Carroll a rare peer for Belichick
At the dawn of the Bill Belichick era, most stories that invoked Pete Carroll’s name drew on the differences between the two coaches.
How Belichick’s brooding manner and iron fist contrasted with Carroll’s upbeat personality and permanently extended high five. How any ensuing success of Belichick’s would be ascribed to the hard fixes he’d make to a soft, broken culture Carroll had left behind.
Fifteen years later, as Belichick and Carroll met before Super Bowl XLIX, the narrative shifted to uncover how alike they actually are. From defensive backgrounds to failing as first-time head coaches, a deep love of football and commitment to competitive values. Their former players publicly pushed against the notion the two were polar opposites and, to some degree, succeeded.
Now as Belichick and Carroll prepare to reconvene, their past differences and present commonalities are old news. The storyline that binds them Sunday, in the dusk of their careers as the NFL’s oldest head coaches, is the prospect of a shared future: one day standing together in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Because of Carroll, Sunday will bring the rare game when Belichick is confronted by a forever peer. Among his contemporaries, only Chiefs coach Andy Reid has consistently pushed him in recent years. Meanwhile, Carroll has bothered Belichick so for a decade.
Under Carroll, Seattle is 2-1 against the the league’s best coach and premier franchise, outscoring them by four points. Each matchup was dramatically decided in the final minute, with the Pats’ only victory owed to the greatest play in Super Bowl history. Yet after this weekend, because of the NFL’s scheduling formula, it will take another title bout for Belichick and Carroll to meet before 2024.
The book on their historic battles could close Sunday.
In time, Carroll should be ticketed for Canton. He was named to the NFL’s 2010s All-Decade team this spring, along with Belichick. He is on pace to surpass Bill Cowher, a member of the Hall’s 2020 class who also made two Super Bowls and won one, in career regular-season wins next year.
Carroll said he plans on coaching at least five more, at which point he could crack the league’s top 12 for all-time coaching victories.
The story of the modern NFL cannot be told without Carroll, a fact that elevates his Hall of Fame case above other coaches with similar numbers. His Cover 3 system fostered arguably the greatest defense of the last 20 years, which held the NFL’s highest-scoring offense ever to eight points in Super Bowl XLVIII. That system is now being run in half the divisions in pro football.
All credit goes to Carroll. “The No. 1 reason it has survived is it’s sound,” said Pats quarterbacks coach Jedd Fisch, who coached under Carroll in 2010. “It’s good, sound fundamental football, where they take care of all their gaps and zone responsibilities, and they mix in different coverages when they need to. They know their weaknesses, and they know their strengths.
“And when you know your own weaknesses of your system, then you can practice against that every day and you can challenge your guys to continue to get better when you know where you’re vulnerable.”
The system has survived the test of time and Belichick. The Patriots have averaged two turnovers per game against Carroll’s defense, never scoring more than 28 points against it. Because of their simplistic approach, the Seahawks understand how they will be attacked and come armed with counters.
“Pete’s done a tremendous job out there, and his philosophy is evident every time you turn on the film,” Belichick said Thursday. “The energy, the passion, the toughness, the consistency, the mental toughness that the team has is very, very impressive.”
On the surface, defensive strategy is another area where Belichick and Carroll diverge. And it’s true. The Patriots will execute wholesale changes to prepare for their next opponent, if necessary. They are not married to a particular scheme, preferring to draw on a variety of fronts and coverages.
Except philosophically, certain similarities do exist. Without a solid foundation of specific fundamentals, techniques and schematic beliefs, building new game plans would be impossible for Belichick. Akin to Carroll, he’s baked flexibility into a set system, just on a much broader scale.
“To be consistent like that, you’ve got to have your mentality and your approach really, really nailed. He does,” Carroll said of Belichick. “He knows exactly how he wants to do it. He does it regardless of what the circumstances are, he’s going to bring his team to game time, and they’re going play Patriots football.”
Carroll credited Belichick’s ability to game plan to his scouting eye, saying he assesses talent well, works to exploit weaknesses and “that’s just kind of who he is.” In this light, Belichick is clearly his father’s son; the son of late, legendary Navy scout Steve Belichick.
During a joint Super Bowl press conference in 2015, Belichick called his father the greatest influence on him as a coach. Seconds later, Carroll named his late high school coach, Bob Troppmann, as his chief influence. Of Troppmann, Carroll once went so far as to tell The Los Angeles Times in 2009: “I am him.”
In an earlier article, Troppmann was quoted as saying he modeled his program after Vince Lombardi, another Hall of Fame coach known for remaining loyal to a certain set of Xs and Os. But underneath those play designs, Lombardi also laid a famous foundation of toughness, discipline and problemsolving; much like the modern-day Patriots and Seahawks.
“Regardless of which offensive or defensive play you call, it’s how you can fix problems and solve your challenges and stuff. And if you know your philosophy, then you have a way to figure out your answers,” Carroll said. “If you don’t have a good, solid philosophy and a good baseline, then you’re shooting from the hip all the time and you’re going to be up and down, you know?
“I think the thing that we both have shared over the years is a consistency to stay out in front.”
Consistent excellence is the only path to Canton or hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. In Week 2, Belichick and Carroll are about as far as they can be from either. Yet still, they can appreciate the unique test at hand, knowing it will push them and their teams unlike any of the NFL’s 30 other coaches or clubs can.
“It’s always tough against those guys — doesn’t matter where it is. It could be in a parking lot or wherever the game is,” Belichick said. “They just compete extremely hard on every down, from snap to whistle, for 60 minutes. I just have a ton of respect for the Seahawks, for Pete, for Russell Wilson and the entire program out there. And we know we’re going to have to be at our best on Sunday.”