Bill Belichick sure liked what he saw from his team Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati.
It wasn’t a flawless performance by the Patriots, but New England manifested a “winning formula” against the Bengals, as Belichick put it in his postgame speech. The Patriots won the turnover battle by a large margin and were able to execute in all three phases, including establishing the run, which it hasn’t been able to do for the majority of the season. If the Pats continue to perform like they did against the Bengals, Belichick is confident his team will be in good shape.
“Alright, fellas. That was getting back to good Patriots football there,” Belichick said, as seen in a video released to the team’s official Twitter account. “Plus-five turnovers, alright? Taking good care of the football, four picks and a fumble recovery. One hundred and seventy-five yards on the ground, alright? Making progress, making progress. That will be a winning formula: don’t turn the ball over, run the ball, play good in the kicking game, play good defense, alright? That’ll win for us. We qualified for the playoffs today. It’s the 11th straight year, so we’ll be playing football. Short week, got to turn this around quick now. Get some rest, come in here Tuesday ready to go. Big game here. Let’s keep grinding it out here and be ready to go against these Bills, alright? Congratulations, men. That was a good job. It was a good week, good job here today.”
"How do we feel about coming on back to Burkhead and Sanu Land and getting the dub?!" pic.twitter.com/K4CxZra5bu
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) December 17, 2019
It obviously will be much tougher for the Patriots to operate under a winning formula against the Bills. Buffalo features one of the NFL’s strongest defenses and also ranks in the top 10 in turnover differential. Josh Allen and Co. will be hungry as ever to pull off an upset in Foxboro and push the AFC East race down to the wire. A statement win could go a long, long way for the Patriots in bolstering confidence as the playoffs near.
Kickoff from Gillette Stadium is set for 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
