Belichick, Patricia meet as foes
New England head coach faces his former defensive coordinator Sunday night
Bill Belichick has a chance to knock off another branch from his coaching tree.
The five-time Super Bowl-winning coach has had his staff trimmed by NFL teams many times.
They all hired coaches who know how Belichick and the New England Patriots operate behind closed doors, banking on them being able to duplicate the formula for success.
It hasn’t worked out that well.
Eight former Belichick assistants have been hired by NFL teams and Al Groh is the only one in the group with a winning record. Groh was 9-7 in his one and only season with the New York Jets in 2000.
Belichick either does not know, or will not say, why he thinks his former assistants have struggled leading teams in the league.
“I’m not in the analytics business,” he bristled.
The track record of Belichick assistants did not deter Detroit because general manager Bob Quinn, a former member of Belichick’s front office, hired RPI alum Matt Patricia.
If the Belichick-patricia reunion goes as expected, teacher will school the student Sunday night in Detroit.
Belichick beat the Bill O’brien-led Texans in Week 1, making him 14-8 against his former assistants.
Even though the Patriots (1-1) are scuffling a bit by their standards, the Lions (0-2) have looked simply lost at times under Patricia.
But Patricia is still embraced by his former players.
“Matty P, he’s a coach who always had high expectations,” Pats linebacker Dont’a Hightower said. “But at the same time, he was definitely a player’s coach. He was definitely somebody who, once you get outside those doors, he was a guy who you could text or call and had a question — not even necessarily about football — but just life in general.”
New addition
Josh Gordon (hamstring) was limited in his first two Pats’ practices.