Bill Belichick talked defensive adjustments and praised ‘awesome’ Patriots fans
"There were so many Patriots fans there. It was surprising and overwhelming."
As much as Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s focus was on on the field in Sunday’s win, he couldn’t help but notice the strong support his team was getting from the crowd.
New England fans were well represented in FedExField, and Belichick noticed.
“It was amazing,” said Belichick after his team locked up a 33-7 win. “There were so many Patriots fans there. It was surprising and overwhelming. It was great to see them, [I] appreciate the support from all of our traveling Patriot fans. Or maybe they’re from here, I don’t know. But it was great to see them. It was awesome.”
The New England fan base had a lot to cheer in the win, though Washington took an unexpected lead early in the first quarter when speedy receiver Steven Sims Jr. took an end around, broke a tackle, and sprinted 65 yards for a touchdown.
The play triggered some adjustments from the Patriots, as Belichick explained.
“It happened early,” the Patriots coach said of Washington’s score. “It’s obviously a bad play and we could certainly coach it better, we could play it better.”
Still, Belichick agreed with the assertion that his defense responded well to conceding an unforeseen early touchdown.
“They bounced right back and kind of had a higher level of determination to execute better,” said Belichick. “And like I said, we fixed a couple of things. You know the Redskins used a lot of 10 personnel. A lot of four receivers. They were down a tight end, so we anticipated some of that, but not as much as they did. So we could’ve probably been a little better prepared for it, but yeah it was a good job by the secondary adjusting to those formations, and we put in a couple of calls in the second quarter and then at halftime to try and handle [that] a little bit better. But the players did a really good job adjusting to that, absolutely.”
