The Final Word on Billy Belichick

Editor’s Note: I continue my offseason goal of rekindling my proverbial flame with Major League Baseball.  With

Oh, Billy you know how to get the media going

awards week upon us, I am fairly to hardly interested in the winners, mostly because none of the balloting should be very close.  I was happy to see Zack Greinke win the Cy Young (that’s the one they give to the best pitcher in each league), but immediately annoyed/depressed that he could go 25-0 next season and not pitch one nationally televised game.  My search continues; in the meantime you get NLF musings.  Surely I am on the rebound.

As the resident/token New England writer around this Cubicle, I feel required to throw in my two cents on what surely must be the most debated single NFL coaching decision in the last [insert arbitrary number here] years.

“When playing a night road game in November, in a stadium with the roof closed, no less, to wear the cut-off hoodie, the cut off sans hoodie, or does one dare bust out the no cut-off non-hoodie [no picture available]???  Hmm, there are plusses and minuses to each – arm warmth, arm ventilation, neck strain (due to weight of the hoodie, obviously), neck ventilation (could wear turtleneck underneath), looking creepy… I can’t believe the media doesn’t understand how hard of a decision this is.”

“Excuse me Mr. Belichick, equipment dude only brought the cutoff sans hood variety…”

“Idiots, I work with idiots.”

Oh, right THE PLAY.  Truly, everyone has weighed in.  The Media Pundits (fool, idiot, etc.), the Former Players (terrible call, disrespecting the defense), the Former Coaches (have to punt there, no choice theorem), the Current Players (in Belichick we trust), the StatHeads (can’t criticize the call; at worst 50/50, but likely the right decision), the StatHead Haters (Hey stat heads, stop ruining our game and let the guys play it out on the field), TMQ (Belichick is the man), and everyone in between.  In bullet point form, here are my thoughts:

I support the call wholeheartedly.  I love the outside-the-box thinking that has been a mainstay of Belichick’s style.  From purposely taking a safety against Denver to busting out the Wildcat before it was the Wildcat, he has always been trying new angles.  I love that its still part of the style.

Statistically I do believe it was the right call.  I don’t need to get into Brady on 4^th Down and 2 conversion rates, Manning the Impaler, the Colts previous two possessions, or the Colts 21-point comeback in the AFC Championship.

The crying that he showed a lack of faith in his defense is lame to extremely lame.  By punting he is showing a lack of faith in his offense to gain 2 yards when they had averaged 6+ yards/play up to that point in the game.  Where are the people crying that Belichick has no faith in Brady when he punts on 4 and 2.

Belichick’s major blunder was not deciding before 3^rd down that he was going for it on fourth and playing as though he had two plays.  QB sneak, QB sneak surely must net the yards needed, while at the same time forcing the Colts to use their last time out.  Pass, pass doesn’t seem like the right call.

The second blunder was not letting Joey Addai score when he broke off the run from the 15.  He scores, the Pats are down 1 and then have over a minute to get into Gostkowski field goal range for the winner winner chicken fried dinner.

There you have it.  Now I am off to find some sleezy, trashy, easy new sport to sink my teeth into while I sort things out with Baseball.  Competitive Eating I’m looking at you.