Bill Belichick wasn’t happy Sunday night, and understandably so.
His New England Patriots squandered a golden opportunity to pick up a huge win over the Dallas Cowboys. Instead, the Patriots, who held a three-point lead late in the fourth quarter and also started with the ball in overtime, fell to 2-4 on the season and 0-4 at home.
Each week, we’ll give you our main takeaways from Belichick’s postgame news conferences, even if he says virtually nothing.
Belichick began Sunday night’s presser with a general statement on the game.
“It was a tough one to lose tonight,” he said. “Yeah, it was a good football team. Give Dallas credit. They’re a good team. They’re well-coached. I know we just came up a little bit short. Thought that we went toe-to-toe with them for 60 minutes and we just couldn’t — they just made a few more plays than we did, so give them credit for that. We’ll move on.”
He then was asked about the Cowboys running 82 offensive plays, and whether that led to the Patriots’ defense being physically and emotionally taxed by the end of the game.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Belichick said. “They’re a good team, and that’s what you’ve got to do. Got to stop them.”
Belichick then went full-Belichick during one particular exchange with a reporter. After offering a non-answer to a question about moral victories, Belichick offered this to a follow-up about the disappointment of being 0-4 at home:
“I just answered the question.”
(He, in fact, had not answered that question.)
A reporter then asked a question about Rhamondre Stevenson being a “little bit more involved” the last two games.
“Yeah, all the backs are involved,” Belichick answered. “We had three backs today and they were all involved.”
What about ordering Mac Jones to take a knee at the end of the first half, despite potentially having enough time to get into field goal range?
“Because we were getting the ball the start of the second half,” Belichick explained.
And so on and so forth.
Belichick and the Patriots will look for better results next Sunday when they host the Jets. We shudder to think how Belichick could react if New England falls to New York.
