Bill Belichick Ball Quotations

Maybe we can put a ball and chain on him. That would slow him down, ... He's never out of the play. There's a lot of plays that he makes that you actually see him getting blocked and you think, Oh, that was a pretty good job, and then he still ends up on the ball somewhere.

Obviously, it says a lot for the player and what he's been able to accomplish: No. 1, the skill of the player and, No. 2, his durability. He's carried the ball a lot and he's carried it very effectively. He has a running style that can work in a lot of different ways with his speed, his power, his quickness, and his run vision. It's a very significant individual accomplishment.

He has outstanding ball skills. He's a smart player. He anticipates well. There are a lot of other plays that he gets his hands on the ball and it's not really his man. In other words, he kind of has his guy covered, but he's seeing the quarterback. He sees the ball thrown and then he breaks on the ball . . . even though they're not throwing to him, a lot of times when they're throwing around him, he becomes a factor in those plays, when most corners wouldn'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.

He ruined (Eli) Manning for about a month. He went in there, they had him double-teamed, he blew past the tackle, strip sacked the ball and messed up Manning's elbow, scooped it up and ran in for a (29-yard) touchdown. It doesn't get any worse than that.

Overall our passing game was pretty efficient. We dropped a couple of balls, and we were disappointed we didn't get the ball in the end zone there when we were down there. Looked like Tom threw the ball well, set up quickly, and got it out there.

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 he'll be all right. I thought he ran the ball hard. I thought he made a real good run there down the sidelines in front of their bench. I thought it was a big-time run.

We're certainly giving up too many big plays in the passing game, ... Some of it was the technique ... our judgment on the ball, sometimes we just didn't use our help, or where our help was supposed to be, it didn't get there quick enough. ... Some of it is tied into the rush, the timing of the rush, when the ball is thrown. ... The quarterback stands back there and pumps three or four times, that's hard for anybody to cover those routes. We just need better overall team defense.

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.

Tom did a nice job. He did an outstanding job. I thought it was good team play, pass protection, (the) receivers. I thought that the receivers caught the ball extremely well (Sunday).

We didn't make the plays we need to win. There's not much more to say. It's hard to win when you give the ball away.

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.

The third quarter was really frustrating, ... We had the ball at their end of the field for most of the quarter and couldn't get a whole lot done.

Tell me what you want to take away. The running game? The passing game? The receivers? Backs? Tight ends?Where do you start? The quarterback? That is a long list. That's why they move the ball up and down the field. They?re good in every area.

They ran the ball at will; they passed the ball at will. They have good offensive football players. They play both inside and outside and just beat us all-round.

A lot of people think you just give the ball to a back and watch him run and that's all there is to it, like they do in high school. But understanding how each block is being made on the line, depending on how the defense unfolds after the snap, is a big part of it.

A big part of Al's involvement with the team is on the defensive side of the ball. ... I'm sure his philosophy and impact on the defensive side of the ball has been very noticeable.

It's been brought up many times, but the league refuses to do it, ... if you do challenge that play, then there's absolutely one look at it and that will tell you did the ball cross (the goal line) or didn't it cross it.

It was good to be able to run the ball and run the ball with consistency, control the clock. Those are things you have to do at this time of year.

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.

It's hard to win when you give the ball away.

But your whole advantage offensively, is to know when the ball is being snapped. Defensively, that's your one disadvantage.

I don't think we had any major problems on the offensive line. We were all at the game. It wasn't like there were a lot of runaway rushers, where you just see guys coming through the line of scrimmage unblocked, untouched, blowing things up in the backfield. There were times when we got pushed back. There were times when we pushed them a little bit. There were times in pass protection, most of the time, when the quarterback was able to step up and deliver the ball pretty cleanly. In relative terms, it was OK. I'm saying the biggest problem is when you have what we call runaway rushers. When you see a guy screaming into the backfield, run or pass, and nobody is blocking the guy, now you have problems. You certainly want to avoid that.