Then there's his work getting doppelgangers for the scout team. Maybe I'm in a Patriots bubble, but I just don't hear about this kind of attention to detail from other head coaches, except oddball things like Chip Kelly monitoring his players' diets and stuff.
"We're almost never going to punt" isn't really an optimal strategy in the NFL, but I'd estimate that approximately 1/3rd to 1/4th of normal kicking or punting situations (4th and 5 from either 48 included) shouldn't be kicks or punts. If Belichick ever does fully commit to going for it in those spots, I'll be ecstatic.
Why do you think almost never punting isn't optimal in the NFL and that only like 1/3 of situations shouldn't be punts? All the studies we've seen in this thread and elsewhere seem to contradict that.
I haven't seen a credible study that suggested going for it on 4th down all the time (or close to it) in the NFL. The Pulaski Academy guy justifies his decision to do this (as well as never trying to return kicks and always attempting the onsides on kickoffs) by pointing out that high school players are often pretty bad at basic skills that NFL players can do in their sleep and his decision to essentially forgo participating in special teams allows his team to focus on the important stuff in practice. When his kicker and punter are terrible, he isn't losing much my going for it in almost any situation, although 4th and 10 inside his own 10 is still pretty questionable.
I liked the guy laughing at Edelman, who looks back at him and says "It's your first playoff game bud."
Yeah, great to see a Brady puff piece in national media, particularly from the WWL. I don't mean "puff piece" entirely dismissively, all sports figures with on-the-field greatness approaching Brady's receive dozens of these. The author focuses of Brady's character, and comes away very much impressed.
This has to be Bruschi, right?
And in the Seahawks-Panthers one, what does Ron Rivera shout at his Hands team when they're about to go out and recover the game-clinching onside kick?
Not sure about the 2012 loss to the Ravens or the 2013 loss to Denver, but without a doubt, if he was healthy in the Super Bowl vs the 9-7 Giants, no question they win it; in reality, they should have won that game even without a healthy Gronk.
Not a doubt in my mind about the Super Bowl either. The Manningham catch would have meant fuckall down 14 pts.
Nice to see a steady stream of stories lately that take the time to respect what BB & co have brought to the game of football rather than the lazy tear downs from last year.
This was really good. One part in particular, hit me really hard:
I think most of us here on SoSH appreciate what we have been able to see over the last decade and a half, but there are a lot of Patriots fans out there who probably don't appreciate it as much as we do. I am in awe of what Brady has been able to accomplish over his career, and so many people take it for granted.
What's even better is if you add the #HGHRetirementParty hashtag, your Tweet gets one of these.
Thanks for this, it's outstanding. Good stories on Belichick, Slater, Edelman, how Patriots culture differs from other teams, the Combine. Moe also has a good explanation of option routes and how they make the Pats offense effective.
Until next year anyway
Amazing that there's no mention of Chrebet's many concussions suffered from "over the middle". That guy is going to be a vegetable by the time he's 50.
