Win No. 300 behind him, Bill Belichick turns attention to No. 301
FOXBORO — Foul skies ensured that everybody at Gillette Stadium wore a hoodie and a rain-pelted glower for a default expression Sunday, a fitting costume for witnessing another Bill Belichick milestone.
Belichick earned his 300th NFL victory as a head coach, his Patriots banking on the basics that produced so many of Belichick’s first 299: win the turnover battle, play great defense, keep the opponent guessing, rely on overlooked players nurtured masterfully under his watch.
For defeating the Browns, 27-13, Belichick expects no gold watch, no bouquet of flowers. After all, he just did his job, and isn’t that what he asks of his players every day, not just on Sunday?
Every time Belichick achieves a milestone, he says the credit belongs to his players and assistant coaches, yet so many of his assistants somehow lose their magic when they leave him to head their own teams and those who rejoin him seem to magically recapture it.
The same goes for so many Patriots rescued from a football equivalent of an attic full of misfit toys. They tend to do better work for Belichick than for anybody else. His 300th victory supplied examples of that. Jonathan Jones, who blazed from behind to catch up to Nick Chubb at the end of his 44-yard run in time to punch the ball from his grasp before he made it to the end zone, is just one of many Belichick success stories. Any team in the NFL could have had Jones by choosing him in the seventh round of the 2016 draft out of Auburn. Nobody did, the Patriots signed him as an undrafted rookie free agent and already have helped him to become a standout defensive back bound for a long career.
And how about the career path of another standout who staked the Patriots to a 17-0 first-quarter lead Sunday, defensive tackle Lawrence Guy? The Packers selected him in the seventh round of the 2012 draft, cut him, put him on the practice squad and the Colts signed him from there. His next team, the Chargers, claimed him off waivers but needed to see him play only three games before waiving him. The Ravens found Guy useful, keeping him for three seasons, but didn’t deem him worthy of the commitment the Patriots made to him when they signed Guy to a four-year contract as a free agent.
Even when he doesn’t produce statistics, Guy earns his money, carrying out assignments in a way that opens up plays for linebackers. He’s especially effective against the run. Guy did more than facilitate Sunday. The huge, well-conditioned athlete made a pair of huge first-quarter plays of his own.
First, he forced a fumble that Dont’a Hightower returned 26 yards for a touchdown. It wasn’t even Guy’s most impressive play of the opening quarter.
With Browns guard Joel Bitonio hanging on his left arm and receiver Jarvis Landry squeezing him from the other side, trying to beat him to the football, Guy split that trap with brute strength and intercepted Baker Mayfield’s shovel pass intended for Landry. Two plays later the Patriots led 17-0 with 2:31 left in the first quarter.
Belichick loves coaching that Guy because he does his job, a thankless one but somebody has to do it, would rather talk about a teammate than himself, and lets the coaches worry about how many snaps he gets to play, quietly takes pride in being that Guy.
Belichick enjoys seeing his players rewarded for unselfish hard work. In attaining 300 wins, including 31 coming in the postseason, which the NFL doesn’t recognize in its official coaching records, Belichick gained entry to a club whose only other members are Don Shula (347) and George “Papa Bear” Halas (324).
The number 300 doesn’t reveal as much about the coach as the six Super Bowls he has won as a head coach to go with the two he picked up as defensive coordinator of the Giants.
Still, it seems like a number worthy of celebration,
Except that tortured geniuses generally aren’t much for rejoicing over their feats, not with their brains nagging at them to address the oh-so-many imperfections that need attention, the sooner the better.
Complacency does not make its way into a perfectionist’s playbook and to waste any time in self-worship would be stealing precious time from reading clues to help him solve football’s version of the next Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. And the next one on Belichick’s plate appears the most vexing of the season, hitting the road to take on dual-threat Lamar Jackson, who plays the quarterback position not quite like anyone else.
Belichick made it through the first half of this season with a perfect record, but the much tougher half of the schedule arrives Sunday in Baltimore.
Belichick, 67, won’t have any trouble tabling reflections on the first 300 wins for a later date. He’s all in on addressing Excedrin Headache No. 301, the Ravens.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2PqDkdt
Post a Comment