Bill Belichick usually always starts his usual Wednesday press conference with an opening statement regarding the upcoming opponent on a given week. But, on Wednesday, Belichick didn’t just give an opening statement on the Cowboys, he gave a 5:03 break down of why Dallas presents so many problems.
Perhaps Bill was just sort of talking the opponent up a bit, but it’s probably more of him knowing just how good the Cowboys are, particularly on defense. This was Belichick’s entire open (transcription provided by Pats PR):
Alright, good morning. It’s always interesting to look at Dallas here, obviously, a really good football team. They’ve been good for quite a while. They made a few adjustments last year. You know, Jerry [Jones], Stephen [Jones] put together a great organization. Mike [McCarthy] has kind of evolved things a little bit this year, offensively, with his role in it. Dan [Quinn] does a great job with their defense, which is once again near the top of the league in a lot of categories, most importantly points. Bones [John Fassel] does a great job with the kicking game. They’re very aggressive, best returner in football. So, it’s a well-balanced team. I think Coach McCarthy has done a really good job balancing the team out. They obviously have some great players down there, eight guys in the Pro Bowl last year, most in the league. That’s kind of been their history, always had a lot of very good, high-profile players, going back about as far as you want to go back – maybe not until 1960, but not too long after that. They’ve got a lot of firepower, run the ball, done a good job with the running game. [Tony] Pollard leads the league in touches. He’s got a lot of carries. [CeeDee] Lamb is dynamic, great, great receiver, obviously we had problems with him two years ago, three years ago, whatever it was. [Brandin] Cooks is an explosive player.
“They have a really good offensive line. So, they’re good on offense and, defensively, the front is very disruptive. [Micah] Parsons obviously, every stat you could ever want, tackle for loss, pressures, quarterback hits, sacks. [DeMarcus] Lawrence, Osa [Odighizuwa], they’ve got a disruptive front and they play a lot of guys, similar to what we saw last week with the Jets. They’ll roll those guys through there, good depth on the defensive line. A lot of experience in the secondary with Steph [Stephon Gilmore], [Malik] Hooker and then [DaRon] Bland outside. They got [Jourdan] Lewis back. He was hurt the first part of the year, preseason, didn’t play against the Giants, but he’s back in there now. So, good experience in the secondary. Then, [Leighton] Vander Esch, a really good middle linebacker, real smart guy, runs the defense, has a lot of range, a lot of size, really athletic kid, smart kid. He’s versatile, does a lot of things for them, plays in the deep part of the field, plays linebacker, plays on the edge of the defense and they do a lot of different things with him. I know Coach Quinn has a lot of praise for the flexibility of their defense…. A number of different things with some guys like [Jayron] Kearse, Vander Esch and Parsons, guys that are versatile and can play different spots on the line of scrimmage, off the line of scrimmage. Even in Vander Esch and Kearse’s case, you can see those guys in the deep part of the field, and you can see them on the line of scrimmage, which is pretty unusual. But, that’s kind of a run down on their group.
“A new kicker, big leg, missed his first kick but has been good since then, had a good preseason. I can see why they kept him, a really strong leg. [C.J] Goodwin’s really another leader on special teams, another one of the [Matthew] Slater, [Deonte] Hardy type of guys, that are really the flag carriers in that group. So, pretty experienced team, added Mazi [Smith] on the defensive line. He’s part of the rotation, gives them another good defensive lineman in there. A lot of experience on this team, they go out there and they do a lot of things well. You can see why they have the consistency that they’ve had. Mike’s kind of, I’d say, changed things around a little bit this year, and it looks like that’s working out pretty well, too – getting things the way he wants them, helps them with kind of the complementary game that they’ve been trying to play. Mike’s always done a good job. He’s always been a really hard guy to coach against, gives the defense a lot of problems, schematically, and then obviously, they have good players. So, there you have it. That’s Dallas.”
Dating back to his time with the Giants, Belichick has always had a certain level of respect for the Cowboys operation and owner Jerry Jones, even if a lot of the outside world doesn’t. Bill also touched on that aspect and acknowledged he’s always got an eye on what the boys with the star on their helmet are doing.
“I have a ton of respect for Jerry and Stephen [Jones], and the way they run the organization down there,” he said. “They’ve had decades of success. They were really the team of the 90s with Jimmy [Johnson] and they’ve been good. They’ve been competitive every year, obviously more than competitive. They’ve had a lot of great players down there. Tony [Romo] had a great run. Those are great years there with Tony, Coach [Bill] Parcells. We played them here in the early 2000s, but I always keep an eye on them, just the way they do things. They’ve gotten a lot of players that they’ve gotten a lot of production from that I’d say aren’t big name players – free agents, guys that they dig out down there. I think their scouting staff does a good job. They’re very experienced.
“Almost all of their scouts have been with the Cowboys their entire career, so they home-grow them and they learn their system. I think they manage their personnel really well. Stephen kind of runs that with their personnel department, but, I mean, very consistent organization. They show up every week, every year pretty good. So, I have a ton of respect for them, definitely watch what they do and how they do it and try to learn from it.”