When it comes to the question of whether Bill Belichick or random New England-area sports fans better know how to run a football team, yeah, I’m putting my money on Belichick. I mean, honestly, what more would he need to do to convince people he knows what he’s doing? A handful of Super Bowls and a 16-0 season aren’t enough?
There’s a reason the NFL stands for Not For Long. Belichick’s last Super Bowl winner was in 2005 and the Patsies have been one of the favorites each year but failed to capitalize. Part of that has been personnel issues in critical games. Since he’s taken over that area since their last Super Bowl win, that’s a pretty fair area for criticism.
Chuck Noll won twice as many Super Bowls as Belichick and by the mid-80s Steeler fans were already starting to grumble about him. Rightfully so, as it turned out…
I’m not saying the fans are right, but it’s not hard to question some of BB’s personnel moves recently. Haynesworth? Ochocinco? The constant rotation of DBs?
Lorini
3883
Mk, the statistics don’t lie. Belichick has a defense that’s a real problem. He did not win SB’s or go 16-0 with a 31st ranked defense.
The question is why is the defense so bad? Wrong players? Wrong scheme for the players they have? Wrong HC? I don’t know, I hate the Patriots, so don’t follow them much, but have been looking at defensive statistics because it’s an area that the Raiders aren’t much better at than the Patriots.
The defense isn’t great because no team can be champion-level great continuously and consistently for decades on end. It just doesn’t happen. In the modern NFL, if you can be a team that’s in the playoff hunt most years, occasionally goes deep into the playoffs, and has won a Super Bowl, you’re doing better than ca nreasonably expected.
(I’m trying to think of exceptions to this, and the best one I’ve got is the Montana/Young-era 49ers, which won semi-regular Super Bowls over 13 years, but they still went 4 years between wins regularly.)
That said, I didn’t remember about Belichick taking over the GM duties, although in retrospect, it was Scott Pioli or whatever who did that before, right? So, that’s a fair cop. The record of GM/coaches isn’t always great, and I can see the argument for putting another GM in place.
Sarkus
3885
Given all the talk of how many draft picks the Pats have each year, though, this shouldn’t be happening to them if they were drafting well. And especially on Belichick’s side of the ball, where he should have a special insight into the guys he needs.
It seems plausible, but Mike Holmgren, despite being an objectively great coach, was a pretty lousy GM in Seattle. It seems like the skillsets should have a lot of overlap, but empirically it seems like they’re more different than you’d think.
Nawid_A
3887
If he gets fired, I hope he and Manning join forces in Indianapolis to form the scariest combination ever.
Lorini
3888
They are not firing him. He may decide on his own to resign, but I don’t see them firing Belichick. There’s something fundamentally wrong though, but who knows what it really is.
Scuzz
3889
This is a problem for the Pats. Instead of drafting early round young players and giving them a chance Bellichek chooses to draft later and then sign someone elses dropped free agents and neither option is paying off.
“Fundamentally wrong”? That’s just absurd. Since 2008, their records have been 11-5, 10-6, 14-2, and 5-2 this year. There are probably 20 teams in the league that would kill to have as much fundamentally wrong as that. I mean, really, who’s done better over that timespan? Not the Colts. Not the Packers. Not the Saints.
When a team is doing as well as, if not better than, any team in the league over the last four years, I just don’t see how you get a crisis out of the situation. When fans start griping about performance like that, I think it’s time for them to spend a decade or two in the wilderness, so they can appreciate winning instead of sitting there grousing every time they aren’t perfect.
Wader
3891
“so say we all” - A Redskins fan
Lorini
3892
It’s a shame they haven’t been to the SB since when, 2005? But they still have Brady so everything is just peachy keeno. They should certainly continue their pattern of first game exits from the playoffs, that’s certainly better than a lot of other teams, mine included. Oh but wait, my team doesn’t have the best QB in the game who actually deserves better than a first round exit.
Brady is not going to be there forever. If they would get a good defense, they could get a lot further with him. But with a shit defense, they might as well have Jason Campbell or his equivalent, Campbell can get a team to the first round of the playoffs.
If all the fans deserve is a first round exit, then yes, the team is just fine. But with Brady on the team, they need to get a defense for him.
Nothing less than a Superbowl win will satisfy Boston fans, I guess.
The last three playoff games the Pats have scored 21, 14, and 14. They haven’t exactly lit it up with Brady at the helm. I don’t think you can pass that off on the defense letting the offense down.
Yeah, that’s what I mean about needing time in the wilderness. Back in my day, as a Packer fan growing up in the pre-Favre era, the Packers hadn’t won the Super Bowl for 25 years. They hadn’t even won their DIVISION for 20 years. The only time they’d been to the playoffs in that 20 year time was the 1982 strike season. They only had five winning seasons in 24 years. They hadn’t had a 1000 yard rusher since 1978.
And when they started to win, man, everyone want crazy. First when it was with Don Majkowski and their incredible, amazing, 10-6 season that almost got them into the playoffs, and then ultimately when it happened for real in the Favre-era.
THAT is a franchise with something fundamentally wrong. Going out in the early rounds of the playoffs every year and not winning a Super Bowl for literally years on end? Yeah, no.
And so anyway, if the Patriots go through a decade of that, then fans can appreciate what it means to win. Right now, those wins are being wasted on the ungrateful, and ought to be redistributed to needy fans in Detroit and Cleveland.
jeffd
3897
Yeah I guess they’re the new Yankees fans. :\
As a Redskins fan in the Boston burbs, it is inconceivable to me that the Pats would contemplate removing Belicheck.
Yes, the Pats have some problems, but they aren’t going to do anything drastic.
Meh, I really don’t like defending Boston, and they are more obnoxious than the average fanbase, but every team’s fans get jaded after a decade of constant success. When your team has won a championship recently and are still playing well, anything less than a title is a disappointment. That’s just the way it is.
I kinda agree with Lorini’s sentiment though. Call it spoiled if you want, but the last few years of rebuilding the defense have resulted in a defense that gets worse each year. I’m not suggesting Tom Terrific is entitled to win more rings, but why is one of the supposed best defensive coaches in the league unable to improve the defense after stockpiling so many draft picks? It would never happen, but shouldn’t an NFL owner think about taking away a coach’s complete authority on personal decisions after such a track record?
