, and center and are against their four defensive linemen and two guys in the ‘A’ gap. You have to determine how you’re going to handle those six players. Sometimes they come, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they line up in there and bring people off the edge, so there’s actually a seventh guy that’s not part of that six. But again, when you line up there it, I don’t want to say it limits, but it makes it harder to get to other spaces on the field than if you weren’t lined up on the line of scrimmage. It puts pressure on one thing, but it also takes them away from something else. It’s like anything else, there’s a give-and-take with it. You definitely have to have a plan to decide how you’re going to treat it and what you’re going to do with it, because they do it quite a bit of it.

How are you feeling about the Ravens game? Wondering if the “Miracle Man” (my moniker for Flacco) is going to pull out some miracle passes and give us a considerable threat on offense, or go back to choking it big time. Right now this is the game I’m most nervous about.

by

Hard to look past the Dolphins right now, but the potential ramifications going into the Baltimore game are certainly intriguing. To have a chance to put a serious dent in their playoff hopes in their building after the two losses last year? That would certainly feel good. 

I think without Reed and Ray Lewis, their defense will be find defending Brady a little tougher. They might’ve lost a step last year, but their savvy and fearlessness were huge factors in playing the New England offense.

It will be a huge game, but let’s get through this week’s huge game first.

Is it just me or should we fear Cinci and Kansas City more than Denver? I fear their defense and running game more than going into a rematch with Denver. Also this morning i remembered all the analysts saying this may be the year the pats take a step back….HA!

by

You know, I really don’t think it matters who they play or where. It just comes down to the Pats playing 60 minutes of their best football. If they do that, they should beat anybody in the NFL. 

They don’t get blown out, so you know the games will be close, it’s just a question of whether or not they can put together six awesome games now. 

It’s kind of the great unknown. On one hand, you could see a scenario where without Gronk their offense regresses and if their defense doesn’t get better on third downs, they just wouldn’t be able to score enough to keep up.

But this team always seems to rally at this time of year, regardless of injuries. Same thing happened after they lost arguably their defensive MVP in Andre Carter late in 2011.

We’ll see how it plays out, but I think all the potential AFC matchups have their advantages and disadvantages. But if the Pats show up for the whole game, they will make some noise.

I’ve noticed recently Brady has been focusing in on getting the ball to Edelman a lot more than Amendola, even when Amendola is open. For example, the TD to Edelman at the end of the Browns game… Amendola was wide open, yet Brady chose the much more difficult throw to Edelman. Why does he not seem to be throwing as much to Amendola recently when it seems they have a lot of chemistry built up?

by

Yeah, I noticed that as well and Nick Underhill pointed it out in his Tuesday film analysis. I don’t think it’s a total loss for Amendola yet, he obviously caught the game-winning touchdown against the Browns, but I do think Brady still is more comfortable with Edelman, and really, how could he not be?

Amendola will never be 100 percent this year with his groin injury and I think to some extent he’s missing some of his explosiveness. I think he’ll take some good strides forward next season. But with Edelman a free agent, it will be interesting to see how they handle him with Amendola already due to make a sizable chunk of change.

Given Amendola’s contract they’d take a $6.8 million cap hit next season if they were to cut him, so they’re probably not going to cut him.

But no question, Amendola will have to step up and make some big plays if the Pats are going to make run.

With the Broncos losing yesterday we have a great chance t securing home field throughout if we sweep the next 3 games. How possible do you think that is realistically speaking? Even more how likely do you think it is we win this week against the dolphins?

by

Full thoughts on the playoff push are here.

As for the Dolphins this weekend, I can’t remember being this excited for a game at the end of the season in a long time. It’s there for the taking, which is really unbelievable considering everything this team has been through.

I re-watched the first Dolphins game last night and I think the Phins know what kind of opportunity this is for them and really, their playoff lives are on the line. We’ll get their best. And if you only watched the first half of the first game, it was Miami that was dominating. 

Their run game is clicking and I expect we’ll see a heavy dose of that. Hopefully Siliga can play up to the potential we saw last week. Pats will also have Talib this time around, they didn’t have him in the first one, so I expect he’ll draw Mike Wallace on plenty of snaps. 

The biggest problem might be Clay, can Jamie Collins matchup with him now? How about Dane Fletcher?

In all, this game has the chance to be one of the crowning wins of the 2013 season. But even a victory over the Dolphins won’t help them next week against the Ravens, we can talk about that next week.

As always, expect this one to go down to the wire. I think we’ll either see one of two storylines: the Pats finally gel on the road and put together their best game of the season, or the injuries finally catch up with them and they fall short.

Either way, this is a defining game of the season, if not THE defining game.