Bill Belichick: ‘Essentially, we won next week because we won today’
The Patriots clinched a first-round bye with their win over the Jets Sunday.
Sunday’s victory over the New York Jets extends beyond Week 17 for the Patriots.
“Essentially, we won next week because we won today,” coach Bill Belichick told reporters after his team secured a first-round bye with their 38-3 victory at Gillette Stadium Sunday afternoon. “We look forward to continuing to play.”
Belichick praised the team’s preparation and performance, calling the outing a successful collective effort. Quarterback Tom Brady threw for 250 yards and four touchdowns — each to a different receiver — while the defense recovered three fumbles, including one for a touchdown. But, of course, Belichick noted there are still plenty of improvements to be made, as the Patriots await their next opponent.
“Hopefully, we can play our best football going forward,” he said. “Happy to win and happy to be moving on.”
New England concluded the regular season at 11-5 and was the only NFL team to finish with a perfect 8-0 mark at home this season. Its lousy 3-5 record on the road, however, along with some shoddy defense, the departure of Josh Gordon, and speculation that Brady is playing through a knee injury, have sparked conversation about whether the team is capable of assembling a deep playoff run.
“There were some good things and there were some things that could have been better,” Belichick said of the regular season. “In the end, we are where we are.”
Despite the discussion surrounding Brady’s knee, the Patriots’ injury report has stayed relatively empty ahead of the postseason. Though Belichick credited the players and the training staff for putting the group in a position where it can “perform at a high level over an extended period of time,” he also neglected to dwell on the importance of the team’s health.
“What will be important is playing well,” Belichick said. “Playing and coaching well the next time we get to play.”
The Patriots will host their next opponent the weekend of Jan. 12-13. The three possibilities are the Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens, and Los Angeles Chargers.
“We’ll see who the next team we play is,” Belichick said. “We know whoever the team is, we know they’ll be good or they wouldn’t be playing at this time of year. We need to play our best game [and] coach our best game. That’s what we’ll all try to do.”
After dropping back-to-back games in December for the first time since 2002, Belichick seemed pleased with the pair of divisional wins that closed out the season.
“They’ve done a good job,” he said. “That’s coming in here every day ready to go. No bad days, no bad practices — I mean, obviously there’s always things you can practice and so forth — but they worked hard. They were ready to go. They put a lot into these last two games, and we had good results, so the players did a great job. We had great leadership from some of our veteran players, the captains, but also some of the other guys in all three phases.”
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