Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

[BradyFTW!]

Fanboy. You refuse to believe possibly Malcolm screwed up. It's all BBs fault. Gotcha.

To be fair, that could be turned around on your own argument pretty easily too. Fanboys all around, etc. Everyone's putting their faith in someone. Personally... eh, I love Belichick, he's the GOAT, but no matter how hard I search for one I can't imagine a good explanation for benching Butler immediately before gametime and giving significant defensive snaps to Johnson Bademosi and Jordan Richards instead. You're basically asking to get 40 dropped on you at that point. I've been lower than most on Butler for a solid season and a half now, but he played 97% of defensive snaps for a reason. He was our second best corner and it's hard to come up with a scenario where you'd want 5 DBs on the field and he wouldn't be one of them.

 

[GorBelSer]

It did fail miserably, but is it a coincidence that it’s the exact same personnel grouping used against the KC run/pass/option offense? We used 4 safeties and 2 CBs against them too, and gave up 40+ to both of them.

Kind of. We played with 3 CBs (maybe even 4, I think Jones was out there for a series or two), Rowe shared slot duties with Chung and (as expected) stalwart Jordan Richards. But the difference between schemes is the fact KC does not use slot option that much. Albert Wilson is ok receiver, but not much of a threat, he is a guy you turn to after all other options are off the table. We had a major problem with Hill because of his amazing prowess in creating mismatches all over the field. With him in the lineup, they could play anything behind LOS: end around, reverse, fake handoff etc to throw us off the track. And then they had him line up on the outside and he torched us for 75 yards TD.
Philadelphia has Agholor for trick run play every now and then, but his A game comes within slot. And you most definitely cant place SS on him and expect something good will come out of it.

 

[RobertWeathers]

To be fair, that could be turned around on your own argument pretty easily too. Fanboys all around, etc. Everyone's putting their faith in someone. Personally... eh, I love Belichick, he's the GOAT, but no matter how hard I search for one I can't imagine a good explanation for benching Butler immediately before gametime and giving significant defensive snaps to Johnson Bademosi and Jordan Richards instead. You're basically asking to get 40 dropped on you at that point. I've been lower than most on Butler for a solid season and a half now, but he played 97% of defensive snaps for a reason. He was our second best corner and it's hard to come up with a scenario where you'd want 5 DBs on the field and he wouldn't be one of them.

I've been saying for 4 days there was no single reason. There is no silver bullet the anti BB crowd wants. It was a collective group of issues and circumstances that left BB with absolutely no choice but to bench him and saw no upside in playing him. We will never know the what and the why and that is what is pissing people off. It's pissing me off too.

Now if people want to crap on BB for not trying different adjustments, better game plan or not trading Malcolm in the spring so this ticking time bomb wouldnt derail the Super Bowl are all reasonable criticisms that I would support.

 

[Observer]

They would be so much better if they let the fans vote for the starters and the plays they run.


The fans are wicked smart, Belichick/Hitler is an idiot.

Hopefully Belichick/Hitler will be gone soon so the fans won’t be so sad/mad. They watch the games and deserve so much more. Belichick/Hitler has been ripping them off.

Somebody should start a new thread about this. This one has gotten too long.

You don’t have to participate, you know.

 

[ATippett56]

They would be so much better if they let the fans vote for the starters and the plays they run.


The fans are wicked smart, Belichick/Hitler is an idiot.

Hopefully Belichick/Hitler will be gone soon so the fans won’t be so sad/mad. They watch the games and deserve so much more. Belichick/Hitler has been ripping them off.

Somebody should start a new thread about this. This one has gotten too long.

I thought Bill Belichick was Stalin? Rule with an iron fist!

Bill Belichick obviously "purged" Malcolm Butler from the game plan.

 

[Ivan]

You don’t have to participate, you know.

Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing about those fans who sh.t all over the GOAT coach because they don’t like a decision he made.

 

[Ivan]

Stop with the hyperbolic posts all the time. It's like you're always competing to win some most positive fan award.

Whatever your opinion, it is indisputably true that benching Malcolm Butler in the Super Bowl is worthy of a LOT of debate.

There’s a big difference between “ debate” and the lynching that has taken place here since the Super Bowl, and I’ll respond to that however I feel necessary. And “ debate” is generally fueled by people having the information to “ debate” something, whereas the Lynch mob has absolutely no idea what led to Belichick’s decision, and they have made it clear that they don’t even care what that was, they disagree anyways and want his head for it. F.cking spoiled rotten ungrateful crybaby b.tches.

 

[BradyFTW!]

I've been saying for 4 days there was no single reason. There is no silver bullet the anti BB crowd wants. It was a collective group of issues and circumstances that left BB with absolutely no choice but to bench him and saw no upside in playing him. We will never know the what and the why and that is what is pissing people off. It's pissing me off too.

Now if people want to crap on BB for not trying different adjustments, better game plan or not trading Malcolm in the spring so this ticking time bomb wouldnt derail the Super Bowl are all reasonable criticisms that I would support.

I think that's where most of us are, specifically the last sentence. If Butler had officially become a locker room problem, then so be it: I've got no qualms with Belichick's well-established approach of jettisoning potential cancers before they have a problem to take root and cause real problems. On the list of premium talents Belichick's shipped out, he might not crack the top 5. I would question the timing, though: just get one more game out of him then go your separate ways and be done with him.

If it really was a matchup/scheme issue, OTOH, then that's something that I would've hoped they could have implemented before the day of the game, and more importantly I'd especially hope that Belichick would consider switching things up when it became clear that the defense he and Patricia's plan was getting absolutely shredded. Something had to change, and putting in your best-tackling corner, the CB2 that played 97% of defensive snaps throughout the year, is such an obvious solution to the specific problems that were plaguing them that it makes it almost impossible to believe that this was purely a matchup/scheme benching. There simply had to be more to it.

I've been called out on this forum a few times in the last year for having an apparently negative opinion of Butler, so I don't think I have an unreasonably high perspective of the guy here. But how many times are we supposed to watch end-of-the-roster talent whiff on their guys and allow a bunch of YAC on third down before we can all just acknowledge that Butler would have obviously contributed better (partly because it's hard to imagine him being worse).

 

[IllegalContact]

There’s a big difference between “ debate” and the lynching that has taken place here since the Super Bowl, and I’ll respond to that however I feel necessary.

lynching......lol

Knock it off, Francis

 

[aluminum seats]

F.cking spoiled rotten ungrateful crybaby b.tches.

...or fans who reserve the right to think for themselves. Potato/Potahto I guess.

 

[Ivan]

...or fans who reserve the right to think for themselves. Potato/Potahto I guess.

Lmao, yep, reaching decisions without the necessary information to arrive at them is a really smart process. But you’re right, Belichick is a moron who deliberately sabotaged his own team and he should be fired.

Worst fans in sports.

 

[ATippett56]

I think that's where most of us are, specifically the last sentence. If Butler had officially become a locker room problem, then so be it: I've got no qualms with Belichick's well-established approach of jettisoning potential cancers before they have a problem to take root and cause real problems. On the list of premium talents Belichick's shipped out, he might not crack the top 5. I would question the timing, though: just get one more game out of him then go your separate ways and be done with him.

If it really was a matchup/scheme issue, OTOH, then that's something that I would've hoped they could have implemented before the day of the game, and more importantly I'd especially hope that Belichick would consider switching things up when it became clear that the defense he and Patricia's plan was getting absolutely shredded. Something had to change, and putting in your best-tackling corner, the CB2 that played 97% of defensive snaps throughout the year, is such an obvious solution to the specific problems that were plaguing them that it makes it almost impossible to believe that this was purely a matchup/scheme benching. There simply had to be more to it.

I've been called out on this forum a few times in the last year for having an apparently negative opinion of Butler, so I don't think I have an unreasonably high perspective of the guy here. But how many times are we supposed to watch end-of-the-roster talent whiff on their guys and allow a bunch of YAC on third down before we can all just acknowledge that Butler would have obviously contributed better (partly because it's hard to imagine him being worse).

What I don't understand is if the rift between Bill Belichick and Malcolm Butler was that bad, why wasn't Butler deactivated altogether from the game?

 

[Ivan]

...or fans who reserve the right to think for themselves. Potato/Potahto I guess.

As I have said from the very beginning I have absolutely no problem with people knocking Beluchick’s Performance in this game, not that if his defensive staff or his defense. They did a lousy job, they had one of their worst games of the year, and it cost them the Super Bowl. All of that is And was justified. Where I parted ways in this “ debate” was with those who insisted it cost them the game, which is make believe garbage that losers trot out anytime their team doesn’t win, and with those shrieking about how terrible a coach and GM Belichick supposedly is, calling him every name in the book, including “ Hitler, “ which only got 1 dislike, and that was from me, and calling for his firing.

Calling Belichick our for their defensive performance Sunday Night is perfectly reasonable, the rest of that garbage is crybaby loser sh.t, period.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

But how many times are we supposed to watch end-of-the-roster talent whiff on their guys and allow a bunch of YAC on third down before we can all just acknowledge that Butler would have obviously contributed better (partly because it's hard to imagine him being worse).

We don't know what went down at practice. What if Butler's practices were so bad that Belichick was sincerely worried about a repeat of "players aren't even on the right spots on the field" from earlier this season?

 

[aluminum seats]

Lmao, yep, reaching decisions without the necessary information to arrive at them is a really smart process. But you’re right, Belichick is a moron who deliberately sabotaged his own team and he should be fired.

Worst fans in sports.

Again, your over the top takes just embarrass yourself.

 

[Ivan]

What I don't understand is if the rift between Bill Belichick and Malcolm Butler was that bad, why wasn't Butler deactivated altogether from the game?

Too late in the season to release/ replace him, so it was a break glass situation in case of injury.

 

[ATippett56]

lynching......lol

Knock it off, Francis

I thought Boston was better known for "witch hunts"?

 

[aluminum seats]

As I have said from the very beginning I have absolutely no problem with people knocking Beluchick’s Performance in this game, not that if his defensive staff or his defense. They did a lousy job, they had one of their worst games of the year, and it cost them the Super Bowl. All of that is And was justified. Where I parted ways in this “ debate” was with those who insisted it cost them the game, which is make believe garbage that losers trot out anytime their team doesn’t win, and with those shrieking about how terrible a coach and GM Belichick supposedly is, calling him every name in the book, including “ Hitler, “ which only got 1 dislike, and that was from me, and calling for his firing.

Calling Belichick our for their defensive performance Sunday Night is perfectly reasonable, the rest of that garbage is crybaby loser sh.t, period.

It likely did cost them the game. And pointing to one word one poster used once in a 200 page thread is absurd.

 

[Ivan]

Again, your over the top takes just embarrass yourself.

Actually that was a completely accurate summarization if the garbage people have been posting here this week, and all you have to do is read this thread to see that.

 

[Ivan]

It likely did cost them the game. And pointing to one word one poster used once in a 200 page thread is absurd.

I pointed to the most egregious example as the most egregious example, that people didn’t condemn it shows just how far gone they are.