upstater1
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Apologies for the very long post in advance, but...
Next year is going to be nothing but pleasure watching Belichick's team scheme and strategize. Multiple tight ends, a beefy OLine, a QB who has the option to heave it so you better put 2 on Agholor, or the QB can run it, teams will be forced to stay honest against our run heavy offense, or they'll get sliced by our 2 TEs and 2 WRs. We'll be watching the brilliance of the Belichick football mind, and this is mostly what I love about football. Just the counters and adapting, the adjustments and new schemes. I am not really a fan at all of wide open football (which is why I don't bother watching college football, spent 3 years at Penn State and went to a total of one game), I hate the Big12 in particular. Football is about defense and countering defense, the way I see it.
We're about to have a very enjoyable year watching a throwback QB lead a throwback team against a league that seems now to only do it one way. OK--so we may look a little like the Ravens. But I think we can do well.
I'm juiced up and looking forward to next season. But I know so many people are going to complain about the Patriots, so many casual fans. The way they complained about the 2018 boring Super Bowl. blah, blah, blah, defense, poor execution, etc.
They are missing out on the best part of football. And it's strategizing in order to win the game.
I'm involved in coaching soccer a little bit and I'm always stunned by the coaching mentality and fan mentality that preaches "good soccer" over cynical soccer, or what I call winning soccer. To me, Bill Belichick is the top proponent of cynical football, and I love him for it. Win the game, please.
It's a struggle defending football to casual fans these days, especially those who prefer basketball, soccer and baseball. I think football is the superior viewing sport of the 3 (not necessarily the superior sport to play) and it's because of what coaches like BB can do. I try to tell friends about the salary cap, construction of the team, offensive and defensive principles, and how I find it all fascinating. But it falls on deaf ears.
This is why next year is going to be a big treat. BB is experimenting. And I expect good things (10-6).
Just a little about me: I grew up paying baseball religiously. I was pretty good when very young. Good hitter, could throw hard. We played 3 games a day June through August. 27 innings a day. It was my sport. Loved the Red Sox. Lived in Connecticut, so was always in Red Sox vs. Yankees battles in the 1970s. When I got to HS & went against top pitching, I discovered I didn't have the reflexes to hit an 80 mph fastball. I whiffed over and over again. I gave up my favorite sport and joined the football team.
I'm decently sized 6'3" and 200+ so I played TE/OT/DE, but having never played anything other than sandlot, I had a lot to learn. First day of practice they told me to get in a 3 point stance, and I had no idea what that was. Played for 3 years (not my senior because of injury) and honestly, never learned a lot of nuances of my positions. I learned the plays. That's it. It wasn't a great football education, but we had time constraints and the coaches just wanted to win.
Played rugby in college, but the college sport I liked to watch mostly is college bball. After I had children, I got involved in soccer. Always loved it because it was my father's favorite sport. Never played it competitively because my town had no town travel team and my high school had no soccer team. Still, because my kids were naturally pretty good with footwork, I took coaching classes, I coached, and eventually became licensed. I have a pretty advanced awareness of tactics and strategies compared to most of travel coaches in my area.
I mention all this because from all the coaches, friends, parents, I've known from playing and coaching various sports, they often don't have a very high opinion of what a great sport football is. I just think it's superior to them all, even if I am not at all an expert in it at all.
Went to a Patriots Bills game in Buffalo in recent years and I was chatting with Bills fans while watching from the 3rd deck. Before the snap, I called out, "oh here comes a penalty, illegal formation." A second later out comes a flag and there are not enough men on the line. Bills fans remark, "Do I really watch formations and notice things like that?" They say they could never enjoy the game if they were doing that. I get it. It's a lot more fun to drink beer, watch people smash into each other, and watch big plays. It's a lot of fun. I understand. But--I can't stop focusing on the formations and the strategies of the coaches. In fact, my biggest critiques are of terrible strategies, terrible formations. I would die if I were a Seahawks fan after 2014. I still blame Bill O'Brien for the jumbo package he ordered before the big Welker drop in 2011, primarily because it allowed the Giants to bring in a new unit after Brady was cutting them up with short passes. Like Carroll had us, we had the Giants on the ropes. (I remember in fact in the 1990s when Terry Glenn looked over at Pete who was trying to call a timeout and Glenn was like, WTF! are you doing, we're driving in for the kill). This is what sticks in my mind when I watch football.
Next year is going to be nothing but pleasure watching Belichick's team scheme and strategize. Multiple tight ends, a beefy OLine, a QB who has the option to heave it so you better put 2 on Agholor, or the QB can run it, teams will be forced to stay honest against our run heavy offense, or they'll get sliced by our 2 TEs and 2 WRs. We'll be watching the brilliance of the Belichick football mind, and this is mostly what I love about football. Just the counters and adapting, the adjustments and new schemes. I am not really a fan at all of wide open football (which is why I don't bother watching college football, spent 3 years at Penn State and went to a total of one game), I hate the Big12 in particular. Football is about defense and countering defense, the way I see it.
We're about to have a very enjoyable year watching a throwback QB lead a throwback team against a league that seems now to only do it one way. OK--so we may look a little like the Ravens. But I think we can do well.
I'm juiced up and looking forward to next season. But I know so many people are going to complain about the Patriots, so many casual fans. The way they complained about the 2018 boring Super Bowl. blah, blah, blah, defense, poor execution, etc.
They are missing out on the best part of football. And it's strategizing in order to win the game.
I'm involved in coaching soccer a little bit and I'm always stunned by the coaching mentality and fan mentality that preaches "good soccer" over cynical soccer, or what I call winning soccer. To me, Bill Belichick is the top proponent of cynical football, and I love him for it. Win the game, please.
It's a struggle defending football to casual fans these days, especially those who prefer basketball, soccer and baseball. I think football is the superior viewing sport of the 3 (not necessarily the superior sport to play) and it's because of what coaches like BB can do. I try to tell friends about the salary cap, construction of the team, offensive and defensive principles, and how I find it all fascinating. But it falls on deaf ears.
This is why next year is going to be a big treat. BB is experimenting. And I expect good things (10-6).
Just a little about me: I grew up paying baseball religiously. I was pretty good when very young. Good hitter, could throw hard. We played 3 games a day June through August. 27 innings a day. It was my sport. Loved the Red Sox. Lived in Connecticut, so was always in Red Sox vs. Yankees battles in the 1970s. When I got to HS & went against top pitching, I discovered I didn't have the reflexes to hit an 80 mph fastball. I whiffed over and over again. I gave up my favorite sport and joined the football team.
I'm decently sized 6'3" and 200+ so I played TE/OT/DE, but having never played anything other than sandlot, I had a lot to learn. First day of practice they told me to get in a 3 point stance, and I had no idea what that was. Played for 3 years (not my senior because of injury) and honestly, never learned a lot of nuances of my positions. I learned the plays. That's it. It wasn't a great football education, but we had time constraints and the coaches just wanted to win.
Played rugby in college, but the college sport I liked to watch mostly is college bball. After I had children, I got involved in soccer. Always loved it because it was my father's favorite sport. Never played it competitively because my town had no town travel team and my high school had no soccer team. Still, because my kids were naturally pretty good with footwork, I took coaching classes, I coached, and eventually became licensed. I have a pretty advanced awareness of tactics and strategies compared to most of travel coaches in my area.
I mention all this because from all the coaches, friends, parents, I've known from playing and coaching various sports, they often don't have a very high opinion of what a great sport football is. I just think it's superior to them all, even if I am not at all an expert in it at all.
Went to a Patriots Bills game in Buffalo in recent years and I was chatting with Bills fans while watching from the 3rd deck. Before the snap, I called out, "oh here comes a penalty, illegal formation." A second later out comes a flag and there are not enough men on the line. Bills fans remark, "Do I really watch formations and notice things like that?" They say they could never enjoy the game if they were doing that. I get it. It's a lot more fun to drink beer, watch people smash into each other, and watch big plays. It's a lot of fun. I understand. But--I can't stop focusing on the formations and the strategies of the coaches. In fact, my biggest critiques are of terrible strategies, terrible formations. I would die if I were a Seahawks fan after 2014. I still blame Bill O'Brien for the jumbo package he ordered before the big Welker drop in 2011, primarily because it allowed the Giants to bring in a new unit after Brady was cutting them up with short passes. Like Carroll had us, we had the Giants on the ropes. (I remember in fact in the 1990s when Terry Glenn looked over at Pete who was trying to call a timeout and Glenn was like, WTF! are you doing, we're driving in for the kill). This is what sticks in my mind when I watch football.
