Patriots: Joint Practices Another Example Belichick is One Step Ahead

Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Jack Andrade, GoLocalProv Sports Reporter

 

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Bill Belichick

Entering his 15th season as New England Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick knows a thing or two about beating his competition to the punch.

It was Belichick who switched the Patriots’ base defense to a 3-4 alignment (3 down linemen, 4 linebackers) upon his arrival in 2000.  In the 10-year stretch from 2001-2010, 5 of the 6 AFC teams that won a Super Bowl employed the 3-4.

It was Belichick who designed gameplans to slow down “The Greatest Show on Turf” and the Peyton Manning-led Colts in the early 2000’s, using physicality and nastiness to disrupt the timing-based finesse offenses that gave the rest of the league fits.

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When the NFL began changing the rules to make defensive contact difficult to get away with, the Patriots helped lead the NFL into a spread-passing frenzy, most notably during the 2007 season in which they set records for points as a team (589), individual Touchdown passes (Tom Brady threw 50), and individual receiving touchdowns (Randy Moss hauled in 23).

It was Belichick and offensive protégé Josh McDaniels who terrorized the NFL with Brady and company’s aerial assault.  And when McDaniels left to become a head coach, Bill O’Brien was elevated to play-calling duties and he and Belichick adapted the offense again.

It was Belichick who took a pair of chances in the 2010 NFL Draft and selected Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.  With Gronkowski’s injury issues and the atrocities Hernandez is accused of, the 2 tight end attack was short lived but unrivaled around the league in terms of the unique and versatile scheme the Patriots utilized.

As teams began to copy the Patriots’ defensive tactics and the 3-4 became more popular (former Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel also was hired twice as a head coach), Belichick switched his defense back to a 4-3 alignment in 2011. Results have not been all that impressive thus far, but after years of using high draft picks and free agent capital of the defense, the 2014-15 Patriots figure to be among the best units in the NFL.

O’Brien is now the head coach in Houston after a 2-year pit stop at Penn State University. McDaniels is back in the driver’s seat offensively, and he and Belichick have altered the offensive personnel to favor a more balanced attack than in previous years- a scheme that doesn’t require the 37-year-old Brady to try and win Super Bowls by himself anymore.

Joint Practices the New Trend

The latest Belichick trend the rest of the league is following suit on is joint practice sessions in training camp.

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Belichick and Josh McDaniels

Simply put, joint practices are just 2 NFL teams joining forces and practicing together at the same facility for a few days.  It almost always leads up to a meaningless preseason game between the two teams, a game where the teaching moments from a practice are replaced by the chaos that is a normal NFL game.

The Patriots have held joint practices with the Saints and Falcons in 2010, the Saints and Buccaneers in 2012, the Eagles and Buccaneers in 2013, and with the Redskins and (later this month) the Eagles in 2014. Belichick must see real value in the joint practices to continue to participate in them with a sample size that large.

Make no mistake. Real in-game reps in the preseason still have their place in preparing for the season. But Belichick (and now many other coaches) have figured out that by collaborating on practice schedules, teams and coaches can prepare for unique situations that a preseason game can’t guarantee.

The Benefits

Joint practices and scrimmages allow teams to prepare for opponents they might not otherwise have the opportunity to prepare for.  For instance, no quarterback on the Patriots’ roster can adequately resemble a strong dual-threat passer/runner like Redskins signal caller Robert Griffin III.  Given that all 3 divisional opponents have quarterbacks that are dangerous as runners as well as in the pocket, this week’s preparation against RG3 is invaluable to the Patriots’ defense.

RG3 is just one example of a player the Patriots can learn a lot from this week. But why not just wait until Thursday night’s preseason game to do it?

The Patriots won’t get much out of playing 1 or 2 drives (starters won’t play much) in an unpredictable environment against a quarterback like RG3.  But in a controlled environment like a practice? They can prepare for any and all scenarios. How do you defend a dual-threat QB in the red zone? How about on 3rd and short? 3rd and long? The list goes on and on.

Those are just a few examples of what the Patriots gain by practicing against the Redskins.  Throw in the team building a competitive practice provides, a refreshing change from lining up against the same players every day, and the opportunity to measure your talent at a position directly against someone else’s talent at that position in drills, and joint practices are a no-brainer.

Bill Belichick: Trailblazer

Since Belichick’s arrival in Foxboro, 4 of his coordinators have landed a combined 7 head coaching jobs between the NFL and the big time college football ranks.  With the exception of O’Brien’s ability to temporarily right the ship at Penn State, none of them have been all that successful.

Which begs the question: Is it the scheme, the “Patriot Way,” “Humble Pie,” or the benefit of having #12 as the signal caller the driving force behind Belichick’s 15-year run in New England? Or could the success of “The Hoodie” be due to his ability to stay one step ahead of the competition?

 

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