National Football League

Bill Belichick cryptic on why he delayed press conference to meet with trainers

Published Dec. 28, 2014 6:41 p.m. ET

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FOXBORO, Mass. -- Don't worry New England Patriots fans, Bill Belichick says he is fine. The New England Patriots head coach delayed his post-game news conference to meet with the training staff but said he we would "be all right."

"I just want to apologize to everybody," Belichick said in a later conference call. "I didn't want to hold anybody up here today. I had to spend a few minutes in the training room after the game -- nothing serious, just a little thing to look at with the trainers and a doctor. Like I said, I didn't want to hold up everybody's story and all that."

Belichick wouldn't expand on why he had to see the training staff, but assured reporters that "it's no big deal." The Patriots fell to the Buffalo Bills 17-9 Sunday -- their first home loss to the Bills since 2000, but there's no reason for New Englanders to panic. The Patriots held six starters out of the game -- tight end Rob Gronkowski, wideout Julian Edelman, offensive linemen Sebastian Vollmer and Dan Connolly, cornerback Brandon Browner and linebacker Dont'a Hightower -- and began sitting the rest of their starters, including quarterback Tom Brady, in the second half.

"This game was an opportunity for us to give some guys that haven't had a lot of playing time an opportunity to play a little bit," Belichick said. "You never know how that's going to turn out in the games ahead: who we'll need or when we'll need them. So, get them a little game experience and we also obviously competed against a good team.

"It was a competitive game. We just couldn't make enough plays, really at any point in the game -- the beginning or the end, in any phase of the game to ever really take control of it or be in a position to win it. (I'm) looking forward to moving ahead this week to work on things that we need to work on. Once we find out who we're going to play then obviously we're looking forward to the postseason. We just have to take it as it comes, but certainly there are things that we can do this week that will help us in the long run so we'll try to hit on some of those."

The Patriots have a first-round playoff bye and home-field advantage throughout the postseason, so this week will be about rest and self-scouting until they know their matchup in the divisional round.

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