Bill Belichick has a lot of praise -- a real lot of praise -- for the Chicago Bears
BOSTON -- Bill Belichick praising upcoming opponents, even when those opponents are quite bad, is nothing new. In fact, it often seems as though the worse an opponent is, the more acclaim Belichick offers up in advance of the matchup.
That practice reached a new level on Wednesday, though, when Belichick talked with reporters over Zoom about the Patriots' next opponent, the Chicago Bears.
Belichick began his session with an opening thought on the Bears, and all of the dangerous players they have. It was a statement that included more than 1,000 words and lasted seven minutes and 29 seconds.
It was a lot.
Belichick praised just about everyone he could name on the Chicago roster. That includes obvious ones, like quarterback Justin Fields, or receiver Darnell Mooney, or running backs Khalil Herbert and David Montgomery. But it also included special teams contributors, like DeAndre Houston-Carson, Velus Jones Jr., and Josh Blackwell.
Belichick complimented the leg strength of punter Trenton Gill, and the accuracy of kicker Cairo Santos. He managed to fit in plaudits for Roquan Smith, Robert Quinn, Nicholas Morrow, Dane Cruikshank, Dante Pettis, Trestan Ebner, Eddie Jackson and Kyler Gordon, while extolling the virtues of Matt Eberflus' system.
Listening to Belichick, you'd never know that the Bears were 2-4, with one of their wins being a three-point victory over Houston, and the other being a win over the Niners in the midst of a 10-year storm in Week 1. You'd never know they're riding a three-game losing streak, or that they managed to score just seven points in prime time last week against the Commanders, who had been allowing 25.6 points per game prior to that Week 6 contest last Thursday night.
You'd never know that Justin Fields has more interceptions (5) than touchdowns (4), or that he ranks 29th in passer rating, or that he's been sacked a league-high 23 times.
Listening to that ballad for the Bears, you'd assume they're a great football team, one that's ready to potentially stun the Patriots with a win in Gillette this upcoming Monday night, with all of the football world watching.
And that, obviously, is the point. Belichick makes sure to never underestimate any opponent, in an effort to make sure his team never underestimates any opponent. In the NFL, even the best teams can lose to the worst teams if preparation and focus is lacking. Some of those slip-ups have happened during the Patriots' best years; they were 12-1 when they lost a Monday nighter to the 2-11 Dolphins in '04, they were 6-1 when they lost an ugly game in Cleveland to the 2-5 Browns in 2010, and they were 10-1 when they lost at home to the 4-7 Eagles in 2015, just to name a few. The 2019 season was also basically shattered when the 12-3 Patriots lost at home to the 4-11 Dolphins, losing a first-round playoff bye in the process and bringing a premature end to the Tom Brady era.
Plus, as everyone knows, upsets happen around the league every week. The Steelers were given no shot against the Bucs last week, yet they won on home turf. The Jets were 7.5-point underdogs in Green Bay and ended up beating the Packers by 17. The Falcons were 4.5-point underdogs at home and ended up beating the 49ers by two touchdowns. And those are just from last week alone.
So clearly, Belichick expects his players to treat the 2022 Chicago Bears like they're the 1985 Chicago Bears. And just as clearly, when Bill Belichick has an extra day to grind film on an opponent, he grinds that film.
With that, here's the full opening comment from Belichick, unedited (with a major assist to the Patriots' PR department for doing the bulk of the heavy lifting on the transcription):
OK. We've had a chance here to spend some time looking at the Bears. This is a pretty impressive group and really a young team that you can see getting better all the time. Coach [Eberflus] has done a really good job here with installing his system and I think adapting to the personnel that they have there, and obviously, getting a lot of young players involved. I think it's one of the youngest teams in the league.
Offensively, Fields is a major threat every time he touches the ball, very athletic kid. Mooney is really an outstanding receiver. He's had a ton of production, and I can see why. He's very good at everything, plays multiple positions -- in the slot a lot, but they'll move him around. And he's had a ton of production. And then, of course the backs, Herbert and Montgomery are very good. This running game is right there with Cleveland. I mean they literally have about the same exact amount of yardage. I think Herbert is leading the league in yards per carry. They're very hard to tackle. And they do a real good job with their running game and the play-action game as well. A lot of explosive plays. Lead the league in yards per pass attempt. They've hit some big plays. Some of those are catch-and-run plays, and then when you add on Fields' scrambles, which they might count as running plays in the stats, but they're actually passing plays, in terms of having to defend them, there really are a lot of explosive plays there that are a problem.
Young offensive line, talented offensive line, two young tackles. But, really the backs, Mooney, Fields, guys that can really score on any play. And a good group of tight ends that they use in there, so they give you some multiple formations and personnel groups.
Special teams is another young group, core group of players. Houston-Carson is really one of the better coverage players that we'll see all year. Jones, the rookie, has been great for 'em and Blackwell is very fast. So they have a lot of team speed. Cruikshank and then some of their linebackers, which those guys run well too. It's really a good group. One of the better groups that we've played.
Santos, really solid kicker, veteran guy. Just hits the ball straight through, very consistent. And the skills, got a big leg, punter's got a big leg. And he whacks it down there pretty good. So, they can change field position, especially with their fast coverage players, the three guys I mentioned there. They've done an excellent job of creating good field position for their defense. And Jones in the return game -- strong, explosive guy. We spent a lot of time on him. Really dangerous with the ball in his hands. And then Pettis and Ebner. Ebner on the kickoff returns, another fast guy, plays really in all their special teams. And Pettis, an experienced guy back there, they use him some on punt returns. But, it's a good special teams unit, very sound, good players and it's a lot of tough matchups there for us.
And defensively, Matt's obviously brought his very successful system from Indianapolis with him. In Indy, they led the league in turnovers for four straight years, forced a lot of fumbles. They're very disruptive on the ball. Ball security is going to be a big issue.
They've got a lot of outstanding players. They're hard to block on the front. Obviously, Quinn is one of the great defensive linemen in this era. I mean, his numbers are ridiculous, and whatever it was last year -- 17, 18 sacks. This guy is a major disruptive force on the edge. The two linebackers, Smith and Morrow make a ton of tackles. Obviously, Smith leading the league in tackles, been at the top of the league almost every year. He's very hard to block and a very good tackler from sideline to sideline. He's got a lot of range, very instinctive, and gets off blocks well, obviously finds the ball and is really just a tackling machine.
And Jackson's been a guy we've played against before that always is around the ball. Very instinctive player at the safety position. He does some different things, but he's around the ball. He kind of quarterbacks the secondary back there and makes a lot of plays, and makes a lot of big plays -- it's turnovers and returns for touchdowns and stuff like that. That's kind of his play-making style back there. So that's a problem.
Coach Eberflus has really done a good job. I mean, in the second half, they're the best defensive team in the second half of games in the league. Haven't given up much of anything here in six games. I think it's, they're under seven points a game in the second half, or something like that. You watch them play in the second half and seems like as they gain confidence, figure out what the offense is doing, make some adjustments, they've been able to really shut almost everybody down. That's obviously a big concern for us as well.
So young players, guys that we don't know very well, that have already jumped in and made a big impact for 'em, first and second year players. Guys like Mooney, and Gordon on defense, and Jones in the kicking game, Gill in the kicking game, players like that. Then obviously, there's a few guys, Santos and certainly Quinn, guys like that, Roquan Smith, that have been around for a while that are good players as well and have had good careers. So we'll again get to work on these guys from a schematic standpoint and get to know them from a personnel standpoint, but we've got a lot of work to do. They've had some time here and talked about some of the things that they're going to change or do differently or whatever, so we'll have to be prepared for maybe something that we haven't seen from them, whatever adjustments Coach Eberflus and his staff decide to make.
Need a good week of preparation here and be ready to go Monday night.
With that, Belichick took a swig of tea and answered 10 questions from reporters. The last question focused on Justin Fields, and what the Patriots saw in him when scouting him ahead of the 2021 draft. The answer was extensive, though not quite as long as the opening soliloquy.
"Yeah, I think a lot of what you see from him in the NFL," Belichick said when asked what he saw from Fields when he was at Ohio State. "Again, a very athletic kid. He gets out of a lot of trouble with his athleticism, his speed, his size, balance. He runs well. I think he can see the field. Again, they lead the league in yards per pass attempt, so when they throw it, there are a lot of downfield plays. He's accurate. He can throw on the run. He can throw in the pocket. And he sees down the field as well as at other areas, in the intermediate and checkdowns and screens and things like that, which they're very good at, especially with the two outstanding backs that they have. So like any quarterback, coming in to the NFL, it's a big change from the system that they ran in college, and new coverages, and different type plays, and so forth and so on. But you can see him getting better every week and making plays consistently in game after game. Throwing the ball, running the ball, throwing on the run. He has quite a few decision-making plays, whether those are RPOs or line of scrimmage checks based on the defensive deployment and so forth. So I think he's a very talented player that's getting better all the time -- honestly like a lot of players on that team are. They're a team that just each time you watch them play, you kind of see some of their younger players get a little bit better. And they've got a lot of them in there. This is a team that's shown a lot of growth in six weeks. And I'm sure with the good coaching they're getting and the good fundamentals that they have established that that's the way they're going to trend."
The Patriots and Bears will face off on Monday night at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots are only one game better than the Bears, but they should be better on the field on Monday evening. The final scoreboard will determine just how good and dangerous the Bears really are. For now, based on everything Belichick said, they just might be the most dangerous team in the league.
