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Let's get real here. EVERY player who makes an NFL roster is both a great athlete, AND a great football player. They all are prepared to the max physically and they all get great coaching, despite what we say all the time. Guys who can coach in the NFL are ALL great coaches, who spend 80 weeks working at their craft during the season, and 40 hour weeks learning from other coaches, after the season. I coached for 20 years and was always astounded by how much I still didn't know and how much new stuff was always appearing. And I was just a HS coach and spent a fraction of the time these "professional's" do.(though according to my wife, it was WAY too much time. ) So even the guys we sometimes make fun of know a TON of football or they would be where they are.
So what I'm saying is, every week, regardless of who we play, the challenge to win is always there. The old adage says, "on any given Sunday", couldn't be more true, and if Sunday night didn't prove that, nothing will. If you don't come prepared mentally as well as physically, the worst team in the league can beat the best one. That is how good EVERYONE is. Even physically the gap between the best and worst might be 5%.
So I got to thinking about the win the other night because I fell into the conventional wisdom of looking at the line up of back ups and rookies the Pats put out there and tried to figure out exactly how they managed to win a close game that wouldn't have even been that close if the Pats didn't lose the TO battle by 2, and the refs had called the game evenly.
Then it struck me when I watched the locker room video thread today. It was something BB said that hit home. It was dry and unemotional, but it perhaps defines the difference in the Pats program and thus explains, to a small degree, the reason for their success. To paraphrase, Bill said, "Great job, etc, but don't forget that a lot of the work we did this week on the practice field, meetings, and film time was just as important to the victory as the work we put in on the field tonight."
We as fans were intimidated by the task that playing the Cardinals at home, without our 2 best players, our 2 OG, our starting RG, and starting DE. Having to start 2 rookies on the OL, and 2 suspect back ups, in ADDITION to a QB starting his first NFL game; made the task virtually impossible unless every break went the Pats way....which it obviously didn't. So what gave us that outcome, because if you watch that video, THOSE guys weren't surprised at all by the outcome. They were happy, but NOT surprised.
1. Bill has created a program where the term "the next man up" isn't just a cliche. Through the coaching process, EVERY man to the team is coached to BELIEVE that the are accountable to do their job, and when asked to do it, they are fully prepared to excel to the best of their ability
2. Bill and his staff has also earned the credibility of his team, so they believe in the game plan. So unlike us, when they went through their Saturday walk through, and Bill said, "Listen guys, if you do A, B, C, and D, like we practiced all week, and execute all three phases of the game plan, you can win this game"; those 53 guys BELIEVED it. Those 53 guys and the staff might have been the only ones who felt that if they just "did their jobs" they SHOULD win.
3. In the end it all comes down to MENTAL TOUGHNESS, something that has been major advantage for the Pats in every BB coached team, with the possible exceptions of the 2002 and 2009 teams. Every week the contest in the NFL is usually close the entire game. The pressure to execute increases with every passing quarter. Given the virtual parity of the physical portion of the game, most games are decided because one team executes better under that severe pressure than the other. They have the "mental toughness" to keep their discipline despite the pressure, the mental toughness to believe in their coaching, and the mental toughness to "ignore the noise".
4. This is why I still love the game so much. It is also why I am in such awe of the job BB does, because from the start be BUILDS that mental toughness, mostly just through simple hard work. Every guy who survives to the 53 knows just how much work it took to get there, so they are all supremely confident in their own abilities, even if we aren't. And then he puts them away into the cocoon of the Patriot Way, where the influences of the outside can't trample on the mental mindset that he trying to build.
Football is such a great game just because "the best team" doesn't always win. Why simply going down the line and comparing, "well we are better here, here, here, so we should win the game, just doesn't work. It's a game where the sum of the team will be greater than the individual parts. AND as we know on bad teams, with no mental toughness, the sum can be worse than the individual parts.
If BB was a coach of another sport, I believe he'd have been equally successful, but I doubt he would have coached so long. He's still doing the job because he KNOWS that football is the game where coaching has the most influence on the outcomes of games. Much more than an other sport. He loves it because he can still be an effective teacher and influencer of men. What he does MATTERS, and it matters on the field on Sundays.
Bill isn't one of those HC's who observes, delegates, and decides (well he does that too). He actually coaches guys, and gets his hands dirty. Anyone who has ever been to a preseason practice knows this about Bill. He is an active participant in the day to day operation of the team's preparation......AND THE TEAM KNOWS IT.
BOTTOM LINE: The equation is simple. In a battle of physical equals, the team with the better mental toughness will usually win. Our biggest advantage over the years is we've had a HC/CEO, who believes, and actively strives for it in his program. The results are not always perfect, as we know; but they've been as good as they can get, in the environment that we have to work with. And lucky for us.
BTW- this became a lot longer that I thought it would be, but really the subject is extensive enough for it to be a book. As we saw so often on Sunday how the gap between winning and losing is so minute, it is hard not to acknowledge the importance of mental toughness on the overall success of a franchise.
So what I'm saying is, every week, regardless of who we play, the challenge to win is always there. The old adage says, "on any given Sunday", couldn't be more true, and if Sunday night didn't prove that, nothing will. If you don't come prepared mentally as well as physically, the worst team in the league can beat the best one. That is how good EVERYONE is. Even physically the gap between the best and worst might be 5%.
So I got to thinking about the win the other night because I fell into the conventional wisdom of looking at the line up of back ups and rookies the Pats put out there and tried to figure out exactly how they managed to win a close game that wouldn't have even been that close if the Pats didn't lose the TO battle by 2, and the refs had called the game evenly.
Then it struck me when I watched the locker room video thread today. It was something BB said that hit home. It was dry and unemotional, but it perhaps defines the difference in the Pats program and thus explains, to a small degree, the reason for their success. To paraphrase, Bill said, "Great job, etc, but don't forget that a lot of the work we did this week on the practice field, meetings, and film time was just as important to the victory as the work we put in on the field tonight."
We as fans were intimidated by the task that playing the Cardinals at home, without our 2 best players, our 2 OG, our starting RG, and starting DE. Having to start 2 rookies on the OL, and 2 suspect back ups, in ADDITION to a QB starting his first NFL game; made the task virtually impossible unless every break went the Pats way....which it obviously didn't. So what gave us that outcome, because if you watch that video, THOSE guys weren't surprised at all by the outcome. They were happy, but NOT surprised.
1. Bill has created a program where the term "the next man up" isn't just a cliche. Through the coaching process, EVERY man to the team is coached to BELIEVE that the are accountable to do their job, and when asked to do it, they are fully prepared to excel to the best of their ability
2. Bill and his staff has also earned the credibility of his team, so they believe in the game plan. So unlike us, when they went through their Saturday walk through, and Bill said, "Listen guys, if you do A, B, C, and D, like we practiced all week, and execute all three phases of the game plan, you can win this game"; those 53 guys BELIEVED it. Those 53 guys and the staff might have been the only ones who felt that if they just "did their jobs" they SHOULD win.
3. In the end it all comes down to MENTAL TOUGHNESS, something that has been major advantage for the Pats in every BB coached team, with the possible exceptions of the 2002 and 2009 teams. Every week the contest in the NFL is usually close the entire game. The pressure to execute increases with every passing quarter. Given the virtual parity of the physical portion of the game, most games are decided because one team executes better under that severe pressure than the other. They have the "mental toughness" to keep their discipline despite the pressure, the mental toughness to believe in their coaching, and the mental toughness to "ignore the noise".
4. This is why I still love the game so much. It is also why I am in such awe of the job BB does, because from the start be BUILDS that mental toughness, mostly just through simple hard work. Every guy who survives to the 53 knows just how much work it took to get there, so they are all supremely confident in their own abilities, even if we aren't. And then he puts them away into the cocoon of the Patriot Way, where the influences of the outside can't trample on the mental mindset that he trying to build.
Football is such a great game just because "the best team" doesn't always win. Why simply going down the line and comparing, "well we are better here, here, here, so we should win the game, just doesn't work. It's a game where the sum of the team will be greater than the individual parts. AND as we know on bad teams, with no mental toughness, the sum can be worse than the individual parts.
If BB was a coach of another sport, I believe he'd have been equally successful, but I doubt he would have coached so long. He's still doing the job because he KNOWS that football is the game where coaching has the most influence on the outcomes of games. Much more than an other sport. He loves it because he can still be an effective teacher and influencer of men. What he does MATTERS, and it matters on the field on Sundays.
Bill isn't one of those HC's who observes, delegates, and decides (well he does that too). He actually coaches guys, and gets his hands dirty. Anyone who has ever been to a preseason practice knows this about Bill. He is an active participant in the day to day operation of the team's preparation......AND THE TEAM KNOWS IT.
BOTTOM LINE: The equation is simple. In a battle of physical equals, the team with the better mental toughness will usually win. Our biggest advantage over the years is we've had a HC/CEO, who believes, and actively strives for it in his program. The results are not always perfect, as we know; but they've been as good as they can get, in the environment that we have to work with. And lucky for us.
BTW- this became a lot longer that I thought it would be, but really the subject is extensive enough for it to be a book. As we saw so often on Sunday how the gap between winning and losing is so minute, it is hard not to acknowledge the importance of mental toughness on the overall success of a franchise.