Curran: Belichick adds another chapter to genius legacy

[SVN]

Curran: Belichick adds another chapter to genius legacy

OK, if you’ve stuck this far, we’ll take one sideswipe at the NFL’s bureaucratic stuffed shirts who wish Belichick would take his thrift-shop vogue sideline attire and toddle off into retirement.

It’s performances like Thursday night’s that really juxtapose the pettiness and ankle-biting the league’s engaged in with the Patriots for much of the past 15 years with the football excellence that Belichick and the Patriots have come to represent.

The Patriots are the most evolved and intellectually sound football program the sport’s ever seen. Offensively, defensively, in the kicking game, personnel, roster management, game management, execution, they have no peer.

Yet these are the villains the NFL and rival franchises and owners see fit to demonize? It says more about the state of the rest of them that that’s the case than it does about Belichick’s Patriots.

The irony is that, as often as Belichick is described nationally as arrogant and ego-driven, at the core of the Patriots success is selflessness. Annihilation of the ego.

Awesome para

 

[brdmaverick]

No Brady

No Garrapolo

No Gronk (essentially)

No Hightower

A Rookie QB making his first start

A 27-0 win

Amazing!!

Considering the circumstances, perhaps this one of their most rewarding regular season victories (one of, not the best)

 

[patchick]

The whole article is very much worth reading. Great stuff from Duron Harmon on "when that intellectual level kicks in and we’re all on the same page."

 

[Viper652]

That has to be the best coached game of Belichick's career right?

 

[bbobbo]

one great side effect of the win is that if there was anyone on the team who hadn't fully bought into the belichick way (maybe some newcomers or rookies), they've completely bought in now.

blount summed it up perfectly: “In my opinion, [Belichick is] the greatest coach to ever coach this game, so anything he says I’m going to do. The results speak for themselves.”

(edit: added long & belichick quotes)
"It's complete buy-in," said defensive lineman Chris Long. "Guys are willing to work and be selfless."

"I think he handled himself great last week, this week, all week, every day," Belichick said. "He's done nothing but come in here and work as hard as he possibly can -- when we had three quarterbacks -- to take his opportunities and learn from the other two guys, when it was him and Jimmy and then this week it was pretty much all him. He's just a hard-working kid that is really dedicated to doing what's right for the team and trying to improve on anything that you tell him. He just wants to do what the coach tells him to do. I'm glad we have him."

contrast that with the 2009 season (from "a football life"), where belichick said, “I just can’t get these guys to play the way I want them to."

 

[brdmaverick]

Again, I can't emphasize enough, it speaks insanely well to Belichick's genius that even with the seemingly insurmountable odds they were facing I was still EXPECTING a Patriots victory.

.....But a 27-0 demolition? well, now he's just showing off.

 

[mgteich]

That has to be the best coached game of Belichick's career right?

You might consider giving SOME credit to the coordinators, the OL coach and the ST coach. Their game plans and coaching were lights out.

 

[reflexblue]

You might consider giving SOME credit to the coordinators, the OL coach and the ST coach. Their game plans and coaching were lights out.

To put a game plan like they did And impliment it on a couple of days notice for a rookie qb is amazing.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

To put a game plan like they did And impliment it on a couple of days notice for a rookie qb is amazing.

Credit to McD. Although the pats are so-well prepared, I wouldn't be surprised if they came up with a "Jacoby Brisett emergency plan" over the summer and made tweaks to it this week.

 

[Galeb]

Again, I can't emphasize enough, it speaks insanely well to Belichick's genius that even with the seemingly insurmountable odds they were facing I was still EXPECTING a Patriots victory.

.....But a 27-0 demolition? well, now he's just showing off.

@IllegalContact was predicting a Pats blowout.

 

[yukon cornelius]

I think what you are seeing is the full fruition of Bill's football mind.....he has 100% his staff in there, these guys are fully on board with his system.....I think he has the personnel thing in today's current NFL nailed, between the versatility (is he lining up as a tackle? end? LB? SS? ) and the intelligence and the simple quality of player (he'd rather have two solid guys than one superstar and one JAG).....he also looks for leadership like no one else (everyone is a leader)

they prepare like no other, he right now seems to have a roster of 100% buy in (and he moves guys that might not be there....looking at you, Chandler Jones)...

he puts equal emphasis on all 3 facets of the game, more so than any other team


he is simply like no other coach in the NFL, the franchise is light years ahead of all of them, and I think we are witnessing Peak Bellichek right now

 

[Pats-Phan]

Bill has found another oddity to exploit and that is kicking the ball very high on the kickoff and letting your coverage team get down and pin the other team inside the 20. No other team does this. Those fumbles last night weren't luck.

 

[Pats-Phan]

I think what you are seeing is the full fruition of Bill's football mind.....he has 100% his staff in there, these guys are fully on board with his system.....I think he has the personnel thing in today's current NFL nailed, between the versatility (is he lining up as a tackle? end? LB? SS? ) and the intelligence and the simple quality of player (he'd rather have two solid guys than one superstar and one JAG).....he also looks for leadership like no one else (everyone is a leader)

they prepare like no other, he right now seems to have a roster of 100% buy in (and he moves guys that might not be there....looking at you, Chandler Jones)...

he puts equal emphasis on all 3 facets of the game, more so than any other team


he is simply like no other coach in the NFL, the franchise is light years ahead of all of them, and I think we are witnessing Peak Bellichek right now

agree with everything except the chandler jones comment. chandler was just a casualty of the salary cap unfortunately.

Bill has done a great job of bringing in guys who love football

 

[The Gr8est]

I think what you are seeing is the full fruition of Bill's football mind.....he has 100% his staff in there, these guys are fully on board with his system.....I think he has the personnel thing in today's current NFL nailed, between the versatility (is he lining up as a tackle? end? LB? SS? ) and the intelligence and the simple quality of player (he'd rather have two solid guys than one superstar and one JAG).....he also looks for leadership like no one else (everyone is a leader)

they prepare like no other, he right now seems to have a roster of 100% buy in (and he moves guys that might not be there....looking at you, Chandler Jones)...

he puts equal emphasis on all 3 facets of the game, more so than any other team


he is simply like no other coach in the NFL, the franchise is light years ahead of all of them, and I think we are witnessing Peak Bellichek right now

Imagine what BB would accomplish if the Omissioner and owners let him compete on a level playing field instead of continually handicapping him ala Harrison Bergeron.

Sadly we will never know what could have been, even though what HAS been has been extraordinary, but the NFL* would have probably folded since no one wants to watch their teams playing for 2ND place every year.

 

[patchick]

Bill has found another oddity to exploit and that is kicking the ball very high on the kickoff and letting your coverage team get down and pin the other team inside the 20. No other team does this. Those fumbles last night weren't luck.

Agreed, but it takes total confidence in your kicker and coverage team's ability to execute that play. Not every team has the option. (Of course, that in turn goes back to GM Belichick's emphasis on special teams.)

 

[yukon cornelius]

agree with everything except the chandler jones comment. chandler was just a casualty of the salary cap unfortunately.

Bill has done a great job of bringing in guys who love football

i agree to a certain extent in that Jones was pricing himself out, and I'd rather see that money go to someone like Jamie Collins who fits this system better; jones was singular in dimension and priced himself out of his positional value; but I think there could have been a little more to it as well

 

[SHOWTIME15]

@IllegalContact was predicting a Pats blowout.

Illegal contact also said they should play JG.

 

[oldrover]

Bill has found another oddity to exploit and that is kicking the ball very high on the kickoff and letting your coverage team get down and pin the other team inside the 20. No other team does this. Those fumbles last night weren't luck.

As Branch Rickey once said, "Luck is the residue of design."

 

[AtomicDawg]

The first paragraph sells it for me.

If you’ve had quite enough of gauzy odes to the genius of Bill Belichick over the years, this story ain’t for you. We do appreciate the click, nonetheless, and pledge to return to our regularly scheduled lampooning of Roger Goodell later in the week.

I'm down with that. LAMPOON! LAMPOON!

 

[tasmlab]

Agreed, but it takes total confidence in your kicker and coverage team's ability to execute that play. Not every team has the option. (Of course, that in turn goes back to GM Belichick's emphasis on special teams.)

I wonder if this rule change is why BB wanted to keep all of those special team-only guys (Slater, Ebner, King, Bolden) that a lot of us thought were going to be tough cuts during the roster cut down discussions. I'd like to think so.