Belichick, Best in Class

Say what you want about the Patriots: Their defense sucks, their arrogant, Tom Brady wears UGGS, whatever, the one thing I am going to say is that they are well-coached. As far as I'm concerned this has been the best coaching job Belichick has done since the first title in 2001.

For all of you that haven't seen Bill Belichick: A Football Life it is like pornography for the gridiron fan. It doesn't matter what team you root, NFL Films (the same crew that puts Hard Knocks together) shows more than just Belichick the coach, but the man behind the headset. There is one scene in particular that has Belichick standing next to Brady and says, "I just can't get this team to play the way we need to play." He may not have the talent on defense that he has in years past but this team does play the way the need to play to win games.

Belichick's genius has been on display full force this year, a few things that have really shined throughout this year were the following:

• During the Denver game the Patriots were flat-out getting their ass beat in the first quarter. No other way around it. Tim Tebow was Jesus-juicing the hell out of the Patriots defense. Belichick who had largely went to the 4-3 defense this year to appease Albert Haynesworth switched back to his roots and the 3-4 and held the Broncos to under 200 total yards the next 3 quarters. For a coach that has had his ability to coach and make the necessary adjustments challenged the last few years he made the neccessary adjustments before halftime and completely scrapped his gameplan. This was essentially the biggest game in the second half of the season for the Patriots and they won it with supreme coaching.


• Devin McCourty an All-Pro in 2010 has turned the "Sophomore Slump" into more of a Collosal Catastrophe. He was going in line to be the ONLY cornerback in the history of the NFL to give up 1000 yards against. Plain and simple, he was getting beat like he stole something. So, Belichick, noticing his young defensive back had no confidence this past week made the move to safety and he got an interception and by and large looked pretty good at the position. This however leaves yet another hole at cornerback.


• Enter Julian Edelman. Julian Edelman as a receiver has been inconsistent at best. But Julian Edelman on defense has been actually quite good. Against the Bills he played more than 95% of the defensive snaps and is probably the best tackler outside of Jerod Mayo on the team. With McCouty looking like Swiss cheese everytime someone throws a ball his way, Belichick has inserted Edelman and it has worked spectacularly.


• Legacy. Belichick acknowledges legacy as well as any coach in the history of the NFL and that is one of the reasons that Tom Brady played this weekend even with a partially separated shoulder. Although he didn't pass Drew Brees the fact that Brady also passed Dan Marino's 27 year passing yardage record, cements his legacy even more than his 3 rings already has. This wasn't the only other milestone on Sunday that was achieved. The Carolina Panther game had just finished and Rob Gronkowski was 17 yards shy of passing Jimmy Graham's record of most receiving yards by a tight end in a season and up by 4 touchdowns he has his backup quarterback throw a back shoulder fade to pick up 22 and the record. He says he doesn't care about stats, but knows that special players/accomplishments deserve the notoriety that all their hard work puts forth.

The defense is at times infuriating at times when they just hemmorage yards. But they have only given up more than 25+ points three and I'll take Brady's chances on putting up 25+ points a game all day and twice on Sunday. The AFC playoff teams aren't better in terms of the points against so much either.

25+ Points against

Baltimore-3

Pittsburgh-2

Houston-4

Denver- 6

Cincinnati-3

All of the other playoff teams with the exception of Pittsburgh have given up 25+ points at least 3 games in the year and the Patriots are the only team not to give up a 30 point game against them. The name of the game is score more points than the opposition not give up the fewest yards per game.

Count me in the Belichick "has a few more tricks up his sleeve"-camp during this playoff run because there is no way that either rookie quarterback could come into Foxborough and beat the Patriots, nor can a hobbled Ben Roethlisberger beat the Patriots twice in one year.

Stay Tuned

Norton