It depends on the fan base. Jets fans obviously have a strong disdain for Belichick. So the Patriots' success is all about Brady. On the other hand, take, say, the Colts fan base. For them, Brady is just the ultimate game manager playing for the greatest coach in the history of the game. ("If Manning had a coach like Belichick, he'd have won 14 Super Bowls dude!") It's a combination of both, like you said. You don't see a lot of Hall of Fame coaches who didn't have good-to-great QBs. And you don't see a lot of Hall of Fame QBs who played for bad coaches.
I think Jet fans hate Brady equally as much as BB if not more. I think most try to take credit away from Brady.
That defense looked ALOT worse last year when Mayo went down and he is again out for the season. I'm interested in seeing how the running game will work without Ridley now as well. This team is again on Brady's back.
It's not really a combination of both. The only thing Belichick should get really get credit for is recognizing Brady's talent (early) and particular skill set and having the foresight to build around it. That makes him a "good" coach. There are many good NFL coaches though. He is far from the greatest that ever lived, especially when you consider he almost brought the whole thing down with his "spy gate" shenanigans and has done a poor job finishing the deal in recent years with his poor personnel decision-making. He will be a hall of fame coach but only because of Brady whereby Brady would've been a hall of fame QB with most every decent coach. - - that's the key difference
I generally sense though, as much as you hate him, that you guys respect Brady as much as any other fan base... at least in terms of his football abilities. I saw that through the first three games of the season where everyone was saying he was done.
I always have and I respect BB and the entire Pats organization. I "hate" them but I respect them just as I "hated" Marino but respected his greatness. I don't think the Jet fans respect Brady as much as they should and I understand why, when a guy beats you as consistent as Brady has it's hard to be complimentary of him.
I don't know. I'm not a Belichick-disciple-type and a lot of what he does makes me furious as a fan (like the Mankins trade). I do think he gets a bad wrap for how things turned out in Cleveland (no one could have succeeded that last season... lame duck team already headed to Baltimore, etc). And he managed to get the Patriots to 11-5 without Brady in 2008 (another thing the Brady detractors throw out there when trying to discredit him). As a GM, I think he's had numerous failures. He sometimes drafts players like a music snob refusing to listen to anything mainstream (Tavon Wilson in the 2nd round a couple of years ago, his strange affinity for Rutgers players). He can't seem to draft wide receivers for some reason. And his track record with players in the secondary, until recently, has not been very good. All that said, it's just so hard to argue with the results. I do think we'll get a chance to find out, though. I really don't believe that Belichick is going to retire when Brady hangs 'em up.
Totally understandable, I can say the same about all the good teams in other sports I watched growing up... I hated Marino too, but definitely respected him, and would have taken him on the Patriots in a heartbeat!
Modell announced the move to Baltimore on 11/6/95, they were 4-5 at the time of the announcement. were they dead? no but 4-5 isn't good especially for a guy w/ 1 postseason app the previous 4 seasons. after 9 games his first 5 seasons: 1991: 4-5, finished 6-10 1992: 5-4, finished 7-9 1993: 5-4, finished 7-9 1994: 7-2, made playoffs 1995: 4-5, finished 5-11 in 2008 they went 10-5 w/ Cassell starting, the previous year they were 16-0. a 5 game difference is HUGE and they missed the playoffs in a year the AFC East had creampuff scheds. I think BB is a very smart man, I don't think he will continue coaching when Brady retires unless Brady shocked the world and retired this offseason. the #s are startling: BB WITH Brady(12+ seasons): 152-45, 77% 11 playoff apps, 92% 11 div titles 18-8 postseason record 8 title game apps 5 SB apps 3 SB wins BB WITHOUT Brady(7 seasons+): 51-62, 45% 1 playoff app, 14% of the time 1 playoff win 1-1 postseason record 0 title game apps 0 SB apps 0 SB wins
Oh I know Junc, you don't need to convince me... as much as a head coach is more important, IMO, in football than any other sport, I'll take the player over the coach in this particular case. Brady's winning percentage and total number of playoff wins are what make him the best, IMO. I think he got into a good situation where BB ran a merit-based system and was willing to play whoever he thought was going to give him the best chance to win. A lot of coaches would have stuck with Bledsoe. I hear you on 2008, too. With the schedule they had, the Patriots would have probably gone 15-1 or 14-2 with #12.
I am not trying to take away all credit from BB b/c obviously he deserves his share but his seat was already hot in 2001 w/ the slow start so it made it easier to stick w/ Brady but ultimately he made that called and it wasn't easy at the time even though it looks easy now. He deserves credit for that, he deserves credit for assembling a staff that selected Brady and all that. The hard part as a Jet fan is we were so close to either BRady or Peyton. If BP just assures the Mannings he will take him(like he would have) then Peyton comes out and is a Jet and if BB stayed here like he should have he has the same staff in place that found Brady and Brady is likely a Jet.
You don't know shit. Hightower filled in well and the Pats D played better the last few weeks of the season when he and Collins got in sinc. The Pats D got worse after Wilfork got hurt. don't get me wrong, I like mayo and he'll be missed as a team leader and solid lb, but he never really became that super stud lb I was hoping they were getting when he was drafted.
Darrelle Revis. But it's good to see you decided to come back, however unfortunate that it was only to troll and not apologize for your ill advised comments heading into the loss week.
Oh shutup. You know damn well some of those penalties in that game were BS lol. Do you EVER recall a player getting a penalty for happily slapping a teammates helmet? on a 3rd down play nonetheless.
How about the phantom hold on the Gronk TD? It goes both ways, unless you live in denial. That's where Bills fans have lived since the early 90's.
