Bill Belichick Gives Final Statement Of Patriots Season, Turns Eyes Toward 2020

Head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady don’t want to talk about the future. However, Belichick talked about the season that ended for the Patriots, and discussed all the good things his players did this season. He had his final statement.

“As I said (Saturday) night, I have a ton of respect for this football team — players and coaches,” Belichick said. “We all put a lot into it this week. We put everything we had into it. I thought we got a lot of great leadership from a lot of players, certainly our captains. I thought they, in particular, played extremely hard (Saturday) night, as the entire team did.

“Unfortunately, we came up basically a point short. Nobody feels very good about that — nor should they — because that’s the type of competitive team that we have. I’m proud of the way these guys worked and competed all year. I wish we could have done a little bit more, but that’s life in the NFL. That’s really about it. It’s always a tough ending to the year, but we lost to a team that was a little better than us (Saturday) night.”

New England was 8-0 in the first half of the season but just 4-5 in the second half of the season. The team lost three of the final four home games.

“In all three phases of the game, there were times when things were good, and there were other times where they were average, and there were other times where they weren’t so good,” Belichick said. “So there were a lot of things that we’d like to improve on. You can say that in pretty much every year. Several very, very close games — games that came down to the last or next-to-last possession — in our season, especially the games that we lost — the Baltimore game. A play here, play there; call here, call there; decision here, decision there, and things might look a little different. But they didn’t, and that’s what it is.”

The Patriots’ defense led the league in points and yards allowed during the season. The Tennessee Titans scored just once in the second half, and it was a Logan Ryan pick-six. Yes they were tough, but they couldn’t make up for the damage caused by the offense. This was one of the worst offenses New England has had in years.

The team scored 25 points just once in the final nine games had just one touchdown Saturday night. New England couldn’t score on three consecutive goal-line rushes late in the first half against the Titans. Tom Brady went for 7-for-21 for 68 yards and no touchdowns when targeting his wideouts.

The head coach was asked whether he regrets the decisions he made regarding the offense.

“The team was constructed very competitively,” he said. “I think that was reflected in our overall play during the course of the year. Again, we lost four games that basically came down to the last possession, other than the Baltimore game, which, that was a pretty competitive game, too. So I think there’s areas in every phase of the game — offense, defense, special teams, running game, passing game, pass rush — wherever you want to go. Coaching, strategy, game-planning, decision-making — I mean, all of us. Had a couple things been a little different, maybe the outcome would have been a little different. I think we all had a part in the wins, we all had a part shared in the losses, and we’ve got to try to do better in all those areas — each of us that are part of the game going forward. And each of us did that over the course of the year. So I wouldn’t expect that to be any different.”


Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *