Let me spell it differently for you: Butler on the field would have contributed to at least 1 if not more Eagles drives that ended up in points, to end up in a 3-and-out instead. Given that except for one Eagles drive, all ended in points, stopping them on at least ONE drive would have been the difference to give us the win. And if that was the case (Brady hoisting the Lombardi), no one would have counted points or even cared to remember that the Eagles pounded points down our throats. We're only talking about it now because we lost the game. And I think, personally, just my opinion, that we ended up losing that game because our whole defense had to shift due to Butler's absence. Take it however you want. Patricia can only work with whatever Belichick hands him.
I thought you were talking about whether the New England Patriots would elevate Patricia to head coach.
I know your personal opinion about the impact of Butler's benching.
Do you think that is how Patricia would be evaluated after his defense gave up 41? This is different from reading out the black box on what happened against the Iggles - to which neither of us has access, only opinions.
This is a question of whether you believe that Matt Patricia's star would have risen, and McDaniels' would have declined, based on an offense that scored 33 and a defense that scored 41.
I don't think you "spelled" anything one way or another. You just repeated an opinion, which - while it might have some validity - is simply an unproven counterfactual.
There is no "The Patriots have never lost a game with Butler at cornerback" track record you can rely on in relation to your claim (not that that's a 100% guarantee of causation, but I digress.)
The way that you and many others tell it, though, it's an ironclad, beyond-question conclusion that MB's absence on the field is the beginning and the end of the story.
Furthermore, Belichick used the plural pronoun, if I remember, "we" made a coaching decision.
While we're in the rabbit hole, how do you know it wasn't Matt's idea?
