Bill Belichick details challenges of facing Andy Reid’s Chiefs - Arrowhead Pride

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick spoke to the media after Sunday’s night’s 37-31 overtime victory over the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.

It’s not at all unusual for NFL head coaches to give credit to opposing players and coaches after the game. But win or lose, it’s relatively rare for them to go into very much detail about the opposition — especially when the coach in question is the famously-reticent Belichick.

“The Chiefs are very well-coached,” he said after the game on Sunday. “They have a lot of great players, and we expected it to be a 60-minute game. It turned out to be more than that. That was the way it was the last time we played them. It was obviously a great back-and-forth type of battle in the fourth quarter — and throughout the entire game — but particularly in the fourth quarter. A lot of close calls and a lot of key plays.”

Belichick was specifically asked about Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill.

“He is a problem,” Belichick said. “Obviously he made some plays tonight, and he is a very explosive player. We doubled him a lot. They have so many weapons, you just can’t stop everybody. The backs, tight ends, the receivers, the quarterback, great coach, good game plan. Andy Reid got us with several scheme plays in the second half. They were really well-designed and attacked our defense. You are just out there battling trying to hang on the best you can, but it is tough. This is a good football team.”

When asked about how he felt he needed to handle Kansas City’s explosive offense, he side-stepped the question — choosing instead to speak about the Chiefs defense.

“You cannot take it for granted scoring against these guys. We had some short-yardage situations that we did not convert. You try to play too cute and not score, and then you [guys] are sitting here asking all of the other questions. We did what we thought was right and what we felt was best.”

Belichick said that against the Chiefs, it was important for the Patriots to keep varying their approach.

“I don’t think you can keep doing the same thing against this team. You have got to try to keep them off-balance. and [have] to make them think it is one thing, and [then] try to do something else. It is even hard then. You cannot sit there and do the same thing all night. In the end, we could have had a much better night offensively if we could have converted a couple of short yardage situations, but with the Chiefs, every situation is challenging. They did a better job than we did on the goal line stop and a couple of the short yardage situations.”

Let's block ads! (Why?)