Bill Belichick still won't confirm if Matt Patricia is Patriots' offensive play-caller

Before Week 1 of the regular season, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick publicly backed former NFL coaches Matt Patricia and Joe Judge serving as the replacement for former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, whom the Las Vegas Raiders hired to be their head coach this past winter. 

It was thought Patricia called New England's offensive plays over the season's first four games, but Belichick would neither confirm nor deny that when asked on Friday about Patricia's "responsibilities" with "calling plays especially" for the 1-3 Patriots. 

"Yeah, again we’ve talked about the entire offensive staff," Belichick responded to a question on the subject, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. "So that’s really what — I wouldn’t characterize it quite the way that you did. But that’s fine. So I would say that, like a lot of things offensively, we made some improvements. Didn’t turn the ball over as much last week. That was a step in the right direction. Still obviously have a long way to go. Need to play better in situational football. There’s a lot of things we need to do better. I think we made some progress. So we’ll see where we’re at this week."

After some back-and-forth, Belichick was directly asked who is calling plays for Sunday's home game versus the 1-3 Detroit Lions. 

"We’ve talked about this ad nauseum," Belichick answered. "Maybe we can take notes this time to say that I’m responsible for all of it. Which is what I’ve said from day one. That’s what I continue to say. There hasn’t been any change in that. I’m responsible for what is called and what’s done on the field."

Belichick refusing to offer any inside information on a physical setback such as the reported high-ankle sprain that starting quarterback Mac Jones is dealing with makes sense and can be defended even by critics. However, outsiders may point out that Friday's antics seem downright silly. 

Whoever is calling plays for the Patriots, rookie and fourth-round draft pick Bailey Zappe is on track to execute those calls in place of Jones versus the Lions.