FOXBORO -- I had one simple question for Bill Belichick on Wednesday.

Does it really matter if you, offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien or quarterback Tom Brady is calling plays on offense?

“Playcalling is playcalling. I know titles are a big important thing, externally,” Belichick began. “But whether you’re President of the United States or graduate assistant, whatever your job is, you do it and then there are people that you work with that do that job. Call him whatever you want to call him, it doesn’t matter.

“Whoever is calling plays, if the head coach is involved with the playcalling or the organization of the playcalling, then I’m going to talk to the person that calls the plays. If I’m not, then he calls them. And you know, (if) there’s no input from the head coach, that’s all right too.”

Up until the final drive of the first half Sunday night, there was legitimate concern about the state of the Patriots offense, and for good reason.

I’ll admit, I was wondering aloud if Brady was more than just out of sync. I thought he was hurt. And that was made even worse by an offense completely reliant on the right arm (and elbow) of the quarterback.

Can’t anyone in charge of the offense mix things up; show a willingness to run the freaking football? It is, after all, November and you have a multitude of running backs who have shown – at times – the ability to run it down the throats of the opposition.

Then, Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and Rex Ryan opened a door by leaving 80 seconds on the clock before halftime with an ill-advised timeout. The Patriots knocked down the door and suddenly got their offensive mojo back.

There were concerns about Brady’s arm strength and accuracy, and worries that the Brady had become too zeroed in on Rob Gronkowski and Wes Welker. And frankly, taking advantage of a pitiful Sanchez last Sunday night did nothing to change that. Those concerns are definitely still there.

Belichick essentially took the weight off Brady’s shoulders by saying the buck still stops with the head coach when it comes to how well – or poorly – the offense looks.

“The way it’s structured here is, I’ll take responsibility for all the plays that are called. I have the final say on it,” he said. “If I don’t want to run the play, then I can call it off – that’s my right as a head coach. Any of the bad ones, you can blame me for because ultimately I could change them if I wanted to.”

We also learned that Belichick really loves to be in control. He admitted as much, and that is news in Foxboro. While respecting safeties coach Matt Patricia, special teams coach Scott O’Brien and O’Brien, he left no doubt who’s calling the shots across the board.

“What I try to do as a head coach and it’s one of the advantages honestly of being a head coach is you can go where you want to go. If you want to work with this group, you can work with this group; if you want to work with that group, you can work with that group – so that’s kind of nice.”

So, I suggested to Belichick: Do you think the same could be said for play calling during a game?

“During a game, I talk to all the play callers, to Scott to Billy to Matt,” Belichick said. “First of all, we go into the game with a plan of how we want to try to start things, believe it or not, I know everybody doesn’t think that’s the way it is but we actually talk about, ‘This is how we want to start the game and these are the calls that we would make in this situation, second and long, third and short, third and medium, red area, goal line.’

“And then after the game starts to unfold, then you kind of say ‘OK, well, we want to sort of stay with the way we mapped this out or they’re doing this and these don’t look as good, these look better or maybe we have to make an adjustment and say, ‘Well, we can run these plays, but if this happens, we have to do something else,’ that type of thing. We talk about that over the course of the game.”

One big decision that everyone has had a hand in – including the quarterback – is the decision to go more to the no-huddle.

“I think the times that we’ve done it well, we’ve strung together a bunch of plays which has really allowed us to get the ball into the scoring area,” Brady said of the no huddle. “It’s hard to overcome penalties in those situations and we have opportunities to complete passes and we don’t hit them. There are definitely things that are good about it and there are things that haven’t been so good. We’re trying to do the things that we’ve done well and try to do those more often.”

Whether or not Belichick or O’Brien are calling the shots, once on the field, it’s Brady who has the final call, just as he has in the last several weeks. With the Patriots struggling to find rhythm, they’ve turned to the no-huddle.

“I think you’re trying to get everybody on the same page,” Brady said. “If I’m doing one thing and the offensive line is thinking another or the running back is thinking something different from the two of us, then that’s where it gets challenging. I really think that at times we’ve done a pretty good job of that this year, especially on the road where the communication is much more difficult.

“At home it’s relatively easy because even if I’m in the shotgun, they can hear pretty much everything I’m saying. Although, you guys can probably hear everything I’m saying too, with the TV cameras.”

So, what are those watching the Patriots off TV thinking?

We go to the Trags Bag:

 

From @mtd10mm: @Trags I do think its good for there to be someone to “challenge” BBs playcalling, give fresh ideas, someone like Patricia.

 

From @L1telsN0W: Don’t care if O’Brien last 3 years, Brady has final veto authority.

 

I don’t think there’s any doubt that Belichick realizes this. Whether he wants to hear it or not, he knows the team can’t improve unless he has someone critiquing every detail. What’s fascinating about this is that Belichick heard plenty of opinion – if not criticism - from Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis when they were on board for the three Super Bowl titles.

 

The Patriots haven’t won another title without them. And O’Brien has often pointed out that he does NOT have the final say in the offense. That honor belongs to Belichick.

 

That’s not going to change anytime soon. But if the Patriots make another first round playoff exit, all bets are off, as Belichick will have to answer to Robert Kraft about why his team suddenly doesn’t have staying power in the postseason.

 

And the critiques certainly won’t stop there.

 

The fans will beg for wholesale changes. They’re already calling for Belichick to relinquish player personnel responsibilities.

 

Even after wins, Belichick is hearing it. Like from national sports columnist Rick Reilly who offered up this gem at the end of his Wednesday presser.

 

“Have you have been heckled by a fan at a game?” – an obvious reference to Rex Ryan losing it with a Jets fan before halftime of Sunday’s game.

 

Belichick’s reply?

 

“I’m only focused on Kansas City,” Belichick said.

 

Good thing, since it’s his job to make sure his team understands the game plan he’s in charge of.