Bill Belichick raves about Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner before Patriots meet Seahawks
For most of 17 minutes, Bill Belichick—the famously terse coach who usually wants to walk across nails in bare feet more than talk to the media—went on and on showering praise upon Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner.
He went four seconds answering what he’s learned in the last month coaching Cam Newton for the first time.
So, Monday’s talk with the Patriots coach eventually became what they always are: Short, terse, non-answers when asked about his own team.
It’s nice that in a 2020 so abnormal and unsettling some things are still, well, normal.
Belichick’s Patriots (1-0) are coming to Seattle for the Seahawks’ home opener Sunday night at CenturyLink Field, which will be empty because of the COVID-19 virus. This will be the sixth time the legendary coach has faced Seattle while leading New England, which he’s done for the last 21 seasons. It will be his third time coaching the Patriots in CenturyLink Field.
The 68-year-old Belichick is 3-2 against the Seahawks while leading New England. He is 1-2 against Wilson and Wagner.
That one win, of course, was the biggest. The Patriots’ Malcolm Butler intercepted Wilson at the goal line in the final seconds to end Super Bowl 49. It was a quick slant-pass play Belichick reportedly coached the cornerback on specifically for that situation the day before the game.
Belichick couldn’t have been more admiring of Wilson on Monday.
When the coach was asked what difficulties he has preparing his Patriots defense for a good quarterback such as Wilson, Belichick said: “He’s more than a good quarterback.
“He’s one of the top players in the league and has been for his entire career. He’s just a tremendous player, obviously a tremendous person. He’s just really good at everything and you have to defend the whole field with him. He’s very dangerous in the pocket and out of the pocket. He is a great deep ball passer, has excellent vision, super competitive, hard to tackle. He’s a great football player.
“I respect a lot of players—all the players really—but he’s certainly at the top of the list of the people we compete against. He’s tough.”
Belichick kept going when asked how he’s seen Wilson evolve over the four times he’s prepared to defend him as the Patriots’ coach and defensive mastermind.
He particularly detailed these teams’ last meeting, the Seahawks-Patriots Sunday night thriller in Foxborough, Massachusetts, in November 2016.
Wilson’s third touchdown pass of that night to Doug Baldwin, an exquisitely timed and thrown ball well before Baldwin was looking for it in the end zone, with 4 1/2 minutes left became the winning points in Seattle’s startling, 31-24 victory at Gillette Stadium.
The final play of that game was Tom Brady’s pass on fourth down from the 1-yard line to Rob Gronkowski. It sailed incomplete while Kam Chancellor ran with, leaped with and covered the hulking tight end.
“We came up clutch,” Wilson said after he completed 25 for 37 passes for 348 yards and the three scores to Baldwin.
His passer rating that night was a sterling 124.6.
Monday, Belichick said that was as competitive a game his Patriots have ever had in Foxborough.
“We’ve had a lot of trouble then every time we played them, and of course they beat us here in 2016,” he said. “It came down to final play, but they hung up a lot of points on us, like 30 something points.
“He’s had a variety of backs, he’s had a variety of receivers, tight ends, offensive linemen. Each time we play him it seems like it’s quite a different group from the time we played them before, from 12 to 14 to 16, and now. There is a few guys, but there’s been a lot of turnover, but he continues to be super productive with whoever it is and whatever he has to work with. He’s very, very resourceful and has the ability to do so many things that if you take one thing away from him, he can still kill you doing other things. That’s the mark of a great player and he can make the other players around him better. He consistently does that with all of them.
“He’s problem number one.
“That was a great football game. But, as competitive a game, as I think, as we’ve ever played in a stadium. We played a lot of them, a lot of big ones. It was a great football game and two evenly matched teams, and they got the better of us. That’s the type of effort where you get from Pete (Carroll) and the Seahawks.”
As for Wagner, the Patriots coach more than appreciates how exquisite the All-Pro linebacker been in the middle of Seattle’s defense since 2012.
He shared that appreciation, too.
“Bobby’s a great football player. Super-productive,” Belichick said. “He’s got a great nose for the ball, very instinctive. He runs well. He anticipates plays well. There’s just no price that you can put on that, knowing what’s going to happen or anticipate what’s going to happen, and then being able to get there and make the play right in the middle. You’re a bullseye for somebody on every play.
“There are no plays where you’re not blocking 54. You’re accounting for him on everything and still he continues to have tremendous production in the running game, the passing game, he’s a good blitzer, he’s good on outside plays. He’s got good instincts on the inside runs. He’s quick, he can escape blockers and also take them on. He’s good tackler, he really understands coverages that they play well. He almost plays like a safety around a line of scrimmage and some of the things that they do where he has to carry over routes and things like that. It’s a very difficult position to play in that defense.
“He’s exceptional.”
Yes, this was still Bill Belichick during a press conference.
But, alas, asking him about Newton’s victorious debut last weekend for New England, his two touchdown runs in Belichick’s first game without Brady on his team since he became the Patriots’ coach?
Back to the usual Bill Belichick.
“He’s been great to work with,” he said. “He’s got a great attitude and works very hard.”
Oh, OK. Thanks.
The day before, he and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels had Newton throw just 19 passes, completing 15, for 155 yards. But the former NFL most valuable player for Carolina ran 15 times in his Patriots debut, for 75 yards and two rushing touchdowns. Those scores were the difference in New England’s 21-11 home win over Miami.
Newton also ran to extend drives on third downs twice and on fourth downs once.
It absolutely was a dimension the Patriots did not have while winning six Super Bowls in Brady’s 20 years with Belichick. New England rushed 42 times against the Dolphins, for 217 yards.
So what did Belichick have to say about Newton’s performance in the new QB’s first Patriots game?
“Maybe we talked about that after the game. I’m sure you read everything there,” the coach said.
Oh.
“I don’t really know how much that was bad. We were able to beat Miami and that was a big win for us. Always good to start off in that column, and especially as a division win,” Belichick said. “We had a lot of guys play well. Cam had a good day, so did a lot of other people.
“Hopefully we can build on that and continue to improve every day and every week. We know we’re going to have to play our best on day in Seattle.
“Whatever we did this week, I don’t think that’ll be good enough. I think we’ll have to be better than that.”
