Nick Saban might go down as the greatest college coach of all time, but he was a product of Belichick's mostly miserable time in Cleveland and, of course, he went 15-17 in his two seasons as head coach of the
Miami Dolphins. Charlie Weis went 41-49 at Notre Dame and Kansas with no major bowl victories. Romeo Crennel went 28-55 for the Browns and Chiefs with no playoff appearances. Josh McDaniels went 11-17 in Denver. Jim Schwartz (Cleveland division) went 29-51 for the Lions with one playoff loss, and Eric Mangini went 33-47 with the Jets and Browns with one playoff loss -- to Belichick. Saban, Crennel, McDaniels, Schwartz, and Mangini combined to win 38 percent of their NFL games without delivering a single postseason victory.
"You can understand why all those guys got jobs coming out of Bill's system," said one former New England executive. "They're all good coaches, no question. But what owners around the league seemed to forget when they hired Bill's assistants is that they weren't bringing Bill with them."
Or Brady. O'Brien didn't have Brady on his side anymore, either, but he did show up Thursday night with a winning NFL record (20-14), a playoff appearance, and a track record that showed he wasn't afraid of any challenge. He did follow Joe Paterno at Penn State. He did sign up to coach in the immediate wake of one of the most tragic college scandals of all.
In Houston he has surrounded himself with all sorts of former Belichick coaches and players. Crennel. Mike Vrabel. George Godsey. Larry Izzo.
Vince Wilfork. O'Brien even hired the former Patriots scout who helped discover Super Bowl hero
Malcolm Butler, Frantzy Jourdain. It made sense, too. If your goal is to dominate the AFC like the Patriots have over the past 15 years, why not hire as many old Patriots as possible?
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None of it mattered Thursday night. O'Brien and his team were completely outclassed by Belichick and his.
"Their program has been in place for a long time," O'Brien said. "They have what I think is the best head coach in the history of the league and they do a great job."
It's funny how this has worked out, too. Belichick made his name in this league as a defensive coordinator, one of the best around, and over time he has developed into a formidable offensive mind, with an assist from McDaniels. He has practically the Abner Doubleday of the slot receiver position. He has turned Gronk into a monster. He has preserved an aging Brady with a quick, short passing game. He has proven he can go 11-5 with
Matt Cassel and 3-0 with Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett.
Belichick might as well start Edelman under center against Buffalo to stick it to commissioner Roger Goodell, who never fathomed the Patriots would bleed all remaining air out of Brady's Deflategate suspension by going 4-0 in his absence. Chances are, assuming Garoppolo's shoulder doesn't heal, the Patriots will stick with Brissett, who would've ended up with a touchdown pass had Edelman not dropped one in the back of the end zone.
Given that Brissett made history as the first African-American quarterback to start for the Patriots, Doug Williams, the first African-American quarterback to win the Super Bowl, watched on TV with great interest. Now an executive with Washington, Williams had given Brissett a third-round grade before the draft. His marks were a bit higher after the quarterback's first start.
"He didn't set the world on fire with [103] passing yards," Williams said by phone, "but he was efficient, he showed poise, he showed athleticism, and he operated exactly the way his coaches wanted him to operate. They didn't want him to be an all-pro tonight. I liked how all his teammates ran to him in the end zone; that tells me they like him. And I liked it when Bill Belichick put out his hand for a handshake and Jacoby handed him the ball instead."
<article class="ad-300"></article>As it turned out, Belichick gave the ball back to his winning quarterback after the game, just like he had with other gift-giving Patriots of the past. "It's all about the players," the coach kept saying with conviction, and he didn't feel any great need to single out Brissett.
But without a healthy Gronk, Belichick leaned on a rookie to stay clear of
J.J. Watt and to secure New England's 22nd consecutive home victory over a non-divisional AFC opponent. Before leaving his Gillette Stadium locker room for the night, Brissett looked up at a clock and said, "Damn, it's already midnight. Past my bedtime."
Somehow, some way, the league's best coach made it to 3-0 with a kid at quarterback. In two weeks,
Tom Brady won't be returning to a broken system. Just one that keeps getting notarized against all odds.
