The Patriots Suck: What Now?
The New England Patriots have officially hit rock bottom. Sitting at 1–4, bottom of division and conference, New England appears to have finally run out of tricks to get good or great performances out of exceedingly average rosters. Following their 34–0 defeat to New Orleans, their second 30-point loss in as many weeks (Belichick had one thirty-point loss in his previous 453 games), there’s much to be mulled over in regards to how the team should proceed with their season.
Head Coach and President of Football Operations Bill Belichick once famously (now infamously) said “Players win games, coaches lose them.” Naturally, Coach was more in tune with the public than they’d ever admit, as they’ve been anything but shy about their discontent with his performance in the post-Brady era.
With that said anyone who’s paid diligent attention to the Patriots’ twenty-year stint as the league’s best knows that both their reign at the top and descent to the bottom is far more nuanced than the arrival/departure of Brady. It’s ironic that for twenty years both Coach Belichick and Tom Brady stated on endless occasions that their success was built upon organizational competence from the top down, yet no one cares to acknowledge the talent drain that’s occurred within the Patriots organization outside of Brady’s departure.
Ernie Adams, Nick Caserio, Dante Scarnecchia, Michael Lombardi, Scott Pioli, Monti Ossenfort, amongst many others. If these names don’t ring familiar then there’s zero credibility to be assumed when commenting on reasons for the Patriots’ successes/failures. NFL legend and former Browns/Ravens owner Art Modell once famously quipped “I’ll pay anyone here $10,000 if they can tell me what Ernie Adams does."
He wasn’t joking.
The point of this rant is that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Within that’s also implied that it wasn’t built by one person, nor did it collapse due to one person. The same can be said for the Patriots dynasty on all accounts. The way society intakes media today has driven demand for hot or impulsive takes that, by necessity, are oversimplified to maximize exposure which often results in armchair talk being painstakingly inane.
Brady or Belichick? Fucking seriously?
I can understand rival fans cultivating this as a coping/trolling mechanism in response to what’s happened to them over the past two decades, but Patriots fans co-signing to this idea as a coping mechanism is flat-out sad and indicative of how the fierce urgency of now is a force that carries glaring negative externalities.
This is all not to say that Bill Belichick doesn’t deserve his share of the blame for the Patriots' inability to cope with losing all of the names listed above. Belichick’s incestuous coaching & staff tree has shown clear signs that it’s run dry in the form of offensive innovation, recruitment, and even development. These share a codependent, symbiotic relationship that ultimately has a huge impact on winning games. Overcompensation in aiding these areas due to a dry well of front-office/coaching turnover has inevitably resulted in a drop in game management, as it’s impossible to be an adjustment/counter-based tactician if the players are unable to do their jobs on even the most basic level.
The failure within the Patriots is systemic, the same way their success was systemic. No single coach in history realized the success that Coach Belichick achieved over a twenty-year stretch. To say it was all Belichick would be ridiculous, as he drafted and developed the greatest Quarterback and player in league history, who naturally carried the weight of the franchise on his shoulders countless times. But has the acceleration of information caused society to be so demented as to forget the first ten years of the Patriots dynasty? It took Tom Brady three Super Bowls to be considered truly elite… a feat that only three other Quarterbacks have achieved to this date.
The sheer and stray disrespect of everyone involved with the Patriots dynasty is shocking. Whether it be all of the top-ten defenses, or the hidden gems found both late in the draft and in free agency, or the development of a culture that both attracted top-tier talent and harnessed the abilities of specialized but unnoticed talent.
The Patriots were the Rome of the NFL. Something that no one believed was possible to build, let alone preserve, and so unprecedentedly successful that their downfall was both long overdue yet unexpected when it arrived. Media sharks will pick the low-hanging fruit that Bill Belichick should be fired. The disease of people being so adamant in their ability to assess a problem without being able to provide a plausible and apt solution will continue to be spread in the form of angry internet mobs who don’t understand why they can’t have their cake and eat it too.
That’s okay.
Until fans realize that Ernie Adams not being in the building to provide in-depth player and scheme insights and recommendations, Dante Scarnecchia not being in the building to head the offensive line, Nick Caserio not being in the building to focus on player acquisitions and upcoming drafts, and Josh McDaniels not being in the building to develop the Quarterback all matter, they won’t understand why a coach can always be replaced, but the system can never be replicated.
Coach Belichick needs to change. He doesn’t need to be fired. It shouldn’t be surprising that after all of these years, he’s finally reached a point where he’s the only one left standing from the empire he Generaled. The fact that he was able to supplement sizable losses with in-house promotions for as many years as he did should generate confidence that with time he can analyze what’s gone wrong within his decision-making that led the team to its current state. Adjustments, after all, have always been his strong suit.
Just ask the Atlanta Falcons.
