Alan Truex: NFL’s mastermind Belichick quickly adjusts to adversity
Nobody’s saying much about it, but Bill Belichick is more amiable in press conferences this year than he has been in at least a decade. The New England Patriots’ famous curmudgeon is cracking a smile and even a joke.
He’s still not going to say anything about his team that a reporter might want to use. But he’s generous in offering insights about stars on other teams, and he’s full of compliments for the lesser-known members of the Patriots.
He was a study in graceful leadership in the wake of his team’s 31-17 victory in Foxborough over the Green Bay Packers. First he had to congratulate his neighbors, the Boston Red Sox, on their World Series championship. “Certainly inspirational to me,” he said, pointing out that “they set the bar so high for the rest of us, but that’s a good thing.”
Belichick couldn’t say enough for Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers: “lots of great throws . . . Aaron has such a good feel in the pocket, it’s so hard to catch him.”
Watching the replay of his press conference, I was struck by how much more he talked about Rodgers than about his own quarterback, Tom Brady, who’s universally acknowledged as the Greatest of All Time.
Belichick paid homage to the surprise of Sunday’s game, the well-traveled receiver-turned-running back Cordarrelle Patterson, now touted as one of the shrewdest acquisitions by the Greatest Coach of All Time.
Sunday’s game was supposed to be a difficult test for Belichick, who would have to reboot his offense with All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski out along with the starting running back and first-round draft pick, Sony Michel.
But Belichick found a starring role for Patterson, who was acquired from Oakland in the offseason in the sort of seemingly trivial swap for which Belichick is famous. He gave the Raiders a 2018 fifth-round pick, and they gave him Patterson and a sixth-rounder.
Patterson was Sunday’s leading rusher for the Patriots: 11 carries for 61 yards and a touchdown. He also caught a pass and averaged 32 yards for two kickoffs.
Questioned after the game when he became aware that Patterson could be an effective runner, Belichick said, “When he was in Oakland he ran the ball. He’s big (6-2, 228 pounds) and fast, and I could see on the film that he could run.”
The Raiders saw Patterson as a novelty, a change of pace. For them he ran the ball a total of 13 times in 16 games and averaged 9.3 per carry and scored 2 touchdowns. They saw him more as a pass receiver: 31 catches, 309 yards.
Patterson’s first employers, the Minnesota Vikings, became frustrated with their first-round pick of 2014 who couldn’t master his playbook. So Mike Zimmer gave his slot receivership to Charles Johnson, a castoff from, of all teams, the Cleveland Browns. He couldn’t do much well except read.
But Belichick had seen flashes of greatness from Patterson: two years of being All-Pro as a kick returner.
Belichick doesn’t invent or reinvent players, he just assigns roles that display the best of their skill sets. When the season began, Patterson stood behind Michel, Rex Burkhead and James White on the depth chart.
What other coach would have stocked his roster with a fourth-string running back as capable as Patterson?
But that’s what Belichick does, take on talented players who other teams consider a burden. Josh Gordon, who was too much of a head case for the Browns, caught five passes for 131 yards against the Packers.
Of course it was Tom Brady who was making all this happen. And as usual was receiving little credit from the head coach. Before he first mentioned Brady by name, Belichick observed that “Josh McDaniels as usual called a creative game.”
Belichick praised everyone but the beer vendors before he got around to Tom doing a good job of executing. And in saluting Brady he tried to reflect glory on himself: “I’m so fortunate that I’ve been able to coach him.”
Obviously there are egos in collision here, but Belichick/Brady is such an overwhelming combination that there’s no reason to think they will separate any time soon. In fact, Brady is talking about playing in 2020 and ’21.
The Sunday night game in Gillette showed Belichick at his best. The Packers and Patriots are roughly equivalent in athletic talent. But Mike McCarthy, though a thoroughly competent coach, is stodgy, no match for Belichick, who had wide receiver Julian Edelman throwing a 37-yard completion to running back White.
Tony Dungy and other football cognoscenti have said Belichick’s genius is his quick adjustment to every sort of setback. “They make adjustments at halftime, they make adjustments at the quarter.”
The Patriots are 7-2, while the Saints, Rams and Chiefs have lost only once as the season turns into the second half. And these teams have more elite athletes than New England has at the moment. But in the end, their depth, discipline, experience, resilience and Belichickian brilliance make it difficult to overcome the Patriots.
