Inside Gillette

logoby Christopher Price
chris@patriotsdaily.com

Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin are two examples of why people shouldn’t always make a snap judgment on the abilities of a first-time head coach, especially if they came of age as an assistant under Bill Parcells.

Both Belichick and Coughlin have taken similar routes to Super Bowl XLII: in their initial experience as a head coach in the NFL, the two former Parcells’ assistants both had a dogmatic approach that yielded minimal return, not unlike Parcells himself. In their second go-round as NFL head coaches, they’ve slightly softened their hard-line approach, and that new style has yielded considerable results.

In Jacksonville, Coughlin made his bones as an uber-disciplinarian. The early returns were favorable, as the Jags became the most successful expansion team in NFL history, making two trips to the AFC Championship Game in his first four years in Jacksonville. But the good times soon faded, and Coughlin’s approach soon wore thin.

He was soon hired by the Giants, but the baggage followed him to New York — Giants defensive end Michael Strahan thought to himself “this man is crazy” soon after his first meeting with Coughlin, and described his personality as “robotic.” And in his first three seasons in New York, there was just one season where they finished better than .500, and zero playoff wins.

But somewhere along the way, Coughlin loosened up. During training camp this year, he called off practice and took the whole team bowling. He let the players vote on captains instead of choosing them himself. And he held weekly meetings with an 11-player council to stay abreast of what the players were thinking.

“Instead of just telling these guys, ‘This is how it is,’ you have to say, ‘How’s that working for you?’ “ Giants running back coach Jerald Ingram told reporters. “He hasn’t changed totally. But he’s been able to see that you can do things differently and still be yourself.”

In the end, the new style paid off with Coughlin’s first trip to the Super Bowl as a head coach.

“There are times that I go, ‘Are you going back on us?’” Strahan said with a smile yesterday. “He has really changed. He is smiling, he uses the word ‘fun’ and ‘enjoyment’ and it blows my mind every time he uses it.

“He has come around,” Strahan added. “I think he’s definitely changed – it’s for real and it’s for the better.”

The situation was the same for Belichick, who was frosty with players, fans and media in his time in Cleveland. Tales of his overbearing approach were the stuff of legend, and his micromanaging spread him way to thin, distracting him from the things he needed to focus on as a head coach.

Now, like Coughlin, his approach has paid off. He’s more attuned to the needs of his players. He meets regularly with his captains. He places his full faith in his assistants. He’s still not the warm and fuzzy type, but, like Coughlin, a softer approach with players and staff has paid dividends.

“He’s still consistent about as far as being strict about things and wanting guys to do things right,” Anthony Pleasant, who played for Belichick at multiple stops, said a few years ago when asked about his former head coach. “But he’s not as dogmatic as he was in Cleveland. He’s more willing to give now than he was back then.”

“You learn something every game you coach, every practice, every year,” Belichick said. “Certainly the five years in Cleveland taught me a lot about managing a team.

“I took those experiences and tried to build off of them and improve them through the years — both how to handle the team and probably delegate more responsibility than I did in Cleveland to my assistants and other people in the organization that are involved in the operational and support ends of the game.”

FIVE THINGS TO LOOK FOR 

1. How the Giants try and defend Randy Moss. The Jaguars and Chargers were able to take away the outside deep threat that Moss brings to the game by jamming him right off the line, playing physical with him and forcing him inside. Expect the Giants to at least try and do the same thing. If they do, expect the Patriots to try and be creative in their use of Moss — maybe some more reverse plays, or putting him in motion.

2. Ellis Hobbs. The diminutive cornerback had some issues against Plaxico Burress when the Patriots faced the Giants in December — including a 52-yard pass play from Eli Manning to Burress on the Giants’ second play from scrimmage — and New York will likely stay far away from cornerback Asante Samuel. Because the Patriots usually don’t match their cornerbacks man for man, but to either left or right side of the field, it’ll be interesting to see if the Giants make it a priority for Burress to find Hobbs. (Of course, that all goes out the window if Belichick shakes things up. As we know, the Patriots’ head coach has a knack for making some surprising decisions in big games, like the debut of the 2-5 defense in Super Bowl XXIX.)

3. Kevin Faulk. The veteran defensive back has become an invaluable part of the New England offense in this year’s playoffs, particularly in the passing game. We’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: this postseason, Brady has thrown 13 passes in his direction, and he’s caught all 13, the best ratio on the team among the regulars. With an aggressive New York front four, he should be called upon to run the screen pass on a few occasions Sunday.

4. The Patriots offensive line against the Giants defensive line. This is where the real battle of Super Bowl XLII will be fought. New York was able to get pressure on Brady in their first meeting, but only finished with one sack on the night. The Giants did hold New England to just 44 rushing yards, and New England had nine plays in the running game where they posted either no gain or negative yardage. However, this time will likely be different. The Patriots have their entire offensive line — plus No. 1 blocking tight end Kyle Brady — healthy. In December, the Patriots were without Brady, as well as Stephen Neal (their best run blocker) and Nick Kaczur.

5. Tom Petty. What’ll he play at halftime? My guess is that he and the Heartbreakers play these three songs, in no particular order: Runnin’ Down A Dream, Free Fallin’ and American Girl.

STAT OF THE WEEK

17,000. As of Wednesday night, the number of results you get if you Google the phrase “How to beat the Patriots.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
 
“There’s a couple guys who can’t grow hair. Their [bleeps] still haven’t dropped, I guessed.” — Patriots right tackle Nick Kaczur, speaking with the Washington Post about New England’s bearded offensive line.

Christopher Price is an award-winning sportswriter who has covered the Patriots since 2001 for Boston Metro. He’s served a contributor to ESPN.com, SI.com, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and The Miami Herald. He’s written “The Blueprint: How the New England Patriots Beat the System to Create the Last Great NFL Superpower,” and can be reached at chris@patriotsdaily.com.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

logoby Dan Snapp
dan@patriotsdaily.com

As plights go, it’s not a bad one to have.

Our team’s in the Super Bowl, at the threshold of completing the most historic season in the  sport’s existence. We should be grateful, humbled and in reverent awe of what’s occurring, and for the most part, we are. But allow us this one minor cavil:

Can’t we please just play the damn game already?

It’s a bit of predicament for Patriots fans. You want the game to be here, yet you hope the moment lingers. After Sunday, after all, it’s over. Nothing left to look forward to, but also nothing left to worry over.

So which is it, then? The journey or the destination? It’s tough, though possible, to enjoy both, as they seem at odds with one another.

It feels like waiting for your kid to be born. You’re excited in the anticipation, but want it to be over with and for everything to just turn out OK. And you know nothing’s going to be the same ever again.

(I can hear my wife now: “Childbirth and the Super Bowl. Right. Perfectly analogous.”)

So to amplify that anxiety - and exploit your consumerism - the NFL decided to invent the two-week waiting period. If the Super Bowl is the league’s Heaven, this then is their own little Purgatory, where no point goes underanalyzed, no shot’s considered gratuitous, and no dead horse is unbeaten.

It’s great for the media. They spent all last week talking themselves into a Giants upset, so they’ve still got a week to sober up.

But mostly, it’s an opportunity to discuss their favorite topics: themselves. This “Broadcast News” line seems apt:

TOM GRUNICK: The latest message seems to indicate that the Libyan pilot was acting on his own without authority from anyone else. (into camera directly) In other words, I think we’re okay.

ERNIE MERRIMAN: Who cares what you think?

One of the first questions off the plane for Bill Belichick was how much disdain does he hold for the media. Essentially, “Bill, let’s talk about the game. How come you don’t like us?”

Dan Shaughnessy had a good get last week, interviewing Bill Parcells on his old Giants staffers Belichick and Coughlin. Dan’s signature question:

What about Belichick’s astonishing ability to remain obtuse about the most benign of topics?

So Shaughnessy gets what he wants, a more open, friendly Belichick in Arizona, and what does he do with it?

Who kidnapped Bill Belichick? Who invaded his body? Where is the ogre?

That must have come out of Dan’s “Plan B” drawer.

Thank God for the NFL Network, or for my purposes, the NFL Films Network. Rewatching the Patriots Super Bowls is a great time-killer. They never get old, and you always pick up something new. Like this exchange in SB XXXVI, mere seconds before Tom Brady connects with David Patten for a TD:

Pat Summerall, on Belichick: “Talk about a guy that’s become easier to converse with, and loosened up.”

John Madden: “Yeah, he’s a good guy. He’s a good guy and a great coach.”

My favorite in the first Super Bowl remains Rams reserve running back Justin Watson, aka the “I like our chances!” guy. You remember him:

“I told you, I like our chances! We are the number one offense in the league. I like our chances!”

I wanna see Watson in some commercial spots during the Super Bowl. Have him suited as different Pats opponents from this season, with a mock interview prior to each game.

REPORTER:  “How do you feel about the game today, Justin? Your chances of beating the Patriots?”

JETS WATSON: “I like our chances!  I like our chances!”

Each game, he’s a little less enthusiastic.

STEELERS WATSON: “Well … we’re the number four offense in the league. …. I like our chances. They’re, um, you know, good chances.”

DOLPHINS WATSON: “Man, we don’t have a chance.”

Finally, with the Giants:

GIANTS WATSON: “I’m in the Super Bowl, baby!”

Might be tough to locate him. Nobody in the NFL’s seen him since Super Bowl XXXVI.

Re-watching the Patriots/Packers from ‘97, you couldn’t help but think, “Winnable game.” The Patriots had a good plan to offset the Packers rush, if Drew Bledsoe could only throw a damn screen pass. He had two tipped, threw another at Bob Kratch’s back (causing a penalty), and threw one in the only conceivable manner that would allow “Curtis Martin vs. Gilbert Brown” to be a mismatch in Brown’s favor. 

What was forgotten was the seven- and eight-DB formations the Pats threw at Brett Favre in that game. What was seen as groundbreaking in Super Bowl XXXVI was taken from this game. Madden was the one who called it out; you’d think he’d have made the connection five years later.

The simpler, more innocent days of the NFL are long gone (at least they seemed simple and innocent in John Facenda’s booming voice backed by Sam Spence’s soundtrack), but I want ‘em back.

Give me back Super Bowl day games and Hank Stram telling his boys to matriculate. Give me back unextended halftime shows, be it college marching bands, Al Hirt or even “Up With People”. OK. Don’t really give me “Up With People.” But the others, yeah, sure.

Mostly, give me back the one-week wait.

Loose Threads

by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

Tuesday thoughts left hanging like loose threads on an old ‘Super Bowl Champions’ t-shirt:

*Our Own Chris Price - there on the Metro’s dime, we hope - is as we speak getting acclimated to the Arizona environs (it’s a dry heat, Chris), so stay tuned for the latest Inside Gillette later this week.

*The Giants have landed somewhere in the desert (Phoenix, Chandler, Scottsdale, Glendale, Tempe, take your pick), and according to the Cold Hard Football Facts, trouble awaits. As a Pats fan, you’d like to stick this in your hip pocket and call it a week, but as long as the possibility of an upset exists, even slightly, you can’t. And by ‘you’, I mean ‘me’.

*I’m watching the local news and they have film on the Patriots Monday practice, and to paraphrase Robert Deniro in those SNL Joe Pesci skits, I gotta say I saw a limp. There was definitely a limp there. I’m a little surprised, actually. I didn’t expect to see anything, I guess? I’m glad it’s Tuesday. I worry about a hit during the game, which is probably not necessary. On Tuesday.

*Though it does mean the rest of the Pats can possibly fly under the radar if they so choose. Though it seems that everyone’s getting their own press conference (12 in two days). Let me know when they get to Ray Ventrone, will you? 

*It can be easy to sometimes forget that there’s an actual game at the end of all this. Think of all you’ve read, heard and seen over the past week. Now think how much more is left before kickoff. Yeesh. Word came yesterday that the league has issued a record number of credentials for the game.

*Rodney Harrison says the Patriots defense could not have played any worse when New England beat the Giants in late December, and he guarantees they’ll play better this time. I think it will be a long wait before a Giant defender says the same thing about his team, considering the three-point loss seems to be their signature game of the season.

*The New York Post continued its descent into full-on madness on Monday with this charming warning to the citizens of the Greater Phoenix Region. Check out the graphic. I’m amazed that they didn’t put Bill Belichick in there. Really, the Post is having a dream season of its own. Every day a new low.

*God love the guy that asked Belichick about Tom Petty the other night. I’m big on Petty and the Heartbreakers, so it’s a kick to see them play any Super Bowl, much less one involving the Patriots. The coach’s seal of approval (”Free Fallin!”) was an early highlight.

Touch-Down

by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

The Pats have landed in Arizona and Super Bowl week has started.

The day began with a Gillette Stadium rally straight out of Currier and Ives, as lightly falling snow and a boisterous crowd evoked memories of some of the team’s signature victories. It ended with the team negotiating a slick airport runway as an unexpected rain fell on Pheonix.

From there, team principals met with the press. Thanks to the NFL Network, we were able to watch.

*Tom Brady bounded down the steps of the airplane with little sign of The Limp. Later, he told questioners that the injury occured in the third quarter of the Jacksonville game (I think we all remember that quick camera shot of Brady getting attention on the sideline, which the CBS announcers talked right over) and that - despite missing practice last week - he tried some footwork drills and threw a few passes anyway. As expected, he pronounced himself fit for the game.

*I don’t know what it costs to send a media member for a week in Scottsdale, but whatever it is, if the question he’s going to ask is “Will Giselle be coming to the game?”, it isn’t worth it. Probably some dink from the New York Post.

*Bill Belichick is having a great time. He must be, because he sat with the press for what seemed like forever. He even told a questioner he respected the job the media has to do. Who is this guy? Actually, followers of the team know that the coach will always engage a thoughtful question - which leaves you out, Bob Lobel. But Alice Cook of WBZ got things off to a good start with a question on pacing a team during Super Bowl week, and Belichick was off, pausing only on a question about Brady’s personal life. Look, if you Post people are going to be in here, you have to take off those Bridget masks.

*I don’t know who came off worse in that session, Lobel or the New York writers who oozed entitlement with every question. On the plus side, both Mike Reiss and Michael Holley acquitted themselves well in on camera apprearences with the NFLN’s Adam Schefter.

*My dad, who we’ve spoken about before, worked for the Hood milk company in the 60’s, and his job included some community relations work that often brought him into contact with the sports celebrities of the day. For example, Dad thought Bob Cousy was one of the nicest people he’d ever met, but he thought coach Mike Holovak of the Patriots hung the moon. I’m pretty sure we’re Pats fans today because of the team’s second winningest coach, who passed yesterday at the age of 88. Gino Cappeletti, another guy that Dad thought was pretty special, reflects on the loss of one of the Patriots founding fathers.

The Sunday Links

logoby Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

One week to go.

Pats fans have hit the halfway point in the grueling 14-day gauntlet that leads to the Super Bowl. This morning, the papers take one final deep breath before full deployment to Arizona. Let’s see what they have to say.

In the Globe, Jim McCabe wonders where the Pats fit in “the greatest evah!” debates. Bob Hohler looks at the Giants’ slow start and super finish. Jackie MacMullan considers Jabar Gaffney, an 06 holdover who has become a key player for the Pats. Michael Vega is one of many this morning to laud Tedy Bruschi, the heart and soul (and logo) of the organization. Also playing his best football of the season at the best possible time.

Ben Collins is in search of locals who would like you to know THERE ARE STILL A LOT OF GIANTS FANS IN NEW ENGLAND. Really? Hadn’t heard that. Anyway, Ben finds them. First guy he talks to pulls out old Shaughnessy columns lauding New England’s ‘other’ pro football team. That guy’s got two strikes on him already. Let’s move on.

Mike Reiss has the weekly league notes, with a look at Andre Tippett’s Hall of Fame chances (about the same, it seems), and the possibility of labor strife ahead.

In the Herald, Rob Bradford visits Open Mike Vrabel, who in 35 years in football has never seen that. Vrabel has a screw loose, which is even funnier when you consider that he may be the smartest player the Patriots have. He’s at least 1A. I insist that he be named a member of the Patriots coaching staff the minute he retires. Anyway, Bradford continues on the theme by saying their experience is what sets the Patriots linebackers apart.   

Karen Gurgeian has the notebook, where the Pats are considering Eli Manning’s improvements as a quarterback, and as a leader. In his Quick Hits, John Tomase says today’s Pats recordbreaking offense recalls the old school version, led by a coach who would be fired a season later. Ron Erhardt survived and went on to become one of the best coordinators in football. Tony Massarotti says Wes Welker’s world has been turned upside down in one season. Paul Schwartz of the New York Post could say the same about Tom Coughlin.

A couple of guys I’ve never heard of have assigned “a noticeable limp” to Tom Brady, back from New York. If I understand this correctly, one or both of these gentlemen have been hanging around Brady’s place in Boston, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. There’s even a pic! They should totally start their own web site.

Jay Fitzgerald says that CNBC will air the hour-long documentary “Touchdown! The Patriots and the Business of Winning” at 10 tonight. Maybe next week, they can do a follow up at about the same time.

In the ProJo, Joe McDonald looks at the underdog Giants through the eyes of a few guys who were once dogs themselves.  Are the Giants still the underdog? Didn’t seem like it at times this week. Anyway, in case you missed it yesterday, Shalise Manza Young started a three-part series on how the Pats have built an NFL dynasty.

The Courant is the Mason-Dixon line of yet another Boston-NY throwdown this week, so this morning they offer not only David Heuschkel’s feature on Pats icon Bruschi, but Dom Amore’s look at 41 year old Jeff Feagles, who, it can’t be said enough, kicked for the Patriots in NINTEEN EIGHTY-EIGHT. Lastly, Jeff Goldberg realizes that not everybody who wants to go to the Super Bowl gets to go.

Elsewhere, Douglas Flynn of the MetroWest Daily News digs deep on Bill Belichick, the man at the center of a historic season. On Friday, Chris Price confronted the dirty Pats on their low-down ways.

One week to go. Warning: it’s all uphill from here.

Breer Blogs Big Blue

by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

When Albert Breer left the Patriots beat in September, Patriots fans lost one of the best football writers they’ve ever - briefly - had. Hard copy or blog, especially blog, Breer was an ace.

As you know, Breer is now working at the Dallas Morning News, maybe the best sports section in the country when it comes to covering football. And he’s blogging like mad on the paper’s website, which brings us to the subject of today’s post.

Breer always had a technician’s eye for football, and his popular Tale of the Tape feature, with its richly detailed analysis, amounted to a weekly clinic for even the savviest X’s and O’s fan. He’s continued that practice in the Big D, and expanded it to include varied breakdowns of how teams utilize their offensive and defensive personnel.

John Tomase gave us Breer’s Pats-Chargers Tale of the Tape the other day, and afterwards it occured to us (actually, it was suggested to us) that we ought to gather up Albert’s analysis of the Giants playoff games (for it surely exists) as a fan’s primer to the Patriots’ Super Bowl opponents.

So, with regards to Breer, is a collection of his works, grouped by each game the Giants have played since THEY LOST to the Patriots.

GIANTS AT BUCCANEERS

Tale of the Tape
On Target (Where the passes went)
Bucs Rush Analysis (defensive alignments)
Giants Rush Analysis
Personnel Breakdown (offensive alignments)

GIANTS AT COWBOYS

Tale of the Tape
Cowboys On Target
Giants On Target
Cowboys Rush Analysis
Giants Rush Analysis
Cowboys Personnel Breakdown
Giants Personnel Breakdown

GIANTS AT PACKERS

Tale of the Tape
Giants On Target
Packers On Target
Giants Rush Analysis
Packers Rush Analysis
Giants Personnel Breakdown
Packers Personnel Breakdown
  
Enjoy.

Kevin-Sent

logoby Dan Snapp
dan@patriotsdaily.com

Prior to the start of the 2000 season, the Patriots played in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. The game marked Bill Belichick’s Patriots head coaching debut, Tom Brady’s first action (he went 3-for-4 for 28 yards), Dennis Miller’s Monday Night Football premiere, and Miller’s lone instance of being funny (”It’s surprisingly hard to find good Cantonese here,” he quipped) in his entire MNF run.

Kevin Faulk was a footnote then, an “undersized” second-year back fighting for playing time against free agent Raymont Harris and rookie J.R. Redmond.

Back then, the yearly running back question was “Who will replace Curtis Martin?” There was Robert Edwards in ‘98 (before his sad beach volleyball injury), Terry Allen in ‘99, and this game appeared to be Harris’s audition for the role, with nine carries for 58 yards.

But Faulk showed the first signs of his future role with the team, taking a pass from Michael Bishop for a 25-yard TD, and returning a punt 22 yards to set up another score. This prompted Miller to suggest Faulk might be the answer to the Martin question. It was a throwaway line, one of those designed to fete the players in front of him in an otherwise dull game.

Nobody could have imagined then that Faulk would come to mean more to the team than Martin ever did, nor entertain us more than Miller ever could.

Kevin Faulk is the most important running back in Patriots history. Others were more athletic, more talented, more accomplished. Certainly he’s been outrushed by a slew of them. But no back has been more pivotal to the Patriots’ success.

Sunday’s performance - laying out for 11-yard third down conversion and reaching behind and down for a fingertip grab three plays later - only punctuated that importance. As Christopher Price noted here yesterday, Faulk’s been 13-for-13 on passes thrown to him the past two games. What does it say about him that that stat’s not the least bit surprising?

Just about every Patriots fan has underrated Faulk at some point in his career. It was obvious he wasn’t a lead back in this league, and his six fumbles in 2000 led to a probably undeserved charge that he was “fumble-prone.” It wasn’t until the 2003 season, when he helped save games against Denver and Houston (just about singlehandedly in that one), that he cemented his role on the team and in our hearts.

In CBS’s post-game wrapup Sunday, Boomer Esiason said someday Gillette Stadium would see a “Kevin Faulk Day.” It was a nice sentiment, and an inevitable honor. But it’s not enough.

There’s no worthy place of honor for a player like Faulk: passing game specialist, productive punt returner, and blitz picker-upper extraordinaire. He has nowhere near the rushing nor receiving stats for the Hall of Fame, of course. There will be a “Kevin Faulk Day” and he’ll own a spot in the Patriots “Ring of Honor”, or whatever the Patriots will call it.

Perhaps we could call him the “best third-down back of all time”, although probably a dubious honor, connoting an inability to be a lead back. Plus, somebody like Joe Washington might be the holder of that title.

It may be left to honor him in our memories. Tell us your favorite Kevin Faulk moments here.

Next Page →