"It's new to me, and I think it's new to a lot of players. I know Randy Moss was talking about it, the idea of just focusing in on situational football, locking in on that."
Whether it's Washington, Moss, or 12-year veteran Tory James, they've quickly come to learn that situations are emphasized by the Patriots coaching staff. It's one of Belichick's trademarks, and it came to life once again on the practice field yesterday morning. The focus was on what happens in the final minute of a game while trying to set up a winning or tying field goal.
In a regular training camp practice, Belichick himself often yells out the situation, noting the down and distance, how much time is remaining, and how many timeouts the team has available. But with yesterday's practice held inside Gillette Stadium, all that information was on the scoreboard, and the players -- who lined up on both sidelines as if it were a regular-season game -- responded as if it were a game situation. So did the coaches, who called out for sub defenses and used hand signals to communicate.
Some of the situations:
There are 38 seconds remaining, the ball is on the 30, no timeouts left.
There are 10 seconds remaining, the ball is on the 50, one timeout left.
There are nine seconds remaining, the ball is on the 30, one timeout left.
In the first scenario, the field goal unit came sprinting onto the field after quarterback Tom Brady completed a 10-yard pass, with kicker Stephen Gostkowski hurrying to get off a 37-yard attempt before time expired (the ball clanged off the left upright).
"A lot of times, the whole game comes down to a couple plays and how they are executed," Belichick explained. "We just pick them to try to cover the smorgasbord of things that could come up. The ones we covered [yesterday], we'll cover different ones [today], and then watch them on film and correct them and talk about them."
The team also reviews plays from previous seasons or things that happened to other clubs that it hopes to avoid. Belichick added that while the situations are generally set up for the offense, it's beneficial for the defense as well.
