Bill Belichick on Trey Flowers’s dream: ‘I’m not an analyst of nightmares’
"That’s what we're all trying to do. That’s what I’m trying to do."
As a football coach, Bill Belichick has always been praised as a student of the game. His analysis of his team has often been exactly on point for the Patriots during the team’s run of success.
One thing Belichick is not, according to the coach himself, is someone who will analyze nightmares.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday ahead of Sunday’s Divisional Round playoff game against the Chargers, Belichick offered a memorable quote in response to defensive end Trey Flowers’s Monday anecdote.
As Flowers described the day before, he had a dream about a very specific football task for defensive ends (setting the edge), only it devolved into a nightmare.
“Actually, over the bye, I had a dream about kind of setting the edge, or [I] didn’t set the edge,” Flowers explained. “I kind of woke up and it was a nightmare. It turned into a nightmare.”
Trey Flowers had a dream over the weekend that he failed to set the edge. He’s focused on making sure that doesn’t happen on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/BSP1nKpNUH
— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) January 7, 2019
Asked about Flowers’s dream, Belichick deadpanned, “I don’t know. I’m not an analyst of nightmares.”
Belichick noted that it’s normal for players and coaches to think about the upcoming playoff game away from the field.
“I’m sure everybody has, whether it’s in bed or driving or whatever, somewhere away from the facility, thoughts about the game, about each of our roles in the game and want to make sure that we do them the very best that we can so that we don’t let our teammates down and can perform well and help our team win,” explained the Patriots coach. “That’s what we’re all trying to do. That’s what I’m trying to do. We’ll see how it turns out but that’s what preparation for a big game is, is thinking about your job and preparing to do it well and going out there and executing it when you get the opportunity.”
