As Kyle Newport once noted for Bleacher Report, it was back in the fall of 2014 when New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick famously repeated he and his then-struggling team were "on to Cincinnati" and looking forward to a matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals instead of reflecting on what had gone wrong early into that season:
Belichick's strategy obviously worked out well, as the Patriots ultimately righted the ship and went on to win the Super Bowl. However, his old words humorously came back to haunt him roughly eight years after the fact on Thursday.
Per Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, Belichick was left less than pleased with the number of blitzes the New York Giants ran against the Patriots in last Thursday's preseason game.
"With what the Giants were doing, there's a lot of reasons for some of the things that we did just to try to manage the game," Belichick explained at the time. "So, just leave it at that."
Belichick added:
"There were coaching points and little technique things that the Giants did that our defense doesn't do - or that we haven't seen from our defense - that we can all learn from."
New York defensive coordinator Don "Wink" Martindale, referred to by Dunleavy as "blitz-happy," was asked about Belichick's take during a Thursday press conference as Martindale and company are preparing to welcome none other than the Bengals to town for a Sunday evening showdown.
"We're on to Cincinnati," Martindale declared to the delight of reporters:
Wink Martindale's response to the suggestion that the Giants blitzed too much against the Patriots for a preseason game?
"We're on to Cincinnati" pic.twitter.com/LjVc2zeUF8
Martindale was also asked if he and the Giants violated an "unwritten rule" about blitzing during meaningless exhibition contests.
"If it's 'unwritten,' I don't know," Martindale responded. "We're on to Cincinnati."
For those wondering: No, the Giants and Patriots won't meet again during the upcoming regular season. As for the Patriots, they're now onto a home preseason game versus the Carolina Panthers that takes place Friday night at Gillette Stadium.
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