The Patriots had some trouble communication-wise against the Chiefs in Week 1. Despite some technical difficulties in Week 2, Bill Belichick highlighted his team's ability to communicate as one of its strong suits.
"Situational things came up, we handled those pretty well," Belichick said after beating the Saints, 36-20. "I thought Matt [Patricia] and Josh [McDaniels] did a real good job on the sideline with the communication issues we had to work through during the game. And that was challenging, but they handled that very well. We didn’t really have, all things considered, too many problems."
PATRIOTS 36, SAINTS 20
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Belichick was spotted working with the communication equipment before the game, which actually delayed the kickoff briefly. He acknowledged afterwards that it was an issue throughout the afternoon.
"Communication," Belichick said, "was difficult . . . before the game and all game."
Asked to expand on the readiness required to thrive despite difficulty relaying signals offensively and defensively, Belichick stopped the conversation.
New England Patriots
"I’m done talking about it," he said. "I said what I had to say."
The communication problems that players (specifically defensive players) highlighted last week were more specific to what would happen after a play was called in from the sidelines. But the fact that the Patriots were able to succeed, that the communication was still relatively fluid, in New Orleans despite the technological glitches was a sign that everyone was on the same page this week.
Here are a few more quotes of note from Belichick's postgame press conference following his team's win over the Saints . . .
On getting third-down stops against the Saints (No. 1 in third-down conversions in 2016): "It was huge. Third and fourth down (we were) both able to get off the field defensively. That was the good part, but we gave up some plays which wasn't so good. We were able to convert on third down. That was key for us. That's a tough offense to stop. They have a lot of good players that are very well-coached and a great quarterback. Anytime you can get them off the field or even let them get down into the red area and hold them to a field goal, it is a good job by the defense."
On his team's fast start (20-3 lead after the first quarter): "We were able to do that, so it was a good night. We always try to do that. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. We were able to do that today. They turned the ball over, offensively, which is a good thing. We were able to make fourth down stops on defense. Those were key for us. Those aren't turnovers, but they are turnovers."