ESPN's Mike Reiss did a great job of flagging down New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and getting information from the Hood on a number of subjects.
Here are some highlights:
Belichick on his role on the team on the upcoming season:
"I'm not going to take on more workload," Belichick told ESPNBoston.com. "It just might be distributed a little differently. That's the way it's been in the past. My workload hasn't changed in the last 10 years. It's been distributed differently, from year to year, or even within a year, within different timeframes of the year -- between personnel and football, or offense, defense and special teams as it relates just to football."
Belichick overworking himself is a concern that Patriots fans everywhere were concerned about; was he going to wear himself too thin? It's clear that our defense isn't as fearsome as it was at the beginning of the decade, so Belichick has noticed this and is attempting to rectify it. I'm glad that he knows how to take care of himself and utilize his knowledge in a way to best benefit the team and not try and do too many things and end up as a detriment to the team.
More after the jump!
Belichick on not appointing coordinators:
"The most important thing is for the staff to work together and be efficient and help the players, and coach them to play better. That's what we're really focused on doing," he said, adding that there is also an emphasis on improving the schemes utilized by the club.
"I think some of our younger staff members have gained a year of experience and we have a number of veteran people on our staff that do a good job. In the end, we'll try to coach the football team to the highest competitive level that we can. That's our goal this year and that's our goal every year."
Another concern is the team not having an absolute offensive and defensive coaching leader. We attempted this method last season with Bill O'Brien as our unofficial Offensive Coordinator- and we all know the problems that caused in the terrible 2nd halves we consistently had last season. I'm glad that Belichick mentioned the "emphasis on improving the schemes" of the team; hopefully the emphasis will be on both the offensive and defensive schemes. Abandoning the run game in the 2nd half of games cost us, as well as playing prevent in the 4th quarter of games with the lead (and even the entire game against the Broncos). Everyone is another year older and, hopefully, wiser. While I'm still not convinced that not appointing coordinators is the best route to take, I'm willing to give it a shot.
Belichick on why the Patriots fell short last season:
"Couldn't win on the road. Just didn't really do very well against the best teams, and a number of those were on the road," he said. "We played some good teams and we didn't win enough of those games."
Fact. We had a lot of issues on the road. Part of the issue I will say was inexperience by the younger defensive players asked to step up. The other part of the issue was the terrible coaching decisions during crucial points of games. And no, I'm not talking about 4th and 2 (that was a good play call). I'm talking about passing on 3rd and 2. I'm talking about not using Maroney consistently when he was running well. I'm talking about playing prevent against one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the NFL, who is throwing to some of the best receivers in the NFL (Orton to Marshall?). I'm talking about giving up the big play. I'm talking about being too conservative late in the game.
All these issues need to change. It starts from the Hood.