In a conference call with the media Tuesday, Bill Belichick acknowledged that turning the page from Jacksonville to Philly has been a process for a few reasons, not the least of which is the fact the Patriots haven’t faced the Eagles since 2015.
“(Tuesday) is a tough day because normally at this point we would have a lot of information on the new team, and we have a lot of information,” he said. “We have a lot – I mean our pro scouting department has done a good job of advance scouting. But from a coaching standpoint, the coaches haven't really been focused on this game. We were focused on Jacksonville, and now we turn our attention here to Philadelphia and there's a lot of work to do.
“They're obviously a great team and they're strong in every area. That's why they're playing in this game. Our attention is on them, but there's a lot of work to do.”
In a conference call with the media on Monday, Belichick sounded like a guy who wanted to reserve making some sort of broad-brush statement on the Eagles until he had a better handle on what they bring to the table. On Tuesday morning, it sounded like that work was well underway.
“Other years, when we had played a team more recently like Seattle, who we had played two years before, but in a regular season game, (so) there was some carry over from that,” he said. “Or in the (New York) Giant years, where we had played those teams in the regular season, there was a little bit less of an acclimation to the opponent this week because we had some background with them. In this case, we really don't know very much about Philadelphia.
“They're obviously an outstanding team, and we have a lot of work to do,” he added. “We have a lot of ground that we need to cover, so we're at it hard trying to catch up so when we bring the players in we'll be ready for them and we can do a good job of presenting the information to them efficiently and accurately. Because, again, there's a lot of information to digest.”
Pats make jersey choice
The Patriots announced Tuesday they would be wearing their white jerseys for Super Bowl LII. As the designated home team, New England had the option to chose, and the Pats chose the white jerseys. As many noted, New England is 3-0 in the Belichick-Tom Brady Era when it comes to wearing white in the Super Bowl. In fact, teams that have worn white jerseys the last several years have had success in the Super Bowl.
In the Belichick/Brady era, the @Patriots are 3-0 in the Super Bowl when wearing white jerseys.
12 of the last 13 Super Bowl winners (and each of the last 6) wore white jerseys, including the Patriots in their Super Bowl XXXIX victory over the Eagles. pic.twitter.com/63bCD0gv2J — NFL Research (@NFLResearch) January 23, 2018