Let the record show Bill Belichick is fed up with questions about who’s running the Patriots’ offense this year.
The head coach got testy with reporters for asking about Matt Patricia’s job performance as the apparent offensive play-caller on Friday as the New England assistant coach prepares to face the Detroit Lions, the team he used to lead.
“I wouldn’t characterize it the way you did,” Belichick responded to one question about how he’d assess Patricia’s play-calling through four weeks of the season before going on to speak more generally about the offense.
When pressed about whether or not the media should refer to Patricia as the play-caller, Belichick retorted, “Call him whatever you want.”
He then refused to then clarify who was calling plays for the Patriots, lamenting that the media has “talked about it ad nauseum” and once again taking responsibility for the entire operation. Belichick even suggested reporters should “take better notes” so as not to have to repeat this line of questioning again.
Let’s review those notes now, shall we?
Belichick has declined from the jump to officially name a specific offensive coordinator or play-caller, with many speculating initially that the job would be shared between Patricia, “offensive assistant” Joe Judge and Belichick himself.
As time has gone on, Patricia has clearly seemed to take the primary role in calling play from the play sheet on the sidelines, with neither Belichick nor Judge doing much talking or anything else besides note-taking when the offense has the ball.
But Belichick has only ever confirmed that Patricia “communicated plays” to Mac Jones and the quarterbacks, saying he believes play-calling itself is a “whole ‘nother process” that involves input from other offensive assistant coaches rather than one person alone. He even suggested this was a similar process under former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, though it’s unclear how true that was.
To translate: Patricia “calls” the offensive plays with some varying amount of advice or deference to offensive staff members, but Belichick just doesn’t want to say that.
Perhaps if he just answered the question and dispensed with the obfuscation, people wouldn’t ask him anymore as he clearly wishes.
The ironic point: Patricia and the offensive play-calling has been far from the abject disaster many thought they would be. The Patriots clearly have work to do to reach the best versions of themselves, but their offensive outputs increased over three straight games until Brian Hoyer and Bailey Zappe had to take over for an injured Mac Jones in Week 4.
Even then, the Patriots mustered two second-half touchdowns with Zappe just trying to survive his first NFL action, which is a tribute to his coaching even if it wasn’t all perfect.
With Zappe likely in line to start again, Belichick, Patricia and the offensive staff will need to earn their paychecks this week if the Patriots are going to pull out a win against the high-scoring, defense-deficient Lions.
