Sports Radio Interviews

Bill Belichick: “The turf down there is terrible. It’s terrible”

So he was criticized for going for it on fourth down, his team couldn’t win a game on the road this season, well London doesn’t count, and his team wasn’t as dominant as it has been in the past, but they are back in the playoffs and won the AFC East. Amid all of that there is still news surrounding good ole’ Bill; his Pro Bowl receiver Wes Welker is done for the playoffs and who knows if he’ll be ready for the start of the 2010 season. Welker’s injury happened while making a cut in the first quarter of Sunday’s regular-season-ending loss. Initial tests showed he tore both the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and MCL (medial collateral ligament) in his left knee. This kind of injury has a major recovery period.

The Patriots have a chance to prove all the naysayers wrong by beating the Ravens this weekend and getting to round 2 of the playoffs where they would meet the Chargers. They have had good fortune against San Diego in recent playoffs. Randy Moss will see constant double teams in the playoffs without Wes Welker owning the slot. Brady will need to withhold the constant pressure from the Ravens. One major thing they have going for them is they are 8-0 there this season and have outscored their opponents by 18.4 points a game at Gillette Stadium. Can Belichick work his magic one more time without Welker, a bruised up Brady, and the rest of the Brady Bunch for one more title run? The first step is through Ray Lewis and the Ravens.

Bill Belichick joined the Big Show on WEEI in Boston and talked about the game against Houston on Sunday, the field at Reliant Stadium, Welker’s injury, and the upcoming playoff game versus Baltimore.

Asked about his plan for the final game, and if that changed when Welker went down with the injury:

“No, not really. I’d say we pretty much played everybody and we got guys some experience, in normal situations and in some situations that they hadn’t been in — for example, Hoyer. I think that’s kind of what we wanted to do going into the game. Everybody played; everybody got a chance to get some work, of the guys that were active. And that’s he way it went.”

Asked if he thought there was any problem in Houston that turf:

“The turf down there is terrible. It’s terrible. It’s just inconsistent. It’s all the little trays of grass and some of them are soft and some of them are firm and they don’t all fit well together, those seams, some of it feels like a sponge, some of it feels real firm and hard like the Miami surface. One step you’re on one, the other step you’re on another. I really think it’s one of the worst fields I’ve seen.”

Asked about Welker making the same cut he’s made before, only this time he’s injured:

“For the level of play we have in the National Football League, I think consistency on the field would be priority No. 1. We talk about players’ safety, about hits and all that and that’s certainly an area that should always be addressed. There’s nothing more important than player safety. To me, player safety starts on the surface that we play on.”Someone said you were on the field before the game.

Were you concerned about it before the game?

“Yeah, absolutely. I said I walked out there and I thought it was terrible.”

Asked how much time did he spent on Baltimore last week, or did he have any idea that was the highest probability of who you would play?

“Not too much time formulating a game plan, but quite a bit of time getting ready for them and preparing for them. Watching the game. That’s the team I spent all my time watching, and you never know how it’s going to turn out, but (we) kind of played the percentages that the Jets would win and that Baltimore would beat the Raiders, and that sewed it up, so … we’ve seen a lot of them. And we have a lot of scouting work done on them. Today, we’ll start on the game plan, tonight and tomorrow, and have that ready when the players come in on Wednesday. But they’re, in a way, the same team we saw, but in another way, they’ve evolved like all of us have over the course of the season, and they’re solid I all three phases of the game.”

On how they’ve evolved:

“I think it’s a little bit by game. But they seem to be a little more balanced running and passing. We got a lot of passing — I think he threw almost 50 times against us, or whatever. I think it was 40-something. And Rice is their leading receiver with 70-something catches. They get the ball to everybody, obviously the backs and the receivers. Heap and spread the ball around. It seems like they’ve balanced it up a bit with the running game and with Rice and, of course, McGahee had a big day for them yesterday. Gaither is back on the offensive line, and they’re using Chester a little bit as a second tight end, and Yanda is playing a little bit more. It seems like they’ve gotten a little bit bigger. And their fullback has had a real good year for them, and that’s helped them in the running game, too.”

Listen to Bill Belichick on The Big Show in Boston on WEEI

Tags: AFC, AFC Playoffs, AFC Wildcard, Baltimore Ravens, Bill Belichick, New England Patriots, Randy Moss, Tom Brady, Wes Welker