Belichick: Pats 'overprepare' for every game, Bills no exception
By Doug Kyed
FOXBORO, Mass. — The New England Patriots’ Week 2 matchup suddenly looks a lot more difficult after the Buffalo Bills trounced the reigning “AFC Finalist” Indianapolis Colts.
These are not the same Bills that the Patriots are used to embarrassing every fall. Rex Ryan has taken over the team and defense, while former San Francisco 49ers coordinator Greg Roman is running the offense. Tyrod Taylor, the Baltimore Ravens’ longtime backup, is the new starting quarterback, and he impressed in his first career start, completing 73.7 percent of his passes while rushing for 4.6 yards per clip.
So, how is head coach Bill Belichick prepping his Patriots for the unknown? By cramming hard.
“You go into every game, and you have to overprepare, because they can only run so many plays, call it 70 plays,” Belichick said. “You have three, four, five, six — sometimes way more than that — but games that you’re looking at. So, now you have in the neighborhood of 300 to 400 plays. Some of that is they repeat and you try to get a tendency, you try to get a read on it, but each game is different.
“Teams that game plan a lot, like Buffalo does on both sides of the ball, you go in with a general plan, a general idea. You certainly know what their personnel is, how you want to defend certain individual players, but as the game unfolds, then you can generally start to see this is how they’re going to try to attack us, then at that point you have to make sometimes some in-game adjustments or maybe some things you have prepared for that you’ve gotten different things ready for, doesn’t look like they’re going to come up, so you kind of put those things to the side and focus on things either they’re hurting you with or what it looks to you like they’re going to try to play the game.
“It starts wider, then it generally funnels in as the game starts to unfold, 15-20 plays into the game, you generally have a pretty good idea: This is what they’re going to try to do. Not to say it doesn’t move a little bit from there. You certainly know more after 15 plays into the game then you do going into the game. I’d say that’s a pretty common theme every week.”
The Patriots showed interest in signing wide receiver Percy Harvin before he latched on with the Bills this spring, so they know his game well. Harvin caught five passes for 79 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown, and he’s been a threat in the running game with past teams. There’s uncertainty with how the Bills will use a player like Harvin, however, so that’s where overpreparation comes in handy.
The Bills will certainly throw new wrinkles at the Patriots, but there’s no doubt Belichick will be ready for any- and everything.
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