So... where's the outrage?

[sb1]

Belichick benches Malcolm Butler in the SB and the media blows a gasket.

McVay has his best weapon TGII on the sidelines more often than not and...crickets.

 

[Sicilian]

Because McVay told us that the one and only reason Gurley wasn't used more is he (McVay) didn't do a good enough job getting their offense into rhythm. And as we all know, the only arrogant coach who wouldn't tell us the whole truth is Belichick.

Also, the only thing Los Angeles residents get outraged about is partly cloudy skies.

 

[Observer]

I think there is a big difference between inexplicably benching and reducing playing time because of performance/fitness.

 

[jah]

This had been a theme all postseason for Gurley. Most might have expected him to play better against us, but the seed had been planted. The Butler thing became known on Super Bowl Sunday with no warning signs.

 

[TBR]

Gurley was definitely injured.

 

[FortressX]

I don't think L.A. fans are invested in that team yet.

If they were Patriots I think both Gurley's absence and Cook's failure would be multi page threads.

 

[PatsWSB47]

I dunno I've every sports show talking about it

 

[EddardSnow67]

Gurley was definitely injured.

I tend to lean this way as well, but in that case, what was the point of hiding it prior to the game? It's not like people hadn't noted that he was limited somehow in the playoffs, so there wouldn't be much of a preparation advantage. It just served to bring up more questions. Just seems weird, but yeah, he was probably injured.

 

[sean10mm]

Gurley is either hurt, in which case they faked the injury report, or he's a huge head case, in which case what the hell lmao

 

[Sully]

Gurley was definitely injured.

Bingo

 

[mcmurtry86]

More often than not? He played over 60% of the snaps

 

[Star56]

Psychological. Not physical.

Mentally broken. Next gen stats say he was the fastest on the field.

Something snapped in his head.

 

[luuked]

I think there is a big difference between inexplicably benching and reducing playing time because of performance/fitness.

Butler got benched because he had a bad year and allegedly a bad 2 weeks before the SB. It was literally for performance reasons. Anything extra-curricular where he broke a rule would have come out by now with all the personnel turnover the Pats have each year.

 

[luuked]

Mentally broken. Next gen stats say he was the fastest on the field.

That doesn't automatically mean he was healthy. Maybe he had an injury that affected his cutting ability or made it extremely painful. Straightline speed is only one thing..

 

[PWRxWLF]

I’m confused. Completely different situations.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Yes, let’s talk about Butler. He makes just about as much as newly minted cornerback god known as Stephon Gilmore. I don’t know why Butler didn’t play. I do know that the decision to sign Gilmore over Butler makes me think this Belichick guy knows something about the position...possibly even more than message board members and hot take losers.

I’ll repeat this a million times. If before the game Butler slipped on a banana peel and broke his ankle, the point spread would not have moved at all. That’s how little impact he has had from 2017-present. He is not a good player anymore. Stop acting like Belichick benched prime Rob Gronkowski.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I think there is a big difference between inexplicably benching and reducing playing time because of performance/fitness.

If Bill played MB for 50% of the snaps like he did with JC Jackson and we still lost people would still want blood.

 

[dannydyn]

I don't think L.A. fans are invested in that team yet.

If they were Patriots I think both Gurley's absence and Cook's failure would be multi page threads.

L.A. 'fans' don't even know who Gurley and Cooks are. You kidding me?

 

[PatriotsReign]

Because McVay told us that the one and only reason Gurley wasn't used more is he (McVay) didn't do a good enough job getting their offense into rhythm. And as we all know, the only arrogant coach who wouldn't tell us the whole truth is Belichick.

Also, the only thing Los Angeles residents get outraged about is partly cloudy skies.

I LOVE our arrogant coach! I wouldn’t want him to be any other way. If someone from the media asked to interview me for any reason, I’d tell them to GFT

 

[shmessy]

Butler got benched because he had a bad year and allegedly a bad 2 weeks before the SB. It was literally for performance reasons. Anything extra-curricular where he broke a rule would have come out by now with all the personnel turnover the Pats have each year.

I'm sorry, but that's a joke, right? If it were "performance reasons", then please explain why Jordan Effing Richards was on the field that night. (......actually please explain why Jordan Effing Richards was anywhere within 100 miles of that stadium). In that context, citing "performance reasons" is insulting.

If they were not going to use him under ANY circumstances in that SB (even if Jordan Richards was play-after-play performing his "Madden Glitch" schtick ) .....then why did they even dress Butler for the game??????

If they had Butler dressed just to be a bench mannequin, why not dress Kenny Britt (could've used him after the Cooks concussion) or Alan Branch (Blount decimated the middle of our DL for 90 yards on 14 carries).

You are glossing over ALOT of stuff there.

Belichick is a genius. And he is mercurial. To get the genius, one has to accept the weird parts also. I see it as a good trade-off. Just be truthful and understand 90% of the time it's worth it, and 10% of the time he does stuff that no sane person would do.

SB 52 was the 10% of the time side of that coin.

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