Belichick high on Garoppolo's toughness

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FOXBORO – Jimmy Garoppolo got cuffed around pretty good Thursday night. From the sack he took on the first drive when he missed a chance to step up in the pocket, to a pancaking he took after Marcus Cannon seemed to miss a block to a decent stick on a fourth-down scramble, Garoppolo took the kind of dings red-jerseyed QBs never take in practice.

Bill Belichick said he took the pounding like a champ.

“I think that’s always been a strength of Jimmy. He’s a tough kid and he’s, I think, responded well from those in the past,” Belichick replied. “I can’t remember too many quarterbacks getting hit harder or more often than he did against Buffalo a couple of years ago (in the 2014 regular season finale when starters rested and Garoppolo was sacked three times and piñata’d several more.) I don’t think that’s an issue. He’s been resilient and has good toughness.”

Belichick was complimentary of the way Garoppolo delivered the ball on his second quarter completion to James White as well, a flip to the right that went for 56 yards.

“Jimmy [Garoppolo] did a good job of getting the ball off,” Belichick explained. “They were in a blitz and [Roman] Harper was coming off of the edge, so we did a good job of getting the ball around them. Shaq [Mason] got out in front and made a good block, [Bryan] Stork made the defender – the linebacker sort of ran around him – and that opened up a little space, but I’d say really the key block on the play was by [Aaron] Dobson, who got the linebacker that was in coverage on White. It was certainly one of our better executed plays of the night, offensively.”

The scramble by Garoppolo on fourth-and-2 looked gritty and gutty and all that. But it may not have been the best time for it given that a broken Garoppolo mean a full dose of rookie Jacoby Brissett to start 2016 in relief of the suspended Tom Brady.

“The scramble play, it didn’t make the sideline very happy,” Garoppolo admitted. “But it was fourth down, and I don’t know, the football player inside me kicked in, I guess. In the future, I’ll hopefully slide in that situation, but I wanted to get the first down. The throw over the middle was just an error throw. It was just a bad decision, can’t make it and won’t do it in the future.”

Said Belichick, “We talk to the quarterbacks all the time about different situations with that being one of many, many that we discuss. So, they’ve been taught about kind of what the guidelines are. Every play is different and every situation could be a little bit different. There is not necessarily, I would say, one rule that fits every situation, but again there are some general guidelines so that’s how we try to coach it and I think they understand that. I’m saying all of the quarterbacks, Tom [Brady], Jacoby [Brissett], Jimmy and they’re trying to do the right thing or the best thing for the team, as they should, and like I said, I think there are sometimes a number of things to consider in that conversation and we’ve talked about that at length."

 If you’re fluent in Belispeak, you’ll understand that included in the “number of things to consider” would be the risk vs. reward of getting your head and neck launched like a Scud into the Greater Wrentham area during a preseason game.  
 

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