For more than two decades in New England Bill Belichick avoided answering questions posed to him by the media. As dominating and successful as his team was on the field, the coach was equally adept at steering clear of offering up any information relevant to his squads’ current state of affairs.
Belichick was, after all, raised in coaching and leadership world of Bill Parcells. His longtime boss and mentor made it quite clear across his many NFL stops that he was in the business of collecting information rather than disseminating it to reporters or the public at large.
Over the last couple weeks of ongoing miserable football and losing in New England – including Sunday afternoon’s closer but still-ugly 21-17 loss to the Raiders in Las Vegas – Belichick has continued to offer up little to no answers regarding his football team’s 1-5 start and various inabilities on both sides of the ball.
But these are different non-answers. These don’t feel like Belichick avoiding revealing anything about his team but rather revealing everything about the Patriots with his lack of answers.
Because the biggest problem in New England under Belichick’s watchful but aging eye is simple – there are no answers.
Unless of course you believes that a simple revelatory response from Belichick would say it all – his team just isn’t good enough.
Forget the details of the penalties and turnovers. Of the blowouts or the moral victories. New England just doesn’t seem to measure up at a representative level compared to the bulk of the rest of the NFL.
It’s why they’re a one-win team, currently one of just six franchises with one win or fewer six weeks into the season. Why they are in line for their highest draft pick since Hall of Famer Richard Seymour arrived via the No. 6 pick in 2001.
So as much as these may feel like classic Belichickian avoidance techniques in his response to reporters in recent weeks, they are actually very different. When he was asked what his comments about “starting over” following the loss to New Orleans meant, his simple repeating of “start over” wasn’t a dismissive tactic. He can’t give an answer that he doesn’t have. He doesn’t have the answers right now because they don’t exist. That’s why after long hours of meetings with his coaches, days after his “starting over” comment he declared the team wouldn’t be making any significant changes.
Monday morning in his weekly appearance on the Greg Hill Show on WEEI Belichick made it clear that he doesn’t believe his team has checked out or given up at this point in the dismal season.
“We would have had every opportunity to do that this week after the last two weeks,” Belichick said. “I thought that the team had a decent week of practice, worked hard, competed hard in the game. We just didn’t make enough plays to win. We gotta coach and play better. Keep working harder to make those plays, execute them in practice and execute them in the game. And we’ll have better results.”
Only if there is enough talent to fulfill the coach’s still optimistic expectations.
Sure the Patriots need to “coach and play better” as Belichick has so often said for years following relatively infrequent failures.
Back then that was true and it was a realistic possibility.
Now? Now the Patriots’ losses are piling up on a weekly basis. Indeed New England needs to “coach and play better.”
The problem is there is no reason to believe it can do that. And that’s why the 2023 season feels very much over in Foxborough with Halloween still two weeks away.
Fans, media and the team itself has endless questions.
Sadly, those questions don’t have productive answers or solutions.
And that’s the biggest problem.
Belichick wants to be better. That team’s players – led by respected veterans like Matthew Slater, David Andrews, Jabrill Peppers and Ezekiel Elliott – may still want to be better.
But the chasm between New England wanting to be better and having the capability of being better is a massive one.
If Belichick is right, his Patriots’ don’t have a “want-to” problem. They have a “can’t” problem.
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