Getty New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Bill Belichick
Bill Belichick doesn’t normally give the media much in the way of verbose commentary–unless he’s gushing over a random special-teamer on one of the New England Patriots’ upcoming opponents. While Belichick’s words are usually few, he’s rarely flat wrong when he speaks.
However, even Belichick has his moments of inaccuracy. On Monday, Belichick was asked about his defense’s struggles to stop Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills offense, whom they play on Thursday for the first time this season.
The Patriots were infamously unable to force a single punt from the Bills’ offense in the last two meetings, the last of which was a playoff game. Belichick was seemingly searching for a quick-twitch response to the loaded question from WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show, but he wound up spewing some inaccurate information.
“I mean, we had them in punt formation on the first series of the game in the second game and gave up a fake punt,” Belichick said when the subject of the Patriots forcing the Bills to punt was brought up. “So, I wouldn’t really put that on the defense. But regardless, they moved the ball consistently against us. We certainly didn’t make them punt in the playoff game.”
The only problem with that statement is that it’s false. The Patriots didn’t force the Bills to punt the ball or even into a fake-punt formation a single time last year–not even in the wind-impacted victory New England had earlier in the 2021 season.
Belichick must have gotten his wires a bit crossed. He had to be referring to this fake punt from Buffalo back in 2020 when the Bills victimized Cam Newton and the Patriots in a late-season matchup. NESN’s Zack Cox called Belichick out on what he called an “odd and inaccurate” take.
Around the NFL: Steelers’ Monday Night Excellence Continues Under Mike Tomlin
We don’t know what it is about the Pittsburgh Steelers under Mike Tomlin on Monday Night Football. Still, after the win on Monday night over the Indianapolis Colts, the Steel Curtain moved to 19-3 all-time under the guidance of the Omar Epps lookalike, per CBS Sports.
The Steelers prevailed 24-17 after outscoring the Colts 8-0 in the final quarter. Behind rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett, the Steelers improved their record to 4-7 while dropping the Colts to the same mark.
Neither team is likely headed to the postseason, but it has to be encouraging for the Steelers and their young signal-caller to earn a win in primetime.
Around the NFL: Colts to Stick With Matt Ryan
After a crushing defeat on Monday Night Football. Colts interim head coach Jeff Saturday vowed to stick with veteran quarterback Matt Ryan as his starting quarterback, according to TCN’s Grant Gordon.
Jeff Saturday: Matt’s gonna continue to be the guy
Ryan was benched by former Colts head coach Frank Reich in what proved to be the final major decision the former was to make as the leader of the horseshoes. Reich turned to second-year quarterback Sam Ehlinger who was a disaster against the Patriots back in a 26-3 Week 9 loss.
Saturday was seemingly intent on killing any speculation around a quarterback change before it got started. It would appear Ryan will be the man under center for the final six games of the Colts’ season, barring injury.