PromisedLand said:
Yeah, that was his plan. It was also his plan not to have a first round bye and to have to beat Indy in their phonydome to win the Super Bowl. You know, the degree of difficulty factor? Winning Super Bowls the "easy" way was just getting too boring.
(Sigh) I have explained this is many other threads, but perhaps I have to do it all over again to make it clear:
The "rope-a-dope" is a strategy not born from choice but from desperation or temporary hopelessness. For those of you young'uns Muhammad Ali used it against George Foreman in the "Rumble in the Jungle" in 1974.
Before he became all cuddly, bald and a grill salesman, Foreman was Mike Tyson with height. He was scary dangerous and talented. Many thought Ali was taking his life in his own hands just getting in the ring with this beast.
In the early rounds (unbeknownst to his own handlers) Ali switched from his strategy to the "rope-a-dope". Just lying back against the ropes and blocking his face while Foreman whaled away at him. He took a vicious beating THAT ANY SANE PERSON WOULD NEVER CHOOSE TO TAKE. However he knew that he didn't have the power and ability (the"personnel"?) to go toe to toe with Foreman in the early rounds. He, therefore kept it conservative and covered up ("no blitzing"?) until Foreman grew tired and Ali could then rely on his superior stamina ("getting his personnel back for the stretch run" or "better depth"?) to then switch on the light and start dealing shots at Foreman.
The rest is history as Foreman hit the canvas in Round 8.
Obviously, anyone with eyes can see that BB was not blitzing or even shifting D players in games 4 through 11. So, Sooner and Promised, I never ever wrote that this was something BB "CHOSE" to do at his discretion. It was something he did out of desperation for the situation at hand. By keeping the D plan simple for the newbies, they were able to hang in and beat Buffalo and New Orleans at home, Atlanta and Miami on the road, while accepting the body shots from SD,Denver, KC and Indy.
Had BB not adopted the more simple D plans, the newbies may have been so lost, that even cupcake teams like Buffalo, Miami and New Orleans could have upset them. It's weird, but in retrospect, we might look back on those mid-season "cupcake" wins as crucial "buying time" and "staying in the race" wins. They weren't glamorous or awe inspiring, but they were what kept us afloat. And we won them because BB didn't overload the newbies. He "rope-a-doped" those wins.
Once they got Bruschi back to 100%, Seymour back, Vrabel up to snuff at his new position and Hobbs comfortable in the league and Hawkins ensconced at Safety, a bunch of the players were able to lobby Mangini before the Jets game to take off the shackles (I believe Colvin blurted this out to the press).
Mangini and BB acceded to this, feeling that the timing was right and the correct personnel was ready and healthy enough to do it.
But if you want to continue to ridicule this as "BB wanting to lose enough games so we would have to go on the road to Indy in the playoffs" then have your fun.
