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September 21, 2006

Belichick's briefing

Hey all --

Bill Belichick began his morning presser by saying that his team is "plugging along on Denver, doing situational stuff today. The more you look at `em (on tape), the better they look, which is never a good sign."

With New England playing a lot of 4-3 against the Jets as opposed to the 3-4, Belichick was asked how he determines when to use which scheme.

"You have to take a lot of things into consideration: the other team's personnel, the other team's scheme and maybe how you think they'll try to play you which might be different than the way they try to play someone else. And at the same time maybe look at what you have available, what players you have, what kind of flexibility they have. So all those things are a factor in any game-plan decision."

The offensive line was discussed in detail from its age -- Stephen Neal, who doesn't turn 30 until Oct. 9, is the oldest in the bunch -- to its speed and whether the group has benefitted from going against a defensive line as talented as the Pats' every day in practice.

"It's been a seven-year process," Belichick said. "Is Steve Neal the oldest guy? That's a scary thought, with only five years playing experience. Yeah, they're young, they're realtively healthy in terms of their career, they've been able to play together for a while."

Belichick spoke at length about his coaching opponent this week, Mike Shanahan, in a show of admiration that couldn't have been any more different than the way he spoke about Eric Mangini last week. Part of what Belichick admires about Shanahan, he said, is his aggressiveness on the field and with personnel decisions. Part of his unpredicibility -- like in last week's game with Kansas City, when the Broncos ran a reverse on fourth-and-one for a big gain -- is what makes him so hard to game-plan for.

And speaking about Ty Warren, Belichick gave him a the utmost complement.

"He's a total team player. He's been very receptive and diligent about his role in the kicking game. We'd like to use him more than we have, but we can't because of his role on the defense. He's the type of guy you'd like to have out there for every play."

We're off to practice; be back with an update.

shalise

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 12:15 PM | Permalink