Part of the relentless fascination of spectator sports is that even a layman can correctly observe when a genius does something stupid, and now it’s Bill Belichick whose mistakes are on display. Belichick is the greatest football coach of all time, yet his team committed perhaps the silliest endgame play in history, and now we get to watch him sort through his rubble.
Of course, Belichick didn’t want Jakobi Meyers throwing the ball back to Las Vegas’ Chandler Jones with no time left in a tied game, but Meyers likely assumed random back throws into the crowd were the next step in Matt Patricia’s offensive plan. Patrícia, of course, sends the plays to Belichick’s attack (the team doesn’t have a coach with the title of offensive coordinator). He has been a defensive coach for the past decade and a half, save for his years as the Lions head coach, which he spent alienating people and showing no real understanding of how a modern offense should be run.
Virtually no one else in the world thought Patricia was the best choice to run the Patriots’ offense. Belichick selected him anyway, and Patricia was a disaster.
Belichick did not replace former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, opting instead to install Patricia to oversee the offense and set up the plays.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
As hard as it was to watch Belichick’s players completely ignore him at a critical moment — running back Rhamondre Stevenson told reporters he was supposed to go down and instead started a sideline scramble — it was still a play. Strange things happen in football sometimes. Hiring Patricia against all available logic was a choice and likely ended the Pats’ season.
Belichick’s 2022 team isn’t just a disappointment. It is a deception that is entirely of his making. He built a great defense and squandered it by screwing up the offense. (Special teams haven’t helped lately, either.) Quarterback Mac Jones, who had such a promising rookie season in ’21, looks lost and unhappy. This didn’t need to happen.
That sets the Patriots up for the NFL’s most riveting offseason. Belichick is 70 years old. He has not indicated that he will retire. It’s hard to imagine owner Robert Kraft simply firing him. But when Kraft asks Belichick what he plans to do with the attack – a question Kraft must ask – what will Belichick say? Does he realize the depth of the problem he created? Is he willing to go outside his own training tree to find the solution? Or is he more interested in proving a point than winning games?
The only argument in favor of Patricia replacing Josh McDaniels was that Patricia is a New England guy, raised in the ways of Belichick. It appeared, from the outside, that Belichick was so tired of having people attribute his success to Tom Brady and (to a lesser extent) McDaniels that he was determined to go the other way: hire a coordinator who would never get credit and win. with defense, his specialty.
Nothing else made sense, but it’s still hard to believe that was the case. This is not the Bill Belichick we’ve watched over the years. He was ruthless, brilliant, calculating – some would say ruthless – and famously free from feeling or self-doubt. He traded or cut stars; he made unconventional in-game decisions for sound reasons, and he cared what nobody thought about it.
It’s time for Belichick to be that guy again. You don’t need to be a football expert to see this. The Patriots are still on the playoff scene, but their next three games will be against teams that are likely to make them look weak in comparison: Joe Burrow’s Bengals, Josh Allen’s Bills and Tua-Tyreek-Waddle Dolphins. This season will likely end with a heavy dose of embarrassment.
Assuming Belichick wants to keep coaching, the Patriots’ offseason revolves around this question: Is he desperate to validate all of his success, or will he make the same ruthless, ruthless decisions he’s always made before?
You’d expect him to realize that his career doesn’t need to be validated. People will say what they will about Spygate and other suspicions – right or wrong, there’s nothing Belichick can do about it. At this point, there are far more people saying Belichick won because of Tom Brady than Belichick won because he cheated.
In the simpler Brady v. Belichick narrative, Brady was more important because he won a Super Bowl after he left, and the Patriots have been the definition of mediocre. (The Patriots are now 24-23 post-Brady.) I see the last three years proving a different point: Brady, the best quarterback of all time, needed an elite roster to win the Super Bowl, and Belichick, the best manager ever, need elite quarterback game to win one. Brady had that elite roster when he arrived in Tampa Bay. Belichick hasn’t played at an elite quarterback since Brady left.
Everything the Patriots do on offense from here must be guided by that pursuit. We can debate how good Jones can be, but he can clearly be better than he was with Patricia. The Patriots need fresh, creative thinking from a true offensive coordinator. If you and I can see it, surely the best manager in history can see it too.
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