Bill Belichick Sit Quotations

What Mike does a great job of is he understands defense, and he understands what causes you the most problems and where you don't want to be defensively. Then he tries to put you in that situation as much as possible. Then based on how you react to that, then that's where he likes to attack.

That's a tough position to play. It's a lot like playing corner. You're put there on an island. It's not all that easy to give a left tackle help. A lot of times you can't give him help . . . To play out there, on the blind side of the quarterback, and still be physical in the running game, it's a tough spot to play.

You get into the situation where you have an experienced player that gives you a certain quality of play, and you have a younger player who you think is going to be better but he's not better now,

I felt that once we got to the 31, 32 yard line, we were in field goal range. We didn't want to get in the situation where we throw a couple incomplete passes and Pittsburgh had another timeout. It's like basketball; we were playing for the last shot.

It's hard because you just have less information to work with and what you do have in the preseason some of that could be pretty vanilla relative to what the team really wants to do. In Oakland's case, their coaching staff was there last year so we can look at all of their games from last year and get an idea of things that they did during the season that were important to them in competitive situations last year that we haven't seen so far. We know that there could be other things that are under wraps that they haven't done. We just have to be ready to make some adjustments during the game. I think that's the way it always is. There's no question that this is the hardest game.

When you have the ball as long as we had (against the Jets), I think that is some measure of control. But we'd like to have more rushing yards for the number of attempts. There's no question about that. There were some positive things in the game about our running game. There are certainly a lot of things that we can work on. We'd like to be more consistent and gain a few more yards. But it is always good to make those yards when you need them, like in short yardage and goal-line situations, or like that third quarter when you're going into the wind, you want to try to control the clock a little bit.

There are 11 people out there playing defense. What makes a difference is how those 11 people play. That's what defense is about. It's about team defense. You are always trying to isolate it into one player, one situation or one thing, and it just doesn't work that way.

I think they're doing a great job all the way across the board. I think there are a lot of positives in the way the team has played. Nick has done a great job after that Cleveland game, whatever he's done in bringing them together. They're playing well.

Mike?s always been one of our most versatile players. He?s a smart player. He?s been in a number of different situations and handles them all well. We have a lot of confidence in him whenever he?s on the field. He?s a fast learner and he picks up things quickly.

Eric worked his way from the most entry-level position to a position of great responsibility during several successful seasons. The opportunity Eric has now earned is truly an example of good things happening to a good, hard-working person and I wish him well.

We're doing what we do every year, every spring, (which) is build our team and try to make it as competitive as we can heading into training camp and the regular season in the fall. That goes for every position and every player, across the board.

It was certainly a positive having him out there. I'm sure he'll play a little bit better the next time. It was his first time out all year. He's got a little bit of catching up to do, but he still gave us a good lift and performed well.

Sometimes, maybe some of the guys at that position, because of expectation, are put into situations before they're ready to have success, (and) that affects their confidence and their ability to develop.

I enjoy the competition of all the games. I love to coach and be in a competitive situation where we're up against the greatest players and the greatest coaches on a weekly basis. It's very challenging but it's very exciting, and that?s true every week.

You can?t worry too much about other guys on your team and what their situation is because you can go out there the first day of training camp and that could change on one play. I don?t feel like we can look at it that way - and we don?t.

I've learned about the inflation range situation. Obviously with our footballs being inflated to the 12.5-pound range, any deflation would then take us under that specification limit. Knowing that now, in the future we will certainly inflate the footballs above that low level to account for any possible change during the game.

I think we all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on footballs. They know a lot more about it than I do. They're a lot more sensitive to it than I am.

We have absolutely done as much work as we can on finding out things like that and we'll try to get all the information that we can as that would apply to any current situation, which I can't talk about.

I cannot comment on any player who has ongoing criminal charges and legal situations.

He's fast and he has good range for the safety position and he's done a good job as a contact player both in hitting and tackling and forcing the run when he's been asked to.

You would have to talk to the Jets. I have no comment on their job or their situation or anything else. Anything they have to say about it, I'm sure they would be more than happy to give you that information.

Really, that's the best we've played in the red area all year long. We made a couple of stops after a sudden change, after we turned the ball over offensively. We came in there and didn't let them score a touchdown. We held them, based on the field position that we had, so, I mean, there were some positives to build on.

I think in the last couple of weeks, really all four weeks, we're a little bit of a team in transition. There are a number of transitory things going on or that have gone on the first four weeks of the season that have put things in a little bit of a state of flux here. They weren't what they were a month ago. Some of them aren't like they were two weeks ago. Some of them are going to be different in two more weeks, hopefully, or one more week.

We didn't want to play him on defense last year. That was an emergency, desperation type of situation and of course Troy handled it wall...But he's a better receiver than he is a defensive back.

We'll do the same thing that we always do. We'll take every situation from week to week and do what we think is best for that week and evaluate it on that basis.

We'll take a look at Tom's situation and we'll make an evaluation there. We'll talk about that and make the decision later on in the week. We'll just have to wait and see.

How will it be going forward? We'll just have to see how that all plays itself out. That's something we'll talk about later on depending on what the situation is.

He made a great catch. That was a huge play. Changed the field position, put us in position to run the clock out. ... He did what he was supposed to do. Tom read it, laid it out there, and Bethel ran it down. I mean, we always tell Tom just throw it out there as far as you can and make him run for it. He can't overthrow him -- he almost did -- but Bethel ran it down.

The guy can certainly play outside linebacker. We know he can play defensive end. I imagine he can move inside and play defensive tackle. There's no question he can play tight end. He probably can play offensive tackle. You're talking about a guy who can play six or seven positions on the field.

Every situation is independent. It takes two parties, or three to a point, to make a deal, and when that happens, we have one, and if it doesn't, we don't.

What we wanted to do was try and run the ball and give our defense a break, ... The defense couldn't stay on the field all day. And the big thing was when we had the opportunities we had to take advantage of them. That's what we wanted to try to do: Play defense, play field position and take advantage of our opportunities.

The running back situation is a good, competitive one. I think Antowain and Kevin are good players, have good, solid strengths. I think both of those players are going to be productive for us. They have been in the past. How exactly it's going to work out, I don't know. I'm sure it will be decided on the field. We'll do what we think is best for the team.

It?s always good to make those yards when you need them, like in short yardage and goal line situations or like that third quarter (against the Jets) when you're going into the wind. You want to try to control the clock a little bit. Those are important yards, too. I think we can do a better job in running the ball than we did. I hope we can.

I don't think Deion has any problem with it. I don't think a lot of our players have a problem with it. They understand what the expectations are of their position and their role, and they want to go out there and fulfill them.

There's no situation I've been in, before or since, that even would remotely approach that one for negativity and affecting the overall focus of the team. Not within 100 miles. It touched every single person in the building, every secretary, every ball boy. I felt badly for everyone involved.

He can get down there and stretch the inside of the field. It's always good to be able to stretch the field vertically at both your exterior positions and in your interior spots because, as a defense, if you only have one thing to stop, it's not nearly as big of a problem as when you're trying to stop five or six or seven things.