NE head coach impressed with Cards ‘D’

September 12, 2012: Behind Enemy Lines

As New England head coach, Bill Belichick has never lost a game to the Cardinals in three career meetings.

Under Belichick, the Patriots are 38-10 (.792) against the NFC in the regular season. And his next victory will be his 194th career win, moving him out of a tie with Chuck Knox into sole possession of 8th place all-time.

Belichick spoke to those of us in the local media on a conference call earlier Wednesday:

on Cardinals running game

It’s a good group of backs. They’re deep and they’re explosive. All those guys can hit the home run on you. (Beanie) Wells, (Ryan) Williams, obviously (LaRod Stephens-) Howling, (William) Powell, so it’s a dangerous group, an explosive group and they can hurt you in a lot of different ways, not just handoffs, but the passing game, inside and outside. They all have speed to get to the corner, but they can definitely take it up inside and blast through there, too. I’ve really been impressed with Wells. I think he’s a big-time back. Once he gets his shoulders going downhill into the line of scrimmage, it’s going to be a pretty big collision.

on Cardinals pass rush

A lot of teams have usually one guy that you really have to focus on or maybe two. I think with the Cardinals, it’s really they have a well-balanced rush. Certainly they are impressive inside with Calais Campbell and Darnell Dockett. Those guys, really, they’re outstanding. Dockett is really hard to block. He’s quick, really active and Campbell is long and quick. He’s got power and quickness to go with it. (David) Carter’s got good quickness in there too. Dan Williams is a good inside rusher, powerful guy. (Vonnie) Holliday gives them some stats in there. They’ve got good edge rushers with (Sam) Acho and (O’Brien) Schofield. Quentin Groves gives them another quality guy, so they are really well-balanced inside and outside with good depth and a combination of power and speed and quickness to go with their blitzes. They present a lot of problems in terms of pass protection or just throwing the ball in general.

on Adrian Wilson

He’s a guy that can ruin the game for you offensively. He’s a very instinctive player in the passing game. He knows where the ball is, is obviously a big hitter and he can control the middle of the field. He’s very active in the running game, makes a lot of plays at or behind the line of scrimmage. You see different players in the league and the number of tackles they make and so forth, but this guy makes tackles and a lot of them are for no yardage. That’s the impressive thing to me about him, is the number of negative plays or plays that he makes for little or no gain that then put the offense in a long-yardage situation. He just does a lot for their defense. I’ve been always impressed with him. He’s playing well. He’s definitely a guy that you absolutely have to know where he is every time the ball is snapped, run or pass. The quarterback can’t let the ball go without knowing where he is.

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