Before Jimmy Garoppolo had even stepped to the visitor's podium following New England's 23-21 win over the Cardinals on Sunday night, people knew that there would be fawning over the performance by the Patriots starting quarterback.
And with good reason. He showed unusual poise for a player making his first start, on the road, against one of the league's best defenses from 2015. It was the kind of performance that even Bill Belichick might be willing to praise.
Instead, when he was asked about Garoppolo's handling of the big moment, the Patriots head coach gave a one-word answer and paused for six seconds.
"Good," Belichick said . "It's been good. Made some good plays. It's not perfect but he made a lot of plays . . . It's a tough place to play and it's a good defense."
Moments later Belichick was asked if he might be underplaying what the 2014 second-round pick was able to accomplish since his play was "probably going to be the main story line tomorrow."
Belichick cut off the question before it was finished.
"I mean, I'm really, really concerned about the story line," Belichick scoffed. "There's really nothing higher on my list than the story line tomorrow.
New England Patriots
"We beat a good team, on the road, we got a lot of work to do. That's all of us. Coaching. Playing. Offense. Defense. Special teams. That's what I saw in the game. But I can't wait to read it tomorrow."