Bill Belichick To Quit As Patriots Head Coach? The Signs Are There.

I went on record a couple of months ago to say that, from what I have witnessed of Bill Belichick this season, I believe he is going to retire at its end. 

And some of the latest occurences make me believe it even more.

He looks worn out and washed out along the sidelines. True, he has never been a very charismatic personality, neither on the field nor off of it, but this year he seems to have become a zombie. Sort of like “The Day Of The Walking Dead”.

And we have all witnessed some very un-Belichick decisions on the field. The attempt for a first down on their own 28 yard line for one, and then doing it again on fourth down on the Miami five yard line instead of taking a gimmee three points.

This latest little escapade of sending four players home after showing up a few minutes late for a team meeting is yet one more example of a very different Bill Belichick.

The weather that morning was very bad in the Foxboro area; it was snowing, and driving conditions were very dangerous.

Adalius Thomas was one of the four, along with Randy Moss, Gary Guyton and Derrick Burgess. Thomas said he was “dumbfounded” when informed by Belichick that he was being sent home.

Thomas said he was tied up in traffic in the bad weather, and as they are instructed to call in, he did.

When he arrived about nine minutes late for the meeting, Belichik told him and the other three to leave.

Thomas said that he called in and because of the bad weather, was tied up; in fact, he almost got into an accident that could have left him in a ditch.

Belichick, allegedly, responded by saying that was not an excuse and told him to go home.

This comes at a very critical time for the Patriots, who are trying to hold on to their slim one-game lead in the division. What they do not need at this time is a distraction.

This latest incident, along with all of the others that I have observed, tell me that Belichick is under some sort of emotional stress, possibly emanating from outside sources.

But whatever the reason, it is very obvious to me that he isn’t the same coach who has had a decade of success and is a sure thing for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He has accomplished just about everything an NFL coach could ever dream of, including three Super Bowl Championships.

Regardless of how this season ends, with the Patriots in the playoffs or not, this will be his last year as the Pats’ head coach.

He is definitely not the type that will end up on a pre- or post-game TV show as he just doesn’t have that magnetic personalitity.

I do, however, see him staying in football somewhere. Perhaps in an inside position, but certainly not along the sideline.

I personally admire Belichick for what he has accomplished and how he has taken the team that I love, and have spent 50 years as a fan of, from the NFL doldrums to one of the most respected, and feared, franchises.

But, with everyone, there comes a day when it is time to say goodbye. For Bill Belichick, I believe that time has come.

And I believe he thinks so too.

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Time Heals All Wounds For Patriot Fans, or Does It?

Well, it’s been a couple of days now since the Patriots’ disastrous defeat at the hands of the Miami Dolphins. For me, it took a couple of days for the sting of that game to wear off. 

Well, not entirely, but time is supposed to heal all wounds, or so I have been led to believe.

In either case, as bad as the day turned out to be, with the Patriots losing for the second time in a row, and equaling their total number of losses (five) that they incurred last season with Matt Cassell at the helm, one other thing stood out.

It happened on Monday morning when I perused through the sports pages of the local newspaper and turned the page to the NFL standings.

And lo and behold, there it was, plain as day and staring me right in the eyeball. In fact, both eyeballs. 

The New England Patriots were still in first place in the AFC East Division.

Yeah, I know, they are only in the lead by one slim game instead of the two, or three, that we thought might have been possible at this juncture of the season, with only four regular season games left to play.

But be that as it may, they are still in first place, with the other three teams looking up at them. It is they that need to catch the Pats, not the Pats needing to catch them.

And with only four games left in the regular season, two of them at home, they still have their fate in their own hands. Win the games they would be expected to win, especially the two home games, and they are in. Lose, and…well, we won’t discuss that yet.

I still have faith in this team. I believe they are far better than what we have seen in recent weeks. 

There has been a lot of blame being tossed around, from Brady, to the defense, to the offensive line, to the officials, and who knows, maybe even to the cheerleaders. Nah, forget that last one.

I, for one, have my own thought. And, honestly, it is not a pleasant one.

Sure, the players are the ones that need to execute. They are professionals, and as we have seen, have great talent. A team that can put players like Randy Moss, Tom Brady, Wes Welker, and others on the field, all at the same time, should be capable of scoring a lot of points. We have seen that in the past.

So what is stopping them from doing it?

I believe that the problem lies with the coaching staff, all the way from Bill Belichick down to the bottom rung of the coaching staff.

We know that coach Belichick has made several wrong calls in bypassing a sure three points and attempting to get first downs on fourth down plays.

In my opinion, he is vastly overdoing it. The game in Miami is a prime example: He went for the first down inside the five yard line when he could have had an automatic three points, points which, as we now know, would have turned the game around from what we saw happen.

I also think he is worn out, washed out, or whatever, because in the last four or five games, he reminds me of one of those zombies in the Night of the Living Dead movies.  He just looks like he’s not there.

But the bigger problem, again in my opinion, lies in the hands of the offensive and defensive coordinators.

Now, I know that the Patriots do not have an “official” offensive coordinator this season, but for the most part, it appears to be Bill O’Brien that is calling the plays.

In either case, the play-calling, and lack of second half adjustments by the offense, have been no better than high school level. In fact, maybe not even that high.

This team is being handcuffed by its own coaching staff.

Defensively it is even worse. And yes, I know that we have a young squad in the defensive secondary, but that is not the problem.

The problem defensively lies with Dean Pees, the defensive coordinator. Pees has been a weak link, a very weak link in the fact that his defensive game plans are soft, and they have very little, if any, aggressiveness to them.

His soft defensive schemes have turned opposing quarterbacks into superstars.

This team has four games left, all which are winnable. If the coaching staff is going to continue to deal bad hands, then this team will not make it to the postseason.

I equate it this way. Poker has become a big sport, if you can call it a sport. You can see these world championships of poker on ESPN all the time. They are supposed to be the world’s best poker players.

But, no matter how great a poker player one may be, he or she is only as good as the cards they are dealt. Deal them bad cards, the will lose. You can only bluff your way once or twice.

Same thing with football teams. The best players in the world will not win if they are being dealt bad plays by their dealer, the offensive and defensive coordinators.

Just like bad cards will not win in poker, bad plays will not win in football.

With four games left in the regular season, this team can still emerge as a strong postseason contender. They have the talent, all they need are better deals from the dealers.  

Like I said at the beginning of this diatribe, time heals all wounds, and mine are slowly healing. But believe me, I can’t take another hit this Sunday. 

That wound, if it happens, may take longer to heal.

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Charlie Weis To Return To Patriots?

Rumor has it that Charlie Weis, head coach at the University of Notre Dame for the past five seasons, will hear his fate when the team returns from it’s game versus Stanford today in California.

Weis, with a .573 won loss record for those five years, has a lower winning percentage than the two previous head coaches, both of whom were fired as Notre Dame head coaches.

If Weis is let go by Notre Dame, it is said that he has about $18 million dollars remaining on his contract which the university will be required to pay him—unless they reach an agreement.

All that being said, why would he want to continue coaching football?

In my opinion, the answer is that he has always had a strong desire to be a head coach in the National Football League.

When no team offered him a head coaching position, he agreed to fill the high profile vacancy at his alma-mater, Notre Dame.

For two seasons at Notre Dame, he had reasonable success, guiding the Irish to two BCS bowl games.

However, things turned sour in the past three seasons and as many know, the Notre Dame alumni have very short fuses.  Winning is everything in South Bend.

If things do not go well for Charlie, there is a lot of speculation that he could return to the Patriots, either as the offensive coordinator, assistant head coach, and heir to the throne currently occupied by Bill Belichick.

That would seem to be very logical, but will Weis be willing to wait for Belichick to retire before he becomes the head coach of the Patriots, if in fact that is what is in the cards?

I believe there will be a monkey wrench thrown into the equation.  I look for Weis to be offered a head coaching position, right away, by the Buffalo Bills.

The Bills are in the market for a “name” head coach.  Several names have been mentioned, including former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher.

Cowher currently is working as an NFL TV analyst and has said that he is not interested the Bills head coaching position.

If that is true, then, in my opinion, the logical choice for the Bills would be Weis. He has years of experience with the Patriots in the AFC East, the same division the Bills play in and his familiarity makes him the front runner. 

The next few days should be very interesting.

Of course, there is still one other option.  And that, of course, is if Notre Dame opts to keep him rather than shelling out a huge amount of cash for a coach who will not be roaming the sidelines.

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Cowards Permeate Official NFL Review Booth

Much has been said about New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick opting to go for the first down from his own 28-yard line in order to salt away the victory against the undefeated Colts.

The decision was highly controversial, and in the end, it created a stir like nothing in recent time about a coach’s decision in a key game like the one played that Sunday night in Indianapolis.  It was billed as “The Game Of The Decade.”

Belichick has been rolled over the coals because the Pats failed to make the necessary two yards for the first down.  At least that is according to what the on-field officials determined as they handed the ball, and eventual victory, over to the Colts.

Truth be told, as you watch the video linked below, the Patriots did in fact make the first down.  The video will prove it.

At the end of the play the scoreboard clock read 1:57.  For some unknown reason, the on-field officials had the clock reset to 2:00.  As we know, the decision whether to look at a play rests with the NFL officials in the booth for the final two minutes of the first half and the fourth quarter.

Here is the link to the video. Watch it, slow it down, stop and start it, and you will see the truth that the Patriots did in fact make the first down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ZrvtmRbfo

The video clearly shows the following:

Faulk did, in fact, bobble the ball, slightly as was suggested. The bobble happened when he had his left foot down, short of the first down.

The video then goes on to show that he gained full possession at a time when his right foot was on the ground, well past the first down marker. It was then that he was pushed back by the Colts defender.

The fact that the official did not give him the forward progress vexed me, but not as much as what did NOT happen after that. That would be the review by the booth officials where the clock was reset from 1:57 to 2:00. The way the replay rule reads, it says that the booth officials have the option of having an official review in the last two minutes. That, to me, would include from when the clock reads 2:00 on down to 0.00

This was considered to be a key game. In fact, it was being billed as the game of the decade in some quarters.

That being so, the officials both on the field and in the booth should have done anything and everything to ensure that the final outcome was not determined by an incorrect call.

Even if they determined after looking at it that it was not a first down, I for one would at least felt that they did what they could.  However, by not even looking at it smells to high heaven and leaves a very bitter taste.

All that I can determine is that the booth officials decided not to look at it for fear that they would have to overrule the on-field decision, and that they did not want to do that in Indy against the Colts.

Thus, they took the coward’s way out.

This is yet one more example of the “Curse of the Tuck.”

I believe that NFL officials are honest, and that for the most part, do the best job possible under difficult situations.

They are, however, human and human beings have a psyche. I believe that ever since that night in Foxboro when the “Tuck Rule” was legitimately used,  NFL officials doing Patriot games have a psychological problem without them even realizing it. This is that in the latter stages of games, when they have the opportunity of making a decision that might aid the Patriots, they don’t do it.  They just allow a non-call to happen.

They psychologically have a mental block that wont let them reverse a call that would give the Patriots a late opportunity to salvage a game for fear that it would look like, once again, they were in the Patriots pockets. 

So, what they do without even knowing that they are doing it, they take the coward’s way out. 

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