FOXBORO — On Tuesday afternoon, as Bill Belichick publicly confirmed his gamers’ suspicions that Colts linebacker Shaquille Leonard knew a couple of of the Patriots’ offensive play-calls in a 26-3 win final weekend, he gave off an air of being nearly impressed.
On Wednesday, one among his defensive captains did the identical.
“I didn’t see (Belichick’s) comment, but shoutout to those dudes for spotting and picking up on that,” mentioned Pats linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley.
Leonard and Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley have accurately anticipated a number of offensive performs towards the Patriots the previous two weeks. Multiple gamers mentioned Leonard’s feat within the locker room post-game Sunday, nearly bewildered at how he accurately anticipated display screen passes and out of doors runs.
However, their teammates on the defensive facet of the ball indicated Wednesday it’s comparatively widespread throughout the NFL.
“If you’re a student of the game and you watch film, you’re going to pick up on some things that the offense does,” Pats Adrian Phillips mentioned. “Sometimes you’re right; sometimes you’re wrong. It’s really not a big deal. Everybody across the league does it.”
Bentley agreed.
“There’s only so many plays you can run in the game, so some of the plays tend to repeat,” Bentley mentioned. “So certain keys and stuff like that, you’ll pick up on throughout the games. If you’re able to spot them, it’s kind of a plus for you. Other times, teams like to throw a little wrinkle in there so you’re not always right. But for the most part, hopefully you’re right on a couple of those things.”
Patriots quarterback Mac Jones echoed these ideas and others of Belichick’s throughout a press convention Wednesday, saying clearly the offense needs to remove any potential tells. He additionally believes the group’s playbook accommodates sufficient selection to maintain defenses off-balance. Reports of Leonard and Mosley leaping performs have amplified issues the Patriots offense is just too predictable beneath first-year play-caller Matt Patricia.
The Pats at present rank sixteenth in scoring at 22.6 factors per sport.
“Like I always say, in the NFL good players are everywhere,” Jones mentioned. “We watch film. We sometimes know what teams are doing; sometimes we don’t. I think people just watch a lot of film, and there’s good players out there, so you have to just give credit where credit’s due. Obviously, we want to fix anything that we’re giving away, but at the end of the day, we’ve got plenty, and we just need to do better.”
On Wednesday, the Patriots held their solely apply of the bye week, the place they drilled particular person fundamentals and Belichick mentioned he anticipated to make some “team scheme adjustments.”
The Pats will return to motion towards Mosley and the Jets at residence on Nov. 20.
Source: www.bostonherald.com