Is Tom Coughlin or Bill Belichick the NFL's best coach?

[Kid~Brady]

Daniel Jeremiah @MoveTheSticks

A league exec to me last night... "Can we stop debating who the best coach is in this league? It's Tom Coughlin and nobody else is close"

Coughlin twice beat Belichick in the Super Bowl, quite the hammer to swing in any debate between the two. But careers should be judged by more than a five-year window. Coughlin won the recent battles, but I say Belichick -- who owns a fishing boat called V (as in 5) Rings for crying out loud -- still wins the war.

link: Is Tom Coughlin or Bill Belichick the NFL's best coach? - NFL.com

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

It's Coughlin at the moment.

 

[12ClutchFactor]

Considering the head to heads and the way they're trending right now, it's Coughlin, definitely. Belichick's specialty is defense, not offense. But the defense has been dreadful for years with Belichick trying, and failing to adequately rebuild it. Whereas the offense has been the unit carrying the load for some time.

 

[jcdavey]

i think bb is the best all time

but , over the last 5 years it's hard to argue against coughlin in the clutch


definitely drafted better talent in ny so reese is a big key in that too

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Belichick. More SB wins, more conference championships, regular season record probably trounces Coughlin too lazy to look it up.

If Coughlin's teams are still a yearly contender 10 years from now like BB's are 10 years after his first SB I might change my mind. But they're not even a yearly contender now. 2 times in his entire run with NYG have they made it past the 2nd round and both times they happened to win it all. I need alot more proof to put him ahead of BB.

 

[JJDChE]

I don't really chalk the Giants wins up to coaching. Their talented at the positions we have trouble dealing with. It's just a great matchup for them. Not that I'm holding that against Coughlin, I just wouldn't use that as an end-all argument.

 

[satz]

Weird , i was thinking something along the same lines. what if they win a SB this year!

that will be a real conversation piece.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

I have to hand to Coughlin for having his teams playing their best football at the most important time of the year.

If we had won just one of those superbowls against the giants would we be having this conversation? probably not.

Thus, we are placing the entire emphasis on losing 2 SBs to that team. Hurts like heck, but it's the sad truth.

From 2007 to 2011
Giants

• regular season record 49 wins, 31 losses (61.25 winning %)
• Post season appearances 3 out of 5 years. 1 year tied with the division lead at 10-6 to lose in tie breakers
• Superbowl appearances 2
• Superbowl wins 2

Patriots

• regular season record 64 wins, 16 losses (80.0 winning %)
• Post season appearances 4 out of 5 years. 1 year tied with the division lead at 11-5 to lose in tie breakers
• Superbowl appearances 2
• Superbowl wins 0

I mean personally I would rather have the 2 superbowl wins because that's why we play the season. But, if coaching 2 games means you are the best, then so be it.

BB is the guy for my team. Call me a homer, but the man is greatness. It's so easy to be able to second guess him with hindsight. HE doesn't have that luxury. He;s fallible and has made mistakes. He isn't charmign with the media or give us great sound bites with the media. We'll never know what's going on behind closed doors. BUT, he is the greatest coach of his ERA and the game hasn't left him behind.

I HATE losing games we should win, but I also believe we can win every game. I just realize, it's not going to happen across a season, we are going to lose games. The TEAM does have issues. Some aren't correctable and some are mind numbingly exhaustive ion the number of years they've been an issue. Still, how long has Marino been out of football and the dolphisn still can't get a #1 quality QB?

Still, we are always competitive. There's never a game where we feel like we have no chance to win. Love him or Hate him, he's our guy. I'm sure he doesn't take the fans comments personally because losing is much harsher on him than anything we can say or do.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

I don't really chalk the Giants wins up to coaching. Their talented at the positions we have trouble dealing with. It's just a great matchup for them. Not that I'm holding that against Coughlin, I just wouldn't use that as an end-all argument.

Plus it's hard to credit him for all the breaks that went their way and didn't go BB's way. The coach's job is to put his guys in position to win. BB's guys were in position to win the SB's but they didn't make the plays. It's not his fault Asante, Welker and Rodney dropped passes they should have caught to essentially win the games. And it's not Coughlin's coaching prowess that made every single fumble bounce NY's way and balls stick to helmets. That's not taking away from Coughlin he's a great coach but that's why you need more than 2 games to base this comparison off of.

To me coaching is about quality and consistency over a longer span, 2 areas where BB is untouched.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

And it's not Coughlin's coaching prowess that made every single fumble bounce NY's way and balls stick to helmets.

No, that's refs swallowing their whistles. . . .

 

[Haley]

Didn't Coughlin's team go on strike last year because he was kind of an ogre? I seem to remember something about that.

 

[jmt57]

I understand the logic of the head to head wins.

However by the same token that means that if those two Patriots teams were not as good those years - i.e., they did not advance as far they did and lost earlier in the playoffs rather than later - then that would change people's vote?

In other words people would think Belichick would be better if his teams had not done as well as they did in 2007 and 2011, and lost earlier (or missed the playoffs entirely)?


That rationale doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

 

[fnordcircle]

People can say what they want but if it was time to pick a coach to lead a franchise I think most people would pick Belichick.

I'm not going to take away a 2-0 record against Belichick in the SB that Coughlin has but his teams have not had the sustained success Belichick has.

Several years of defensive woes running are going to seriously hurt Belichick, however.

 

[PittPatriot]

Do we accept that Tom Brady is the GOAT? If so, then BB has 0 Championships to coincide with TB's prime years (roughly 2006-2001). Should Coughlin get a little extra credit for getting it done with a guy like Eli at QB and not The GOAT?

 

[BaltimorePatsFan]

Tom Coughlin is undoubtedly the best coach in the NFL RIGHT NOW and will go down in history as the guy that always had BB's number.

 

[Joker]

Tom Coughlin is undoubtedly the best coach in the NFL RIGHT NOW and will go down in history as the guy that always had BB's number.

Thank you once again, BaltimoreJetsTroll....OG OG OG JTSE!!!!

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Thank you once again, BaltimoreJetsTroll....OG OG OG JTSE!!!!

Seriously, what an embarrasing thread. A troll/contrarian thread comparable to the garbage on that Jest site right now arguing that Manning > Brady because he won a game last night and, of course, Brady cheats. Beware any thread in which anything 12C___F___ says gets a "like". What's happened to our fanbase?

 

[chasa]

stuff.

An important thing to mention is those 2 superbowl wins, We were the team that got beat.

I would say that's pretty good, its one thing to say oh well the giants beat two teams and the pats lost to two teams, but that's not the case, the giants beat the pats twice by a combined what 5 points?

It puts things into perspective that one dropped pass here, or one magic catch there and those stats flipflop.

I'd say the pats are still the better team over a 10 year run.

 

[jcdavey]

Didn't Coughlin's team go on strike last year because he was kind of an ogre? I seem to remember something about that.

the defense used to really hate him, back before they won a sb in 2007

they joked he was a dictator and unfair

 

[patsfan-1982]

two great coachs who both got lucky to draft two great QB's the gaints just have the best front 4 in the NFL right now so they are a better team right now... players win SB's not coachs and in todays NFL you have to throw the football and rush the QB to win the gaints can do both very good the pats can do one great