Deciphering Belichick

By Os Davis  |   Sunday, August 26, 2007  |  Comments( 0 )

New England Patriots
Got something to say?

Sign Up and be the first to comment on this article!

Just about everyone was at least begrudgingly impressed with the 24-7 number the New England Patriots did on the Carolina Panthers on Friday night. Everyone, that is, except for, unsurprisingly, Bill Belichick.

Though Belichick seems at least a bit confident, a tad outwardly smug in the transcript of the conference call on Saturday, clearly the man is disappointed. Need some help getting to the hidden meaning of Belichick's drift? No problem: Some highlights from the 'call along with necessary translation runs below.

What he said: "We left some points out there on the field."
What he meant: "How much did we score out there? Twenty-four? We should be getting 38 points per game, easy."

What he said: "Some of the things that went well statistically, or looked like they were executed pretty well in the game, still can be cleaned up."
What he meant: "For example, you know how Brady went 17 of 22 with two TDs? Sure, the numbers look good, but I was there and I tell you that was a sloppy 17 of 22 with two TDs. Plus, I'm sure he can improve on those zero interceptions.

What he said: "A couple of the other things that didn't look quite as good, actually, with one or two corrections could've been a lot better. That's what we're trying to do is go through the tape today and get ourselves moving closer to real good execution and the difference between some big plays and not so good plays sometimes is a real fine line."
What he meant: "When Laurence Maroney hit the line on his 12th carry, he looked a little beat out there."

What he said: "First of all, I don't think anybody is ready to go. I think everybody is getting better and everybody needs to continue to get better and everybody has a long way to go. The coaching staff. The players. Everything. Our whole operation. We've made a lot of strides in three weeks, but I don't think we are where we eventually need to be. I wouldn't put anybody in that category."
What he meant: "What? You can't hear from the tone in my voice that I'm serious? I'm serious."

What he said (in response to the question, "What was the rationale behind starting the game with nine straight running plays?"): "To work on the running game. ... Well, if you want to work on your running game, you have to call running plays. I don't know how else to do it."
What he meant: "See, this is why I'm heralded as a genius and you're a sports journalist."

What he said (In response to the question, "Is Stephen Gostkowski kind of working through a nagging injury?"): "I wouldn't say so."
What he meant: "I wouldn't say so, but he will be by the time I'm through with him this week. And then we'll put him on the questionable list for Thursday's game along with the 47 other guys already there."

What he said: "I think that [the offensive line] showed some improvement from the previous week and I think we still have a way to go, but we ran the ball with more consistency and that helped the passing game, like it usually does, when you create some kind of balance in your offense."
What he meant: "The offensive line showed some improvement, but those zero sacks allowed were too many. And with the 19 new free-agent receivers we signed in the offseason, you can bet that we'll be maintaining that kind of balance where we run on 12 of the first 15 plays."

RealFootball365.com: Interpreting the strange language of coaches and jocks all year-round.
Got something to say?

Sign Up and be the first to comment on this article! (0)

About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
read more
Article Tools Share!   |  RSS  |  Bleacher Report About Bleacher Report