JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick understandably wasn’t in the cheeriest mood after his team fell to the Jacksonville Jaguars 31-20 Sunday afternoon.
When asked about the Patriots’ lack of pass rush, Belichick succinctly ran down the issues he saw from the sideline.
“We didn’t do a good enough job in any area, so it’s a long list,” Belichick said. “Playing, coaching, every part of the game just wasn’t good enough.”
He wasn’t willing to use the heat as an excuse:
“Same for both teams,” Belichick said.
Or the concussion that knocked Trey Flowers out of the game in the first quarter:
“That’s football,” Belichick said. “Can’t control that. Hopefully, he’ll be OK.
Belichick was asked if he thought about going for it on fourth-and-1 from the Patriots’ 19-yard line with just over eight minutes left in the fourth quarter while trailing 24-13.
“We decided to punt,” was all Belichick offered.
It looked like the Jaguars jumped before the snap. Belichick was asked if he thinks a Patriots player could have moved to cause an encroachment penalty.
“There was a lot of things we could have done better today. There’s a lot of them,” Belichick said. “Long list.”
Fair assessment.
The Patriots head into their Week 3 matchup on the road against the Detroit Lions with a 1-1 record. The team likely will go through that long list of corrections over the next week.
