befuggled

January 11th, 2024 at 9:33 AM ^

Defense also won the Super Bowl against the Rams.

Belichick's judgement has clearly been going downhill for some time, though, and for someone with as much power as he has in the New England organization that's disastrous. For instance, he had not one but two of his kids on staff, and he kept recycling guys like Matt Patricia.

Most importantly, he was trying to get rid of Brady as early as 2016 (i.e., when Jimmy Garoppolo won two games when Brady was suspended for Deflategate). On the one hand I get this; Brady was 39, the age Peyton Manning was when his performance fell off a cliff. Nobody plays at a high level in the NFL forever, and I certainly didn't predict Brady still playing at a high level at 45 when he finally retired.

On the other hand, the fact that Brady's stats immediately got better in Tampa Bay just how badly he misjudged this. Oh, and the Super Bowl win, too. That Brady played nearly as well the next year underlines it for me.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 9955

Hensons Mobile…

January 11th, 2024 at 11:18 AM ^

The "so what" is the long-held grudge and lingering resentment for those of us who are Tom Brady fans who had to listen to the garbage narrative for the first half of Brady's career that Tom Brady was "just a guy" and the Genius Belichick could have plugged in any random dope and accomplished the same thing.

So we're going to rub it in whenever we can, that's all.

Joined: 09/12/2019

MGoPoints: 49405

BoFan

January 11th, 2024 at 11:42 AM ^

Belichick is the most overrated coach in history.  Facts matter  

.451 winning percentage without Brady

.774 winning percentage with Brady 

Brady showed he can win without Belichick and was even better statistically

If you were to rank the worst coaches in NFL history that have at least 150 games and include Belichick’s 184 games w/o Brady, Belichick would be the 4th worst.  
 

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bill-belichick-patriots-part-ways-heres-how-legendary-new-england-coach-fared-without-tom-brady/amp/

Joined: 03/09/2012

MGoPoints: 19940

mgobleu

January 11th, 2024 at 7:34 AM ^

What’s going to take more years off my life, the last 30 minutes of the rose bowl or this year’s coaching circus monkey rodeo without a solid commitment from Harbaugh?

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 38428

Blinkin

January 11th, 2024 at 7:57 AM ^

The previous years of NFL flirtations took years off my life, but this year I'm at peace.  Harbaugh has brought Michigan to the very pinnacle of the sport, has slain all the dragons, had a perfect season, and closed out the 4-team playoff era with Michigan on top.  The first year of the CFP era (2014) featured 5-7 Michigan missing a bowl, and OSU winning the national championship.  Hauling Michigan up to the top, and having to get through our most hated rival, having to knock them off their perch to get there, is an incredible accomplishment.  

I'd be thrilled if Harbaugh decides to spend another decade here.  But if he wants to go win a super bowl, I wish him the best of luck and only ask him to not totally raid the assistant coaching staff on his way out the door.  

Joined: 08/17/2022

MGoPoints: 28231

Nixon Bluett

January 11th, 2024 at 7:35 AM ^

With his final game as a loss to the Jets. Ouch. He needed to totally change the offense after Brady left. I’m not sure he ever understood how much coaching TB12 was doing, which pushed that offense from ok to excellent.

Joined: 08/14/2014

MGoPoints: 546

treetown

January 11th, 2024 at 7:43 AM ^

Belichick going out at NE after Brady shows how important it is to have a great QB.

But it may show a deeper issue. Notice that Belichick remained creative and imaginative on defense - the Super Bowls against St. Louis and later the LA Rams are good examples. His offensive coordinators and his own input on offense probably wasn't refreshed and challenged as much. 

Having a veteran QB with great skill, great interest in game playing led to an atrophy of the skills to work with and develop less-than-the-GOAT level QBs. People in non-sports see this as well. A work team has a 30 year employee retire and suddenly all of the little things, explicit and implicit, start cropping up and everyone on the team is forced to realize that things that they have taken for granted are now absent. 

 

Joined: 11/10/2010

MGoPoints: 6339

ppToilet

January 11th, 2024 at 9:08 AM ^

I'll add that it was more than just Brady being great. Having a great QB would've won a couple trophies. What made him great was that he didn't ask for all the money in the world. By asking for less money, restructuring his contracts, they were able to pay for a better supporting cast around him. In other words, being unselfish and valuing the victory as a team rather just going for money. Obvs, it helped that his wife was super rich, but still I think Brady would've done the same thing.

Joined: 04/18/2011

MGoPoints: 5261

LSAClassOf2000

January 11th, 2024 at 8:12 AM ^

This has been an interesting 24 hours of coaching news indeed. 

There will always be a debate about how much of New England's run was actually Belichick, but all the same, it was quite the run. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130627

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 11th, 2024 at 8:25 AM ^

Brady settled that debate when he left New England, IMO.

It's unfair to go so far as to say that Belichick was just along for the ride, but there's way too much of a correlation between Brady's absence and the collapse of the Jenga tower for it to be coincidence.  The Patriots might very well still have won the SB in 2001 with Bledsoe under center, but it would never have been the start of a dynasty.  One which, by the way, neither I nor many people outside New England are shedding a tear to see the end of.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 41586