PATS’ ‘EVIL GENIUS’ KEEPS ON WINNING
Belichick could triumph with janitor at QB while Brady serves suspension
“Paging passenger Doug Flutie. Doug Flutie, please pick up the white courtesy phone for an urgent message.”
I have a mental picture of Flutie, who at 53 looks as though he could still play, hearing that announcement as he’s sauntering through an airport en route to this week’s NBC Notre Dame game, picking up the phone and listening to Bill Belichick’s bored monotone saying, “We’re on to Buffalo. Call me.”
You may have heard: Friday it was revealed that the New England Patriots’ third-string quarterback, Jacoby Brissett, has torn ligaments in his right thumb and will need surgery.
This wouldn’t be a problem if Tom Brady didn’t have one more game to serve on his Deflategate suspension, or even if No. 2 on the depth chart, Jimmy Garoppolo, hadn’t bunged up his throwing shoulder in Week 2.
But losing Brissett, who was more than serviceable Thursday night in helping the Patriots to a third straight Brady-less win to start the National Football League season, leaves Belichick with a choice of Flutie-sized slotback Julian Edelman or, well, Jack the Janitor at quarterback in the Pats’ final game of Brady exile, against the 0-2 Bills.
And if the janitor goes down, Belichick may have to dress one of the equipment guys who are in charge of deflating quarterbacks’ footballs, in hopes that at some point they may have actually thrown one.
Now, you might suppose that even Buddy Ryan’s Frick-andFrack twin boys, Rex and Rob, the Bills’ defensive brain trust, ought to be able to game-plan around a team with no quarterback ... but maybe don’t put any money on it.
After all, Belichick with 10 days to prepare for anybody is usually not a fair fight.
There are exceptions to this rule — a Twitter wag notes that if Archie Manning’s wife had had daughters and not sons, Brady and Belichick might have won 10 Super Bowls by now, instead of only four — but all in all, the modern NFL has never seen anyone quite as cunning as Belichick.
If you want to argue against the theory that he belongs on a very short list of the greatest coaches in the game’s history, good luck to you.
Success being generally considered detestable, it’s no surprise that Patriots fans are as widely derided today as, say, those of the New York Yankees, or Manchester United.
Another Stanley Cup or two, and people will be rolling their eyes at the Chicago Blackhawks, as they did at the Edmonton Oilers during their five-Cups-in-sevenyears run, and no doubt the New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens before them and in pre-expansion days (honestly, you could look it up, kids) the Toronto Maple Leafs.
But now we are entering a whole new level of over-Patriotism.
And Belichick’s team has given the haters plenty of ammunition. Long before Deflategate, there was Spygate in 2007, which cost Belichick $500,000, and the Pats $250,000 plus a first-round draft pick for videotaping the New York Jets’ defensive signals.
Belichick argued he thought it was within the rules, and had been doing it for years. Since then, opposing teams’ audio headsets have mysteriously broken down at games played in New England, the Pats have run plays other teams (too late) pointed out were illegal, and between Belichick’s taciturnity and Brady’s insufferable (to his critics) perfectionism, there has been a sizable Kick Me sign on the Patriots’ hindquarters, and many pundits have accepted the invitation.
But the coach has a career .667 winning percentage, meaning he’s won two of every three games he’s coached, in a league that’s supposed to punish winners with tough schedules. And he’s even better than that (.697) in the post-season.
Of course, he’s had Brady for the best of those years. Only four quarterbacks of any significance have had .700-plus winning percentages over their careers, and Brady’s .771 leads them all — Dallas’s Roger Staubach (. 746), San Francisco’s Joe Montana (. 713) and Denver’s John Elway (. 702) are the others.
But don’t forget: Belichick went 10-5 with Matt Cassel as his QB when Brady tore knee ligaments in 2008, and he is 3-0 without Tom Terrific this year.
The Pats beat highly regarded Arizona in Week 1, division opponent Miami in Week 2 and shut out Houston (and virtually made the Texans’ star defensive end J.J. Watt disappear) in Week 3.
He has taken what he’s been given and, with Josh McDaniels supplying the offensive game plan, provided the wherewithal for first Garoppolo and then Brissett to play like reasonable facsimiles of NFL-level quarterbacks. He has surrounded them with playmakers and a stout defence, and taken away the opposition’s biggest weapons, as he always has done.
So whether you hate the Patriots or just mildly dislike them (Pats fans outside New England are advised not to admit this in public), you have to hand it to the Evil Genius.
One more game, and he gets a highly motivated Brady back. Who would bet against them being 4-0 when the hero returns for his Revenge Tour? And from there to the Super Bowl again ... well, why not?
In fact, ignore that white telephone, Doug. Bill will probably get through this just fine with the janitor.