By Danny Picard
CSNNE.com Staff ReporterFollow @dannypicard
FOXBORO --With the report that Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez willmiss some time because of an MCL sprain that he suffered on Sunday, BillBelichick addressed the issue moving forward, and how his offense will make upfor the receiving numbers hes put up through the first two weeks.
We have a lot of different skill players in our offense,said Belichick on Monday at Gillette Stadium. Weve got a lot of differentformations. We use multiple personnel groups, multiple formations. Whatever wehave to do, well use some combination of those.
Belichick has watched the film, and is ready to turn thepage and move onto the next game in Buffalo.
But before that page is completely turned, Belichick talkedabout some of the good and the bad from Sundays win over the San DiegoChargers, including how his defense was able to keep tight end Antonio Gatesreception-less.
Belichick doesnt believe they did anything revolutionaryto stop Gates, but seemed genuinely proud of the way his defense executed theirmixed-coverage scheme on him.
We tried to mix it up and switch our coverage looks betweenjamming receivers, said Belichick. Wed double him on the line and jam, notdouble him on the line and try to get more pass rush, double him down thefield. We had various degrees of success and not so successful times, doingthat. But we tried to keep him off-balance, give him a little mix, change thecoverages up a little bit.
The Patriots allowed 470 total yards on Sunday, which included372 passing yards. That comes just a week after allowing 516 passing yards tothe Miami Dolphins in Week 1.
New England Patriots
Still, the Patriots are 2-0 on the early season, and havedone their fair share of damage on the offensive side as well. But as forwhats been going wrong in the secondary, Belichick said it has nothing to dowith one specific thing or player.
Id say the big problem we had yesterday was, we had ourchances to get off the field, and we just didnt do a good job of it, saidBelchick. Several plays we couldnt make on third down, that I think werepretty makeable plays. We just didnt make them.
As previously stated, the Patriots have battled those highpassing yards from opposing offenses, with extremely high passing yards oftheir own, which have included two 99-yard touchdown drives, which Belichickcalls a product of staying away from long-yardage situations.
If you were wondering what the officials were trying toreview in the fourth quarter, following a Vincent Jackson touchdown and theensuing extra point, then Belichick would be the wrong person to go to in orderto get an answer.
Belichick said on Monday that he had no idea what the reviewwas for, because under the new NFL rule of reviewing each scoring play, theofficials dont tell the coaches what theyre reviewing.
On a scoring play, its an automatic review of the scoringplay, including the extra point, which is a scoring play, said Belichick. Sowhat they were looking at, they dont tell us. We just sit there and look dumblike everybody else. Then they come out and say it was a touchdown, or if itwasnt, then they tell us it wasnt.
Danny Picard is on twitter at http:twitter.comDannyPicard.