(02-04-2019, 02:41 AM)rpr52121 Wrote:

(02-04-2019, 12:51 AM)Bullseye Wrote: Belichick has a long history of befuddling otherwise great offenses.

While with the Giants, he devised schemes that held the Montana-Rice led 49ers to:

3 points in 1986
7 points in 1990
13 points in 1990

In Super Bowl XXV (1990 season), he devised schemes that held the Kelly-Thomas-Reed led Bills to 19 points.

While with the Patriots, he devised schemes that held the Warner-Faulk- led Greatest Show on turf Rams to 17 points in Super Bowl XXXVI

While with the Patriots, he devised schemes to hold the Manning-Harrison led Colts to:

14 points in 2003
3 points in 2004


and the Luck led Colts to

7 points in 2014.

Now he held the Rams with McVay and all of the offensive bells and whistles to 3 points.

Although the Patriots don't have a particularly dominant pass rusher, they were in Goff's face all game long.  They shut down the Rams running game.  The Rams could not get anything going.

All of those can't be sloppy offensive performances.

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I agree that is a factor.

But that makes my point stronger.

The schemes he uses cause the opposing QB's to not think clearly, and they typically fall in to bad habits, make mistakes, and look sloppy. 

It is more than that though. The two most misses parts of Belichick's process is:
1. How well he motivates his players.
2. His team, especially the lines get better as the season goes on.

So many years, he has a "no name defense" that "outplays" perception. It gets every player to reach for their best, most focused and peak ability. He has sometimes had a great player or two, but it never stacked like some of the famous defenses most think of (Denver, Tampa, Baltimore, Bears, etc.) The fact that his players are always improving despite playing such a long season, is the most impressive. There are few teams who have done that, and most only do it once, not the majority of 18 seasons.

Regarding his schemes, we are in complete agreement, and last night's game was proof.  There were numerous instances where Goff was indecisive, and held onto the ball much longer than prudent, resulting in unnecessary sacks and hits.  To be honest, he was lucky to have finished the game.  Had he taken those hits from guys like  Wilber Marshall or Ray Lewis, he wouldn't have.  Ronnie Lott or Jack Tatum hitting him might have been lethal.

I can't speak to his motivational effectiveness, other than to say that I don't see those guys have games like we had against the tacks this year where you wonder where the effort was.  What astonishes me is the discipline with which the players play.  As I said in the thread on the main board, they don't seem to ever blow assignments and they don't seem to ever have the boneheaded penalties.

I especially agree with your assessment of how he maximizes talent.  While he has had some talented players on his defenses (the Parcells era Giants with LT, Carl Banks, Pepper Johnson and Leonard Marshall; his early Patriots teams with Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Richard Seymour, Ted Johnson), his defenses of recent vintage were not overly talented.  you could easily argue the Jaguars, Texans, Ravens and Chargers all easily are more talented defensively than the Patriots.

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