Do you think they teach players general situational awareness? How to handle themselves in late game situations?
I disagree with the bolded. Are the BB Patriots of the past 2 decades known for freelancing like headless chickens? You don;t attriute that to coaching?
This is a legit point. If BB is 55 or even 65, I think this point carries the day. But with him at 70, and with a team you implicitly acknowledge is bad, how far can you reasonably expect BB to take you even if he still is at the very top of his coaching and personnel game?
Do we think that Jakobi had situational awareness for 4 years, but that becase Bill didn't tell him... "hey if we get into a tied game and someone laterals you the ball with no time, make sure not to throw it 25 yards backwards at the QB" before this game, he forgot everything?
Guys screw up sometimes, they make bad decisions, you go over it on tape and hope it doesn't happen again. If it keeps happening, you find a way to move on from that guy in the offseason.
The real answer is honestly probably pretty simple.... Good teams make fewer mistakes because they are more capable of executing simple things because they have talent and play from ahead more. Guys make the most mistakes when they are trying to make something happen because the team can't just execute.