To read up on the rest of the Patriots 2009 postmortem, check out part 1 (intro), part 2 (defense), and part 3 (offense).
It’s no secret that Bill Belichick wasn’t on top of his game this season. There seemed to be so much confusion on the sidelines during crucial moments and a general lack of preparedness that it was jarring for most Patriots fans who’d been following the team under Hoodie’s reign. But why this year and how did it get this bad? Has too much success made him comfortable and complacent? Having achieved as much as most coaches ever will in the NFL, did he lack the motivation to properly prepare himself for the coming season? Too much time spent chasing married chicks? What was it?
While I’m not prepared to say that anyone of Belichick’s competitive nature would find himself completely lacking in motivation, I think there is a certain comfort level that he’s at that would make it difficult to have the same fire as before. When he was hired to be the head coach in New England in 2000, he was desperate to prove that he could succeed without Bill Parcells – he’d already failed on his own in Cleveland, and wound up back in Parcells’ shadow with the Pats and the Jets. Winning that first title was all about proving he could do it on his own, and I think the back-to-back 14-2 seasons with championship toppers were motivated by trying to prove he was better than his old boss. He did all that and wound up being regarded as one of the best head coaches ever in football. I can understand why he’d feel like coasting a bit after that.
However, I think it comes down to something else as well – turnover in his coaching staff. With the level of complexity in the NFL now, a head coach can’t play genius and do it all on his own. Coaches have learned the hard way that you’re only as good as your underlings make you look. It’s something Tony Massarotti wrote about yesterday and which hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention.
The turnover on the Patriots coaching staff has been cited before, of course, but the ripple effects may be greater than any of us could possibly know. The Patriots have not won a Super Bowl since longtime Belichick loyalists Weis and Crennel left the team following the 2004 season (and a victory in the 2005 Super Bowl), which may be a coincidence as much as anything else. Or maybe it isn’t. In the case of the Patriots offense, Weis eventually was replaced by Josh McDaniels, who did not truly blossom until his third year on the job. Crennel gave way to Eric Mangini, who gave way to Dean Pees.
Now, Crennel and Weis are in Kansas City, McDaniels is in Denver, Mangini is in Cleveland, where he lured former Pats special teams coach Brad Seely. Belichick’s most valuable coaching methods and secrets are now scattered around the NFL, all while the Patriots routinely have been thrust into a state of transition. One coach seemingly has led to the next, creating the kind of instability (on multiple levels) that can eat at an organization from the inside out.
As he’s lost coaches that he trusts to bigger and better paychecks, Belichick has necessarily had to assume more direct responsibility over what he used to delegate and forget about. On top of that, there’s always the risk that the talent pool (or a team’s luck) will eventually run dry – that you’re bound to wind up with someone who can’t do the job as well as the last guy.
Take Bill O’Brien – PLEASE. (Hey, when you get a chance to paraphrase a legend like Henny Youngman, you do it.) Obviously, Belichick had some inkling that this guy could handle calling the offense in much the same way he’d worked a young quarterbacks coach named Josh McDaniels into the offensive coordinator job after Charlie Weis left for Notre Dame. Charlie was The Man when he left New England, an offensive guru, and McDaniels wound up coaching the offense to heights never before seen in NFL history. Not too bad, so why not pull the same trick? Well, for one because O’Brien apparently has no feel for calling plays in the NFL whatsoever. The Patriots jumped out to big leads in most of their games, leading the NFL in first half scoring, and then rarely were able to keep that going throughout the entire game – in fact, they were downright anemic in the second half of nearly every contest. That tells me that the guy calling the plays can scout the crap out of an opponent, come up with a great gameplan to take advantage of their tendencies, but isn’t capable of making any kind of adjustments once the game begins. Football in the pros is chess with every move sparking a counter move. Unfortunately for the Pats, their offensive coordinator was playing checkers instead of chess after the opening kick. Sure, every so often he got to yell “King me!”, but that’s not the type of thing that wins championships (or playoff games). I don’t know that this is something that can be taught, learned, or absorbed over time.
O’Brien’s defensive counterpart, Dean Pees, stepped down yesterday with alternating speculation that he wanted to pursue other options or that the Pats asked him to leave before he was fired. Looking at the job he’s done from a pure numbers point of view, it’s not too bad considering what he had to work with. Considering that his team hasn’t allowed more than an average of 20 points per game over the last 4 years, that seems pretty good. Until I realize how many of those games I watched with my stomach tied in a knot because the Pats couldn’t stop the run for squat.
There was a large part of me that wanted to see Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis land back in New England so they could take their old jobs back over. There would’ve been a ton of feel-good stories about three great coaches coming back together to lead the Patriots into the future, we could’ve had at least one cheesy commercial where they impersonate the Blues Brothers and said “We’re putting the band back together”, and everyone would’ve felt great. The only problem is, that never would’ve happened. Both of these guys have aspirations to become head coaches again, and Weis probably has a somewhat decent shot (once he gets the stench of the Notre Dame debacle off him in another year or so). The first year might’ve been great, but after that it would’ve been a constant distraction with interviews each offseason and the like. Add to that Belichick’s own ego and the perception that he couldn’t win without his two best coaches under him.
Personally, I’d love to see someone like Pepper Johnson get a shot at the defensive coordinator position. Not only has he been a coach under Belichick, but he was also a player – their relationship goes back over a decade. I’d like to think that’s the kind of relationship that would allow that aforementioned sideline intervention in Indy this past year. On offense, I won’t claim to be as knowledgeable about any of the internal guys on the staff – what I do know is that something needs to be done there and quick. Looking at the two sides of this team, the offense would have to be the strongest (even in its somewhat weakened state) – allowing O’Brien to play checkers one more year while Brady gets knocked around is foolish. There has to be someone with an understanding of how to adjust in the middle of a game and who has a little imagination in them. Give ‘em a headset and let’s roll.
Here’s the twist when it comes to the NFL – even though it seems like it’s easier to change coaches than players, it’s actually the opposite. Finding a good coach is a tough thing to do, and finding assistant coaches who’ll fit into a staff and contribute without losing themselves is probably just as hard. As Massarotti points out, how many of the guys on Belichick’s current staff have been around and known him long enough to feel secure in challenging him? That’s going to be the key for the Patriots this offseason, finding coaches who can work within Belichick’s system and yet still be their own person. If that can happen, then the head coach can begin delegating more without feeling the need to constantly check in on what’s happening. The ship starts running a little tighter. Perhaps someone taps Hoodie on the shoulder and says “Hey, maybe we should at least make this thing difficult for Peyton Manning and punt on fourth and two”. I can dream, can’t I?
