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Bill Belichick Stonewalls Reporters: 'We're On To Cincinnati'

BOSTON (CBS) -- There aren't too many blemishes on Bill Belichick's coaching resume quite as ugly as Monday night's loss to the Chiefs. Belichick's team was outplayed, outcoached and simply dominated en route to getting embarrassed on national television.

It was no doubt a low point for the future Hall of Fame coach, and he made it clear at his Wednesday morning press conference that he did not want to talk about it.

His back-and-forth exchange with reporters went like this:

Reporter: Coach, your team has been so successful for so long. How difficult is it to react to the adversity of Monday night to get back on track so quickly? Because ... this team, this organization hasn't had these sort of issues in the past.

Belichick: "Yeah, well, we're on to Cincinnati."

Reporter: Bill, do you think -- you mentioned Tom [Brady's] age at the draft ...

Belichick (interrupting): "We're on to Cincinnati."

Reporter: But do you think having a 37-year-old ...

Belichick (interrupting): "We're on to Cincinnati. There's nothing about the past, nothing about the future. Right now, we're preparing for Cincinnati."

Reporter: Do you feel like the talent you have here is good?

Belichick: "We're getting ready for Cincinnati."

Reporter: Well, I mean, I'm just asking, do you think you've done enough to help Tom Brady?

Belichick: "We're getting ready for Cincinnati. That's what we're doing."

Reporter: So as you get ready for Cincinnati, does Tom Brady have the talent and protection around him to be on to Cincinnati and ...

Belichick (interrupting): "Yeah, we're going to game-plan and do the best we can to be ready to go Sunday night – same as we always do. Nothing's changed."

...

Reporter: Are the problems you're seeing correctable?

Belichick: "We're going to do the best we can to put together a game plan for Cincinnati and go out and execute it well. That's where we're at."

Reporter: The things that you've seen on tape the first four weeks, do you think the stuff that you're seeing is correctable, that the talent is here to correct the problems?

Belichick: "We're going to put together the best game plan we can, practice it and go out and execute it against Cincinnati."

...

Reporter: Do you think you're still kind of searching for an identity? Still looking for answers? Still ... how would you ...

Belichick: "I think we're trying to find a way to beat the Bengals. That's what we're trying to do."

And then for something totally different, a reporter asked Belichick about the complications the defense faces when an offense runs a trick play.

Belichick answered rather thoroughly.

"As long as I've ever coached, every defense, you have to take care of those responsibilities," Belichick said. "I've never coached a defense where you tell the players, 'Well, we don't have the reverse on this play if they run it, that would be a touchdown. Or if they run a halfback pass, nobody is responsible for that and that will be a touchdown. Or if they run an end-around, we don't really have that play.' I just don't think you could coach like that. Somebody has to be responsible for plays over here, plays over there. If they start over there, then somebody has to be responsible for a play back there. If the guy reverses his field or they run a reverse or they throw a double pass or the quarterback peels out of the backfield -- whatever it is, there are fundamental responsibilities and those plays are part of the responsibilities. You just don't see them as often. I would say that's the thing. I don't think our defense or probably any other defense is designed to say, 'Well, if that guy runs a post pattern, we're not going to cover that.' Or, 'If that guy runs a reverse, we don't have that.' Somebody has it, but if you don't see it very often, you aren't thinking about it or maybe you're not respecting it enough and then it comes and it hits you. Then you don't see it again for another year, but the damage is done.

"That's the way I would characterize those plays. Not that there's not a way to defend them, not that there's a magic to the play, but it's a play you haven't seen that we're not practicing against because I'm sure the ones that they've already run, they're probably less inclined to run those," Belichick continued. "They're probably more inclined to run a new play that they're working on and that's the one that we'll have to react to in the game. That's the challenge of those plays. The challenge on the other side of it is the execution. Some play that you don't run very much, it's calling it at the right time to get maybe a look that you think will be good against that and then being able to execute it well. But I would say that the Bengals have done a very good job of executing those plays. Like [Mohamed] Sanu's passes. He throws the ball as well as a lot of quarterbacks do. He's very accurate and he's got a great touch and arm, but his accuracy is very good. So, they run those plays and it looks like, you see it's [number] 12 but you kind of think, 'Is that a quarterback?' 'No, it's the receiver throwing the ball.' So, they execute them well and they have a good design to them. But I don't think it's a case where you don't – you have the play defended, but you've got to actually execute the defense of the play and it's a play you haven't seen or worked on so that sometimes can cause a problem."

That was more than 500 words and nearly three full minutes of uninterrupted football talk, serving as just the latest example that when it comes to off-the-field or abstract questions about chemistry and emotions and gossip, Belichick will never say anything. But if the topic is football, it's hard to get Belichick to stop talking.

Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here, or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.

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