HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK
VIDEO PRESS CONFERENCE
December 13, 2021
On Myles Bryant:
BB: Myles played a number of different positions at Washington. He did a number of different things and he kind of did that when he came here, so he's played corner, safety, and the nickel spot. He's really a smart, instinctive player. He communicates well. He anticipates well and works well with his teammates. For a young player, he really has picked things up quickly. He plays with a lot of confidence on the field, makes a lot of good decisions, makes a lot quickly too.
On if he still gets a "warm" welcome whenever he goes to Indianapolis:
BB: We'll see what happens. We haven't been there in a while.
On the injury status of Damien Harris and Adrian Phillips:
BB: Well, we haven't done anything since then [the Patriots' game at Buffalo], so we'll see how things have progressed once we get out there.
On how the Colts get so many takeaways:
BB: Obviously, Matt [Eberflus] has put a big emphasis on it. They've done a good job. They have a lot of players who are very good at it, starting with [Darius] Leonard, [DeForest] Buckner, Kenny Moore. Just as a team, they have good quickness. They're very fast. They run well. They get to the ball. There are a lot of plays from behind and they have a lot of people around the ball, so when it does come out, they have a better chance of getting it. They're very well-coached in that area. All their players have good ball awareness, like Leonard, who has six forced fumbles. That's a lot. Good coaching, good playing, good awareness, and a lot of players that are disruptive.
On the Colts offense:
BB: Well, the Colts are a well-balanced team. It starts with the offensive line. They have a lot of experience on the line with [Ryan] Kelly, [Quenton] Nelson, [Mark] Glowinski, [Braden] Smith, and [Eric] Fisher. They definitely know what they're doing and they've done it together for a while, other than Fisher. You can put [Jack] Doyle in that group too and [Mo Alie-] Cox. Those guys have played together. The backs have a good feel for the line, I think. [Jonathan] Taylor's a hard guy to tackle. He's strong, runs through a lot of arm tackles, and then he's very fast. Not many players, defensively, that can catch him. If he gets out in the open, he can turn that eight or ten-yard run into a 60-yard touchdown. They run a variety of plays. They run gap plays. They run zone plays and they hand the ball to some of their skill players to keep you honest which, ultimately, opens up things for Taylor or [Nyheim] Hines, whoever it happens to be. Taylor's strong. He catches well. He's got total yards from scrimmage. Some of that's in the passing game. He's really been effective when he's been able to get through the line of scrimmage and break a 60 or 70-yard run. It's hard for teams to count on that in the running game. He's been able to deliver for them with his speed and running ability.
On if all-time great players are able to be great regardless of where they play:
BB: I'd have to give that more thought. I don't know. I would say it'd be hard for me to imagine [Lawrence] Taylor couldn't have played in any system at multiple positions.
On if he and his staff watch Hard Knocks when studying opponents:
BB: We have people in our organization that scout the games in advance of when we play the teams. Starting two or three weeks before we play, they start to really track those teams and see how injuries have affected, if they have shifted their style of play, or whatever's happened with the team. We track almost everything those teams, any team that we play does. Depending on the relevance or importance of that information, at some point, it gets relayed down the line. Yeah. We have somebody that studies each team, whether it's any relevant comments or information that we think we think is relevant to the preparation for the team. That could be shared. Sure.
On if he would be careful of what he shared if his team was on Hard Knocks:
BB: There are a lot of reasons why I wouldn't be excited about it.
On the Colts' ability to score:
BB: I think a lot of that is related to team scoring. They're the best first quarter team in the league. That's usually a good thing. They play good, complementary football. They lead the league in points off turnovers. That accounts for some of their scoring there and they don't turn the ball over. When you play good special teams, good defense, good offense, collectively, all that together, it usually leads to a good result, both in terms of points and on the final score. They're well-coached. They have a good staff. The coordinators are strong. They've been very productive; Bubba [Ventrone], Matt [Eberflus]. However the offense runs there, obviously Frank [Reich] has a big hand in it. All of those units have been productive. They've gotten points from all of them or set up points on all of them. They do a good job. They don't turn the ball over. They get turnovers. They take advantage of them. They play good, complementary football. They play good field position in the kicking game. They're very good on third down defense. They can run the ball. Don't think you can just block one guy and score 30 points. You'd better have a lot of other things going right too and they do.
On what he means when he calls the Colts "the best first quarter team":
BB: I think they score the most points or close to it. They're right up there. They score points in the first quarter. Not all of those are offensive points. Some of those came off turnovers. Again, getting a turnover, that's good, but to be able to convert that into touchdowns and points, somebody else has to do that and they've done a good job of it.
On Devin McCourty:
BB: Devin does a tremendous job for us on and off the field, has great leadership, and displays that every day in multiple ways. His communication, confidence, and decision making on the field are exceptional too and that allows a lot of his teammates to maximize their talents. He creates a lot of opportunities for them based on some of the decisions that he makes as kind of the quarterback of the defense, if you will, or the guy that's making some calls. A lot of times, that puts his teammates in a good position to make plays. He's done a tremendous job for us all year and he does it every day. You see his influence on a daily basis. You don't have to wait around until some special occasion. He shows up every day.
On how it has been to see the leadership develop over the course of the season:
BB: It's always an interesting process. In every year, it's different. It turns out differently because there is some change in players and there is some change in circumstances. We'll see how it unfolds here as we get into a real critical time in our season and how things emerge going forward. We have really good leadership on our team. This team works hard every day. They come in ready to work every day and put in a solid day's work. Then, they do things on their own when we get off the field, whether that's their training, rehab, and preparation for the game or film study, game plan review, so forth. I think we have a group that works really hard and we have a lot of leadership. It's not just the captains or one or two guys. We have multiple leaders at every position. This group has worked hard. They've earned what success we have had to this point. Hopefully, we're all ready to keep earning it.
