Is Bill Belichick’s Style Not Suited for the High Tempo Modern NFL Offense?

Bill Belichick is known for giving monosyllabic replies to reporters when asked about his play-calling. His monotone reply, “I’m doing the best I can to help our football team,” when asked about his 5-game losing streak and if that was a first in franchise history has become a viral meme. Mike Florio said that since he is both the GM and the HC of the team, “he’s responsible for everything and right now it’s horrible”. But not everything is black and white in New England. Last week, they ended their snap with a 21-18 win over 6x Super Bowl Champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

However, the issue has been consistency. With a 3-10 record and with just 4 games remaining, it’s clear that the Steelers win was an anomaly. Belichick is a veteran, having been in the game for more than 4 decades, but can he remain the master of a game that has itself changed over the years?

Bill Belichick is a defensive mastermind placed in an all-rounder role

While talking about the “most successful coach in football history”, analyst Chris Simms said that one of the main troubles plaguing the Patriots has been their offense. He said that Belichick and his team have failed to evolve in line with the modern-day NFL. No one would argue that he is the mastermind of defense. For the 49 years that he has been a coach in the NFL, 18 of them he has spent coaching defensive or special teams. He has only played one dedicated offensive role, which was in 1977 with the Detroit Lions. Unlike days of yore, today’s NFL is about fast receivers, pass-rushers, and linebackers. “They got none of that. That’s where they dropped the ball.”

Even then he had two offensive geniuses to compliment him and who built the Patriots into the dynasty that they are. But both of them have since have departed. Charlie Weis, who had a 53-27 record, and a 9-0 playoff record left the team in 2004. Josh McDaniels has a 154-55 record as offensive coordinator and went down in Patriots history as the most successful. Under him, the Pats made it to the playoffs eleven times and had an 18-8 record in playoff games. When he left, Belichick tried to force a square peg into a round hole by assigning former defensive coordinator, Matt Patricia as the main offensive play-caller in 2022. As GM, Belichick also has roster problems to answer for.

The Pats failed to invest in roster development

Here is a quick snapshot of how the Pats are doing this year, on both sides of the ball. Their offense is the worst in the league in terms of points/game at 13, while their defense is better than 50% of the teams in terms of points allowed/game at 20.9. Their offense is also the fourth worst in terms of yards/game (291.4) while their defense is the eighth best in terms of yards allowed/game (306.9).

The 71–year-old has also failed to innovate on the offense and failed to bring his famed, “Belichick-ian” out-of-box schematics to the game, as alleged by Chris Simms. They also wasted their top 3 draft picks on defensive weapons such as Keion White and Christian Gonzalez, while only turning their attention to the offense late in the Draft and ended up with players like Riley Reiff and Calvin Anderson.

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With lows such as a combined score of just 72-3 in Weeks 4 and 5, and 2 nil-score games, not many are surprised that team owner Robert Kraft is seriously mulling over pulling the plug on him after the current season.

Editorial Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of EssentiallySports. 

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