Patriots

Bill Belichick discussed the Patriots’ mistakes, controversial officiating, and the astonishing final play

"You've got your opinion. That's fine."

Bill Belichick after the Patriots' loss to the Raiders. AP Photo/David Becker

December 19, 2022

A day after one of the most unbelievable and disastrous losses in Patriots history, Bill Belichick tried to keep an even keel during his Monday morning interview on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.”

“All losses are tough,” Belichick said when asked how he addressed the team following Sunday’s last-second 30-24 defeat against the Raiders. “You put a lot into the game and it doesn’t turn out well, it’s always disappointing. As always, we’ll work to correct our mistakes and move on. That’s what we need to do.”

The Patriots are 7-7 and currently trail in the AFC playoff chase (sitting eighth in the standings, with only seven teams making the postseason).

Though he kept most of his remarks to general topics, Belichick gave an obvious nod to the catastrophic final play in which Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones ran a recovered lateral back for the walk-off touchdown.

“We obviously need to play better situational football,” Belichick explained.

“Obviously the play didn’t turn out anywhere close to the way we wanted to it, so I’ll just leave it at that,” he added of the failed laterals later in the interview.

Aside from the headline-grabbing debacle on the last play, the Patriots’ uncharacteristic (and repeated) mental errors and costly mistakes was one of the postgame talking points, especially on offense. New England was unable to consistently move the ball despite facing a statistically unimpressive Raiders defense.

Asked about it by show producer Chris Curtis, Belichick refused to get into specifics.

“You’ve got your opinion. That’s fine,” said Belichick. “There are some things that we’re doing well, and there are things in every game that we need to do better. So we’ll work on those.”

“We’ll keep working to do everything as right as we possibly can.”

One of the controversial moments on Sunday’s game came when Raiders wide receiver Keelan Cole’s game-tying touchdown appeared to be out of bounds.

The play was reviewed, and the call was upheld. What did Belichick think of the ruling?

“Doesn’t really matter what I think, or anybody else,” he noted. “The officials make their calls and then we all live with it.”