There’s a misconception about Patriots coach Bill Belichick that he hates talking to the media and responds to questions by grumbling one-word answers. The reality is that there are two types of questions and answers at Belichick press conferences.
There are, of course, the curt replies to questions Belichick doesn’t feel like answering. But when a reporter asks a question that interests Belichick -- particularly a question about football strategy and technique -- he is perhaps more willing than any coach in the NFL to take the time to give an in-depth answer.
Take Belichick’s response to a question on Thursday about the Patriots moving veteran defensive end Chris Long inside to play defensive tackle. When a reporter asked, “What does a player need to make that transition inside and have success?” Belichick gave a 250-word reply.
“It’s a different type of matchup,” Belichick said. “Generally, when an end works against a tackle it’s pretty much just those two guys. Sometimes a back or a tight end might chip him but for the most part it’s pretty much truly a one-on-one situation from a wider alignment with rush-lane responsibilities on the edge. Inside there’s a third guy involved somewhere between the center and the guards against usually two rushers, unless you blitz but let’s just say you don’t, if you rush four then it’s some version of three-on-two in there, so you’re dealing with another guy that you’re just not dealing with outside. The guards are generally have a little less length and a little less athleticism than the tackles but you also have a little less space in there. Seeing the way the protection slides, which way the center goes, whether you’re rushing on the guard or rushing on the center; as a defensive end you’re really not that worried about which way the slide is going because that doesn’t affect you too much. It might affect you from the inside to make an inside move on the tackle. The guard might be there, but again, I’d say overall that’s less of an issue than when you’re playing inside, so there are some scheme things, there’s a little matchup difference. It’s different for the guards to see those guys inside like that, too, that usually have more length, more speed, more quickness, less power generally.”
The follow up to that response was about whether bringing five pass rushers makes it hard for opposing offenses to match up, and Belichick again had a lengthy response.
“Yeah, well I think really the key number is six [rushers], not five,” Belichick said. “If it’s five, they can identify who you’re five are then they’re going to be five-on five. That’s what we see. If there is six, then there’s I would say, on paper anyways, a potential mismatch of a back or a tight end on one of those guys; a defensive end, or [Dont’a] Hightower, or [Jamie] Collins, or linebackers but you could call them ends if you wanted to. So, I would say those are where the mismatches are and then, if so, it could be any number of things where we could locate them. If there’s only five guys, if the team has one good blitzing linebacker and four down lineman then what we would do – what most teams would do, try to do probably – is just us five have those five and sort it out from there and get the other protector, usually the back, the sixth guy.”
He’s reticent on some topics, but Belichick loves talking about football.