Bill Belichick discussed his big takeaway from Week 1 of the NFL season

"Those teams are really going to have to work on that this week to be competitive in this league."

Bill Belichick’s big takeaway from NFL Week 1: The NFL’s first slate of games is now complete, having produced its fair share of surprises in the process (including the Patriots’ upset of the Bengals in Cincinnati).

With Week 1 in the books, football analysts quickly began parsing through possible trends. One of the notable editions to NFL punditry in 2024 is former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who is already immersed in a series of media roles. The eight-time Super Bowl champion stopped by “The Pat McAfee Show” to discuss his thoughts on the start of the 2024 season.

“I’d say the big thing, the takeaway for me was the lack of overall production in the passing game,” Belichick said. “Eight quarterbacks had an under 75 quarterback rating.”

Along with the plethora of rookies starting, Belichick also noted that veteran quarterbacks were included in the group who struggled.

“Jayden Daniels, his average pass length was less than two yards,” he said of the Washington rookie quarterback. “Now, he had good yards-after-catch on that, but [Bo] Nix was a little over two yards, [Deshaun] Watson was a little over two yards, [Kyler] Murray was a little over two yards.

“So some of these guys, even the passes they’re completing aren’t for very many yards. They’re just totally counting on yards after the catch, and trying to protect the quarterback.”

As for why the league struggled, Belichick believes that it was fairly straightforward.

“I’d say it’s really a lack of execution in the intermediate passing game,” he told McAfee. “Now that’s not the whole league, but you’ve got almost half the league that threw for less than 175 yards.”

As a historian of the game, the former Patriots coach also added context around the league’s collective struggle to throw the ball.

“I think this is the fewest touchdown passes that we’ve had in Week 1 in quite a long time,” Belichick observed. “I think five years ago, there was not quite twice as many, but almost twice as many. So as a result, you saw 19 field goals over 50 yards. That’s a lot of field goal kicking that didn’t turn into touchdowns, and a lot of good field goal kicking.”

The numbers back up Belichick’s claims. According to Associated Press sportswriter Josh Dubow, NFL teams on Sunday were on pace to average the fewest passing yards in Week 1 since 2006.

“It looked like there were a number of teams that really couldn’t throw the ball for one reason or another, whether that was protection, whether it was guys not being open, whether it was quarterback execution or overall team execution,” said the ex-head coach. “Those teams are really going to have to work on that this week to be competitive in this league. You just can’t win in the National Football League unless you can throw the ball and defend the passing game. Sooner or later, that’s going to come into play.”

Scores and schedules:

The Red Sox defeated the Orioles 12-3 on Monday, with Rob Refsnyder and Tyler O’Neill hitting back-to-back home runs twice during what proved to be a lopsided win.

Boston and Baltimore play again this evening at Fenway Park at 7:10 p.m.

More from Boston.com:

Some more Belichick: The former Patriots head coach stopped by the ManningCast, offering another level of quality analysis to what Peyton and Eli Manning already bring.

Patriots player’s league-leading speed: Entering Monday’s final game of Week 1, Patriots special teams ace Brenden Schooler held the mark for fastest speed hit by any player in the league.

On this day: In 1999, Pedro Martinez put together one of his most dominant performances in a Hall of Fame career, striking out 17 and yielding just one hit (a solo home run) in a 3-1 Red Sox win over their New York rivals at Yankee Stadium.

Daily highlight: Rob Refsnyder and Tyler O’Neill hit back-to-back home runs twice in the Red Sox win on Monday.

Here’s the second version: