On Saturday night, at the Patriots’ hotel, the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa (sounds more exotic than it is), the coaches had a one-hour staff meeting. What happened there is the essence of what Bill Belichick is as a coach.
As Belichick spoke, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels took his blue Sharpie and wrote two messages on the top of his laminated play-call sheet he’d carry with him on the sideline in Super Bowl XLIX. Whenever McDaniels looked down at the sheet, he’d see these two bold reminders:
ADJUST
CORRECT PROBLEMS AND GET THEM FIXED
Said McDaniels: “What Bill said was, ‘This game is no different than any other one. It’s a 60-minute football game, and whatever issues we have, let’s make sure we correct them, coach them, and fix them. That’s our job.’
“And it’s just a reminder to me … I think our staff did a phenomenal job of adjusting, or correcting problems. We had some issues. Michael Bennett—he’s one of the best defensive linemen we’ve faced—created some problems for us in the first half. He’s as good a down player as we’ve played all year. And so we had to do a couple things, try to get two bodies to him. We had Tom send the protection that way and I thought Bryan Stork did a great job of trying to go over that way and help when he had the opportunity to do so, and then the guards just kept fighting. That’s just the way Bill coaches. Have poise. Fix things. It’s never a perfect game.”
