BB has said repeatedly that slot corner and outside corner are different positions that require different skills. He's even gone so far to say that some corners can only play one side of the field.
If you want to put Rowe inside, fine. But Butler needed to be on the field. He's their 2nd best cover corner and by far their best tackling corner.
Do you even want him to change his approach? His approach is part of what makes him the best ever or at least best of his generation. It’s part of the package.
I don't think one can really look at all the plays called non-catches this year and the Clement play and feel good about consistency. There are a bunch of plays that look like that, and were called catches live, that were reversed. This one should have been as well, by the rules---the ball was moving and not fully in his control after his first foot touched down, and he failed to get both feet down again before touching OOB.
Because all we keep hearing and talking about (myself included) is how the braintrust doesn't make mistakes in the areas of preparation and execution and adjustments. But last night, on the biggest stage, with two effin' weeks to prepare against Nick Foles.....BB and his rocket scientist (who everyone has been fawning over) provided a game plan that (if they didn't already have plenty of wind in their sails via past success) could very well lead to a firing / replacement of the Defensive Coordinator and some of his support staff.
I don't think anyone wants him fired. I think people would like to understand the decision. Of course he's never going to say anything about it so we'll be left grasping at reasons why on the internet. But there's something that just does not add up here. How does a guy go from playing 98% of the defensive snaps to stapled to the bench in the SB in favor of Johnson Bademosi? And if it was the game plan to not play Butler, why not adjust when things were going horribly wrong on defense on basically every single Eagle possession?
He played one snap on ST. It's not like he was on the field all evening (if the defense forced at least one more punt, not only would we have seen if Butler was on the punt return unit only, we may have a different perspective today anyway).
They still needed him as a backup. They don't really have any extra DBs with Jonathan Jones and Ebner on IR.
Sure, but then BB could somehow argue semantics--with a lack of focus he wasn't being punished per se, but we thought others were better positioned mentally.
This guy is utterly full of shit with 90% of his NBA stuff, and has the corresponding reputation. As far as I can tell, he just makes up outrageous stuff in the hope he gets retweets and followers.
They shouldn’t have dressed him if he was too sick to play. Activate a freaking healthy body if that was the case.
I guess, but when asked, wouldn't Butler have said that rather than "they gave up on me?" I do think the sickness played into it, though - my guess is he was limited in practice all week due to sickness and they thought that combined with Rowe being taller was the better choice. That still doesn't explain why they didn't at least throw Butler in there for a series to see how he performed in the second half, though, or put him in in limited roles. That's where I come back to the fact that this could only be needless rigidity on the part of the coaching staff - "we have our game plan and we're sticking to it regardless" - which just strikes me as very un-Belichickian.
Again, using Occam's Razor: it could have been one of those situations where Belichick and Patricia are thinking they really cannot count on Butler playing on defense. And so they never really think to stop and think for a minute "Hey, let's move Butler into backfield rotation and see if he can help". Perhaps they thought by adjusting Rowe's and Gilmore's assignments some, that would suffice.
Did BB diss you somehow? You seem to have a real thing about him that goes beyond legitimate criticism of last night's performance (which is btw appropriate). In a run of victories practically unmatched in NFL history, he mails in one stinker. Agreed, but how does that justify the vitriol you dump on him?
Wow. I disagree as framed -- defeat did not have one dad.
I think their thought was that Butler was too small to cover the outside guys and is terrible in the slot, so Rowe outside and Chung inside was a better alignment than Butler outside and Rowe inside. Maybe that was incorrect, maybe not. With the reports that Butler was sick - its probably correct.
And he should be.
For the record, I think somebody who listened to the station this morning stated here that '
Otis, I'm as grateful to Bill Belchick as anyone. And while Buck's tone is a little strident, I have trouble disagreeing with anything he said. What specifically do you disagree with? Last night was well beyond "mailing in a stinker." It was about a piss poor defensive game plan and a series of personnel decisions (Butler out at 2, Rowe in at 2, Richards getting a lot of playing time, last second informing of both players and keeping Rowe on Jeffrey for a half) that were indeed putrid. Said differently, my gratitude to Bill doesn't change, even a little bit, my disappointment over coaching blunders that seemingly contributed mightily to a SB loss.
Going with baseball, maybe it's like a Tito/Manny thing, when Tito was fed up with Manny. Maybe BB was fed up with Butler (for doing what, I don't know). The difference is Tito had Theo forcing his hand while BB is all powerful.
These Belichick quotes really seem to confirm the most obvious explanation.
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt if they wanted to try something like sitting Butler. But, it obviously was not working in the first half. The Eagles completely gutted the secondary in the first half and an adjustment needed to be made.
