ralmat55
2nd Team Getting Their First Start
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2005
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Changing the way he does things means he'd have to lose the courage of his convictions which have largely brought 2 organizations 5 rings and led this one to 4 superbowls in just your mis-spent youth...
I've become convinced "the courage of his convictions" is the problem with this defense. Simply, Belichick does not have the players to play his 2-gap defense, has been unable to find those players, and refuses to change his system to reflect his players' skills.
We can argue the merits of 1-gap or 2-gap and whether the 2-gap defense works in a high octane passing league, but it's less arguable that you need special and versatile players to effectively play the 2-gap. Read and React asks more of the players who play it, so those players need to be better and more versatile to effectively play it. This team doesn't have these players and college football produces fewer and fewer of them each year. Plus, in the free agency/salary cap era, you don't have 3-4 years to develop these players either.
Think of the champion Giant and patriots teams. Who is the lawrence taylor or Willie mcGiniest on this team? Who is the leonard marshall or richard Seymour? Who is the carl banks or Mike Vrabel? Who is the harry carson or tedy bruschi? The only part in place is Vince Wilfork at NT.
There has always been a basic conceit that the scheme is more important than the players with this coach. He is, afterall, the same coach who used a 4th rd draft pick on Dan Klecko thinking that with good coaching and sound techniques the 5 foot something 270 Klecko could hold the nose against double-team blocks by 300 lb centers and guards. Players matter, and, if your players don't match your scheme, perhaps, you should change it. Honestly, watching this patriots team play defense is like watching someone try to pound in a nail with a screwdriver.
I understand how loyal bill Belichick is to the defense he's coached for 25 years, and how hard it is to change ways that have been extremely successful in the past. But, IMHO, if this defense is ever going to improve significantly, he's going to have to change the scheme or somehow find a magical tree which grows the players to play it.
So, yes, the pats should hire an experienced DC who installs a more aggressive scheme.