FOXBORO -- Bill Belichick was none too pleased with his team's performance in a 22-11 preseason loss to the Packers on Thursday night.
"Alright, well it’s pretty obvious tonight we’ve got a lot of work to do," Belichick said in his opening remarks to reporters. "[We] played a lot of players, certainly [did] some good things, certainly a lot of things we’ve got to correct and work on. We’ll just get back to work tomorrow on some of the things that obviously we need to do a better job of. I don’t think we did anything well enough on offense, defense or special teams really to the level that we need to be at. We’ll work on everything and try to keep improving."
At this time of year, it's not unusual for Belichick to share that kind of sentiment. In general, his team prides itself on making improvements over the course of a long season, hitting its stride by Thanksgiving if all goes according to plan, and hoping that from there it can get to where it wants to go.
The first preseason game of the year, no surprise, was rife with mistakes: The Patriots allowed seven sacks with Jimmy Garoppolo was behind center; they committed eight penalties for 78 yards; they were 5-for-14 when trying to convert on third down; they lost the turnover battle.
Still, Belichick saw the game as an opportunity to learn about his 90-man roster.
"I think we learned something about everybody that’s out there participating tonight," he said. "It’s an opportunity for all of us to work on whatever our jobs were – coaches, players – whatever it happens to be, trainers, everybody. We’re going to play a lot of football games this year. We all need a lot of work on it. Tonight was one step."
There were positive moments, like running back Jonas Gray's 55-yard touchdown run in the second quarter or the defense's ability to force turnovers on downs during Green Bay's first two possessions.
New England Patriots
But the imperfections appeared to get the bulk of the attention after the game as Belichick opted not to discuss at length any individual players, including Garoppolo ("There are a lot of guys out there -- I can't watch them all"), Brady ("We played a lot of players tonight") or rookie offensive lineman Tre' Jackson ("We'll look at the film").
The team was without many of its regulars, including receiver Julian Edelman, left tackle Nate Solder, center Bryan Stork, running back LeGarrette Blount and linebacker Dont'a Hightower, but Belichick didn't blame Thursday night on being shorthanded.
"We play the guys who can play, take a look at them," Belichick said. "We got a lot of good reps from a lot of players out there tonight. We got a lot of opportunities to see a lot of people play. The ones that played, played, and the ones that didn't, maybe we'll get to see them in another game. I don't know -- depends on what their situation is."