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As the week starts to slow to a crawl, I'm just sitting around thinking pretty much everything that can be said about this game has already been said.....again....and again....and again. So if I'm going to actually contribute something meaningful, I'm going to have think "outside the box". Unfortunately for me that would take a brilliance and creativity that has long since exceeded my capabilities. HOWEVER it did get me thinking about things in general that are "outside the box" and then it occurred to me.
Its not as if we can think any more highly of Bill Bellichick than we already do, but if you want to add a little more frosting to that cake, think about this. In the last decade BB has been the driving force behind THREE significant, perhaps even "revolutionary" trends in the NFL.
1. When the Pats won the 2001 Superbowl using the 3-4 defense as its base, only one or two other teams in the entire league used it. Flash forward to 2011 and now a MAJORITY of teams use 3-4 as a base and more teams flock to it every year. BB's success helped change the entire landscape of NFL defenses in just 10 years
2.Love it or hate it BB is really the one to blame for this era of "pass crazy" numbers, not Bill Polian as most people think. Bill didn't b!tch and moan, when Polian pushed through the rules that were designed to foil the way he wanted to play defense. NO WAY! Instead he went to school over the next few years and brought the "spread offense" into the NFL and unveiled it in 2007 with historical effect.
Pretty soon more and more teams added similar offense strategies and the passing numbers across the league started to soar. Now BB didn't "invent" the spread offense or anything, just like he didn't "invent" the 3-4 defense. But rather, he was the first to successfully utilize the principles and popularize it, and THEN it started to spread across the league.
3. AND today, we are in on the ground floor of BB's NEXT revolutionary trend. "The 2 TE offense".
NOW it makes sense all those years BB spent drafting TEs. I wouldn't be surprised if BB didn't have this kind of offense in mind for years. All it took was getting the right personnel to implement it. And don't think that it will stop here. Over the next few years the "copy cat" NFL will be scouring the college game and basketball courts looking for their OWN Gronk/Hernandez combination to terrorize NFL defenses.
The Ravens have the seeds todo it in Pitta and ****son, but THEY haven't utilized them like we have our TEs........YET. I hope they wait until next year before they do. As we have seen with our 2, it is hell on a defense because of all the favorable match ups you can create. Now that BB has shown how successful this offense can be, the rest of the league will be soon to follow.
So in closing - While I am no longer capable of "thinking outside the box", BB. in his quiet, under the radar, unassuming way, has used "thinking outside the box" to launch 3 of the most significant trend of recent NFL history.
GOD, are we lucky to have him and his cohorts
Its not as if we can think any more highly of Bill Bellichick than we already do, but if you want to add a little more frosting to that cake, think about this. In the last decade BB has been the driving force behind THREE significant, perhaps even "revolutionary" trends in the NFL.
1. When the Pats won the 2001 Superbowl using the 3-4 defense as its base, only one or two other teams in the entire league used it. Flash forward to 2011 and now a MAJORITY of teams use 3-4 as a base and more teams flock to it every year. BB's success helped change the entire landscape of NFL defenses in just 10 years
2.Love it or hate it BB is really the one to blame for this era of "pass crazy" numbers, not Bill Polian as most people think. Bill didn't b!tch and moan, when Polian pushed through the rules that were designed to foil the way he wanted to play defense. NO WAY! Instead he went to school over the next few years and brought the "spread offense" into the NFL and unveiled it in 2007 with historical effect.
Pretty soon more and more teams added similar offense strategies and the passing numbers across the league started to soar. Now BB didn't "invent" the spread offense or anything, just like he didn't "invent" the 3-4 defense. But rather, he was the first to successfully utilize the principles and popularize it, and THEN it started to spread across the league.
3. AND today, we are in on the ground floor of BB's NEXT revolutionary trend. "The 2 TE offense".
NOW it makes sense all those years BB spent drafting TEs. I wouldn't be surprised if BB didn't have this kind of offense in mind for years. All it took was getting the right personnel to implement it. And don't think that it will stop here. Over the next few years the "copy cat" NFL will be scouring the college game and basketball courts looking for their OWN Gronk/Hernandez combination to terrorize NFL defenses.
The Ravens have the seeds todo it in Pitta and ****son, but THEY haven't utilized them like we have our TEs........YET. I hope they wait until next year before they do. As we have seen with our 2, it is hell on a defense because of all the favorable match ups you can create. Now that BB has shown how successful this offense can be, the rest of the league will be soon to follow.
So in closing - While I am no longer capable of "thinking outside the box", BB. in his quiet, under the radar, unassuming way, has used "thinking outside the box" to launch 3 of the most significant trend of recent NFL history.
GOD, are we lucky to have him and his cohorts