Thoughts on Bill Belichick?
doubledragon
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Interesting article on the Belichick vs Brady Patriots success debate, opinions on this?
It didn’t take long for Bill Belichick to turn Patriots into a juggernaut
From 2000-19, Bill Belichick led the New England Patriots to one of the longest dynasties in modern professional sports history. That two-decade span saw New England earn six Super Bowl titles while appearing in the big game nine times.
Naturally, the one denominator here was the presence of the GOAT himself Tom Brady as New England’s quarterback.
Once Brady shockingly decided to leave the Patriots after 20 years ahead of the 2020 campaign, debates raged. Who was responsible for New England’s success? In today’s everyone needs to hold an opinion society, it was rare to give both future Hall of Famers credit. Once Brady led his new Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Super Bowl title last season, the discourse obviously started to favor the quarterback.
In New England, Belichick’s Patriots posted an ugly 7-9 record with Cam Newton starting under center as a stopgap option to replace Brady. Was that the end of it with the Patriots? Having lost four of their first six to open the 2021 campaign, this seemed to be the outcome.
Not so fast.
With Bill Belichick relying on a rookie quarterback in Mac Jones under center, his New England Patriots steamrolled the hapless Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night by the score of 25-0. This represented the Pats’ fifth consecutive victory and has them on the brink of challenging the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East.
New England Patriots’ latest performance had Bill Belichick written all over it
Given his two-decade relationship with Brady, the common NFL fan thought Belichick was more of an offensive-minded head coach.
Dating back to his days as an assistant with the Super Bowl champion New York Giants back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, that was not the case. As their defensive coordinator, Belichick was responsible for leading some of the best units in the NFL. Defenses that were headed by none other than the great Lawrence Taylor.
New England’s dynastic run under Belichick was an elite-level defense. From 2000-19, this unit finished in the top-10 in scoring defense a whopping 16 times.
These Pats are back at that again in 2021. Pretty much leading a no-name unit, New England has been dominant on this side of the ball. That included the Pats yielding just 64 yards to Atlanta in the first half of Thursday night’s game. The Falcons didn’t reach the 100-yard plateau until late in the third quarter and saw three quarterbacks throw a combined four interceptions.
J.C. Jackson has been a ball-hawk in the backfield. Free-agent signing Matt Judon has complemented that with 10.5 sacks through 11 games. Meanwhile, linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley leads a positional group that has been central to Bill Belichick’s success in New England. All of this has the Pats ranked in the top five in total yards and points allowed.
The Mac Jones dynamic:
A star with the eventual national champion Alabama Crimson Tide last season, Jones was seen as the most pro-ready quarterback in the 2021 NFL Draft. In reality, it seemed to be a perfect fit between him and Pats offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
Through his first 11 starts as a rookie, Jones is completing north of 70% of his passes for roughly 2,600 yards with 14 touchdowns against eight interceptions. He has just six fewer touchdown passes than all the other quarterbacks selected in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft combined. Let that sink in. We’re talking Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance and Justin Fields.
It’s not that Belichick is asking too much of his rookie. For the most part, it’s been all about the short, timing passing game. Without turning the ball over a lot, New England’s offense sets it defense up to succeed. That’s typically the issue when it comes to first-year signal caller. It has not been a problem for the Patriots this season.
Now at 7-4 on the campaign and having won five consecutive, there’s no telling what the ceiling is for these Patriots. Consecutive games against championship contending teams such as the Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills ahead of a Week 14 bye will tell us more about this team. For now, it’s clear Bill Belichick has built another juggernaut with the New England Patriots. In the process, he continues to etch his name in the history books as the all-time great.
Comments
I’m sticking with my opinion that Tom Brady deserves the lions share for the success of the Patriots.
The Pats are 6-4 and getting better behind a first round calibre QB with a wizard like offensive coordinator and a tremendously talented Defense.
Belichick deserves a LOT of credit but without Brady he doesn’t sniff 8 Super Bowl appearances
Hard to say if one deserves more of the credit than the other instead of coming together equally like the perfect storm. Seeing we're "Whatiffing" : What if Belichick had Mark Sanchez as his QB? And what if Brady's head coach was Hugh Jackson? Some combinations just click - Just like The Undertaker managed by the great late Paul Bearer
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
Or Andre the Giant, and Bobby "the brain" Heenan. 🤔
does anyone else find it interesting that the Pats replaced last years QB Cam with his exact opposite, Mac.
they are mirror images of each other both in name and ability.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
........
I definitely saw this discussed after we drafted him. Not to go too off topic, but maybe it proves that God loves jokes (and football)?🤷🙏
Bill is disappointed in you people, he expected to return and find a two page legendary thread by now, instead he returns to find a few comments and a quickly fading thread. Sigh.
No, it's ok, Bill understands.
I knew he had a superpower..........
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth!
Now this thread is picking up some steam, you make Bill very happy, you make him smile.
What did you expect? Surely the "B" can't stand for Belichick - Oh Hell no,
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
...
Bill writing a check to his luggage carrier..........
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
If Belichick takes this team to the Super Bowl this year, I don't think there will be any arguments about his coaching ability. Yes, Brady was a big part of the team's success, but you go places with a great quarterback alone. The Detroit Lions proved that, and look at Patrick Mahomes, when he doesn't have a good offensive line in front of him.
His kryptonite is not knowing the difference between real tuna and fake tuna.
His kryptonite is not knowing the difference between real tuna and fake tuna.
If Belichick gets a Super Bowl win this year then I will be overwhelmingly impressed
-> @Alfonz24 said:
Oh BB knows a fake Tuna when he sees one
Judging by Parcells grimace Belichick is probably driving him by the Pats Lombardi Trophy case.
Eric
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