Bill Belichick is a genius. I know that is hardly going out on limb there when I say it but, seriously Belichick is a genius. What makes the hoodie one so brilliant is that not only does he win games but, he does so by taking away what the opposition do best.
Think of him like a boxer who rope a dope his opponent into throwing everything they have at him bar their favored right/left hand. If you’re going to beat him, you won’t do so with your best shot.
Last Week with a third string quarterback and a hobbled Gronk, Belichick conceived a game plan that helped his team record a 27-0 win over the heavily favored Houston Texans. Belichick is like the MacGyver of the NFL armed with nothing more than a paper clip and some duct tape he will find a way to win.
We will highlight below what made the plan work in a moment but, first we must look at what Belichick has done in the past. Bill was the architect of the famous defensive game plan for the New York Giants when they beat the Buffalo Bills in Superbowl 25.
Before the game Belichick had charted what made the Bills, the heavy favorites before the game so potent on offense. He discovered that they had abandoned their running game despite the presence of Hall of Fame Running Back, Thurman Thomas in their backfield and instead favored the passing game, especially crossing routes over the middle of the field.
Belichick announced to his defensive charges before that Superbowl that “We’re going to let Thurman Thomas get 100 yards.”
The Giants defense was fourth best defending the run that season so the idea of letting a running back get a 100 yards in the biggest game of the season didn’t sit well with the players according to Linebacker Carl Banks when he spoke to the New York Daily news about it.
However, as Belichick laid out his plan to take away the passing game from the Bills by being physical with their receivers his player bought into it.
“That was the game plan: Just pound and completely punish the receivers,” Banks said when speaking to the New York Daily News. “If a receiver crossed (the field), he felt it. There wasn’t a lot of running after he caught the ball.”
The Game Plan Worked Quarterback Jim Kelly finished with 212 yards passing and no touchdowns. True to Belichick’s word Thurman Thomas ended up with 135 yards on only 15 carries. It didn’t matter as the Giants won the Superbowl and Belichicks game plan for that game sits in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Fast forward to Superbowl 36 and this time as a head coach Belichick once again lead an underdog team to victory over an offensive juggernaut. The St. Louis Rams at the time were known as the “The greatest show on turf but, Belichick stifled them by taking away their running back Marshall Faulk.
In His book “The games that changed the game ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski calls the Belichick plan in that game as “the best-conceived game plan I had ever seen”
Jaworski nicknamed the plan as “Bulleye” because it centered on focusing on Marshall Faulk, treating him as almost the quarterback in terms of being the main focus for the defensive.
Jaworski described the plan as this “In the Superbowl, he took a physical beating that must have left him sore for a month. Not just in running situations or third down plays, but just about every play, no matter where he was on the field. I never saw him anything like it. There’d be a defensive end who couldn’t care less about rushing the quarterback-he’d totally ignore Warner, sprint right to Faulk and knock him on his ass. Marshall took hits from everybody: corners, linebackers, even defensive tackles. He was like a piñata at a kid’s birthday party, because to Belichick, Faulk was where the candy was”
The Patriots of course won that Superbowl and it kicked started their unprecedented success ever since. So with all that said maybe it really should have come to as no surprise to us when he came up with a gameplan that stopped the Texans in an early regular season game.
The plan for that game was quite simple Belichick realizing that the Texans offense is built on the big explosive plays with Wide Receivers Deandre Hopkins and Will Fuller played his two safeties deep to act as extra cover down the field and try to force Houston Quarterback, Brock Osweiler to take the short yardage gains underneath if he wanted to march his team down the field. In essence Brock wasn’t going to be allowed to travel down field at 25-30 yards a play instead he would have to settle for 3-4 yard gains, that’s if he had the patience to do so.
He did not and instead the young Quarterback persisted with trying to get the big play.
Below is an example of what I am talking about.
As you can see the Patriots have their two safeties playing deep while their corners have pushed up to try to jam and slow down the Houston receivers progress downfield at the line of scrimmage.
As the play develops you can see that all of Osweiler’s down field options are covered. He has his running back free around the 50 for a short game but, instead holds onto the ball waiting for something downfield to open up and ends up getting sacked by Jaabal Shread.
That play summed up the whole night for the Texans and indeed it would be the Patriots who produced the big play on attack.
The Patriots stack their wide receivers to one side of the field, The Texans are playing Man to man coverage.
The Patriots are going to fake a hand off to LeGarrette Blount who is going towards the side with the three wide receivers causing the Texans defence to flow over that way as can be seen below.
Shaq Mason makes a great block to set Jacoby Brissett free.
Who has nothing but, green grass in front of him thanks to the Texans biting on the Blount fake.
Patriots beat a high flying Texans team with a third string well when Belichick is coach as someone once said “I am not surprised Motherf**ker”
