Fridays with Bill

by John Powers

  “In terms of smarts—street smarts, instincts, recognition, whatever you want to call it—it’s a lot of that. All the good defensive linemen I’ve ever coached would do things that at times would not really be their assignment on the play but it was because they knew what was happening based on the way a guy was leaning, or his stance or the split or something like that gave him a good indication of what to do. And that sort of trumps everything.”

  DEFENSIVE HOLDING

  “There’s not too much holding on defense. We’re not trying to hold anybody. Do some of our guys get held? I don’t know. I’ve heard people say you could call holding on every play and to a degree that’s probably true. You probably could. But whatever the case is for a defensive player it still comes down to leverage, hand placement, and being able to control the guy who is trying to block you, and there is always somebody assigned to block you. That’s the big thing for any defensive player but particularly a defensive lineman. What plays does an offense run where they don’t block a defensive lineman? That guy is going to get blocked. It’s just a question of whether he can defeat that block and control his area and then ultimately get off the block and make that play.

  Belichick during a pensive moment during the 2009 exhibition season. (photo by Bill Greene)

  “So that’s what a defensive lineman has to do. There are defensive players that talk about, ‘Yeah, I like to be freed up. I’m good when I’m free.’ Well, great, who isn’t? The bigger part of it is being able to defeat somebody who is blocking you.”

  DEFENDING TWO RUNNING BACKS

  “You just have to be disciplined in your reads. There’s only one runner back there. If he’s back there with a tight end or a fullback or something like that you know who the runner’s going to be. It could be a pass but you know who basically is going to carry the ball. With two guys back there then misdirection plays and reading your keys and making sure that you defend your responsibility—because there’s more than one guy that can carry it—becomes more critical, which is the way it was when I came into the league when there were two running backs. So the halfback blocked, the fullback ran [or] the fullback blocked, the halfback ran. Your keying system was, for linebackers, much more difficult then because of the different combinations of plays that they had.

  “As that’s evolved to a one-back set, for the most part we know who’s going to carry the ball and so that’s just changed a little bit. When you put two guys back there, especially if you’re not used to doing it, understanding that there’s probably not a lot of one guy-is-blocking-for-the-other guy plays, there’s more of one guy runs here, the other guy runs somewhere else, which guy has the ball? You have to defend both of them as opposed to having lead blockers. I wouldn’t say that that’s featured, but when you have two guys going in different directions then that can slow down the defense.”

  TACKLING RUNNING BACKS

  “Guys have different styles. Guys have different ways of breaking tackles. Defensively, that’s an issue of knowing who you’re tackling and how you want to tackle them...You’re still going to make the tackle and there’s fundamentals involved to tackling but different players have different strengths. Some guys are stiff-arm players, some guys drop their shoulders, some guys are jump-cut guys, some guys are spinners, some guys challenge your leverage and cut back.

  “Other guys try to outrun you. So you’ve got to adjust and adapt. Look, the guy can do whatever he wants to do, so you have to tackle what it is. But you know their certain tendencies… ways guys like to run or carry the ball or break tackles. If you know that a guy’s a spinner, then you tackle him a little bit different and with a little more awareness than if he’s a guy that you know is going to always drop his shoulder and try and get low and try to grind out a few extra yards on contact. It’s just a different running style. The guys that can do them all, they’re obviously the hardest ones to tackle. They have multiple pitches they can throw and it’s hard to hit them.”

  COVERING RUNNING BACKS OUT OF THE BACKFIELD

  “It could change a lot, depending on who the players are and how the offense uses it. Some offenses involve their running backs a lot in the passing game. Some of them use them more in protection and to run the ball and play action, things like that. Some guys, they’re go-to guys in the passing game on third down and getting them the ball in space. Protection is another thing that varies from back to back. Some backs can do a lot of different protections.

  “Some backs, it looks like teams just use one or two protections with them so that they don’t have a lot of different assignments. Each week when the linebackers see who the backs are, or the secondary if they’re involved in it, you definitely take more time to go through the scouting report with the backs. How they’re used in the passing game, what kind of skills they have, some examples of them using those skills. Whether they’re deep receivers, whether they run a lot of option-type routes, whether they’re guys that can get open, whether they’re more catch-and-run-type players, check-down receivers, things like that. Usually the player’s skills will be complemented within the offense.

  The Super Bowl trophy in triplicate at the City Hall celebration after the improbable victory over Atlanta. (photo by Barry Chin)

  “If the back is a good route runner they’ll probably run him on some man-to-man-type routes. If the back is more a catch-and-run guy they’ll run receivers deep and let him be the check-down-type guy if it’s zone coverage instead of asking him to win a lot of one-on-one situations if that’s not really one of his strengths. It’s definitely a key coaching point, particularly for the linebackers, and it could be in sub situations if you have a DB that’s playing down close to the line of scrimmage. But covering those guys, what they do, how they do it, and what their skills are, there’s a wide, wide range from real good to almost non-existent, guys that some teams hardly ever throw the ball to. So knowing who is in the game and what they’re capable of doing and how we want to defend them is a key point every week. Very important.”

  SAFETY SKILLS

  “There are certain skills at safety that are a little different than they are at corner. You see more of the field. You get a better chance to read the quarterback on a lot of things, depending on how much man or zone coverage you’re playing. Your matchups are different on inside receivers versus perimeter receivers. Certainly the recognition and diagnosis of the play—the quarterback, the relationship between the receivers from the inside part of the field—is a lot different than it is from the outside part of the field. There’s certainly a different perspective of the game from in there, there’s no question about that.”

  FREE SAFETIES

  “Those players don’t get involved in every play but the plays that they are involved in are significant plays. They’re open-field tackles. They’re passes that are thrown a lot of yards down the field. They can be game-changing plays or game-winning plays. Turnovers, things like that. That’s the nature of that position. It’s not like playing guard or defensive tackle, where you’re right in the middle of every play…. It’s important when the opportunity comes that the player is able to make the play and do what he needs to do in that situation. It’s different than some of the other positions on the field but critical once it comes up. Then it’s the most important position on the field.”

  COMPETING FOR THE BALL

  “Something that we work on from the first day of training camp is going up defensively and competing for the ball. Being in good position, that’s part of the battle in the secondary, but that’s the way it always is. Being in position is part of the battle and then finishing the play and making the play on the ball, that’s the other half of it. The defensive back and the receiver, those guys have the longest play. The defensive linemen and offensive linemen aren’t far apart from each other.

  “A lot of times those plays are determined pretty quickly and then it’s go to the ball. But in the second
ary you have to play for three, four, five seconds. And then, in a lot of cases, it comes down to that last split second of whether it’s a good play or a bad play. You could be in a perfect position defensively and mistime or miss the ball. Or offensively, you could not run a good route and not really be open but make a good catch. Or you can run a great route and do everything right and drop the ball. For those positions every part of the play is important, but the finish of the play is a lot of times what decides whether it’s a good play or a great play or a bad play, and that’s the position.

  “It is hard to simulate but it’s something that we always work on, finishing the play and being in position but also making the right judgment at that time. A lot of times you go up and you can’t get the ball but the receiver has to bring it down and possess it. So it’s not a catch until he comes down and brings it in. So even though you might get outrebounded, with good technique you still have a chance to get the ball out before he’s able to control it.”

  8. Special Teams

  Bill Belichick’s first official job in professional football was as a special teams assistant for the Lions. That was also his niche when he later signed on with the Broncos and Giants. As Patriots head coach, he continues to give exceptional value to all aspects of the kicking game and the impact that touchdowns produced by those units have on outcomes.

  “In the National Football League, when you have roughly half of the games being decided by a touchdown or less, if you can get those seven points that you basically can’t count on, that tilts a lot of games right there,” he said.

  Since numerous players perform on all four special teams, Belichick assigns them the same distinction that he does to offensive and defensive starters. Some, like Matthew Slater and Larry Izzo, were perennial Pro Bowlers.

  “Those guys can make a great contribution to the team and be very valuable for it and have long careers,” the coach observed. “Long snappers, guys like that. Some players really embrace that and can build on it and can have longevity doing it.”

  SPECIAL TEAMS SCORES

  “Any time you get what I would call ‘bonus points,’ whether it’s a defensive score or special teams score, the correlation between that and winning is high. I’m not sure if it’s 90 percent, but it’s definitely high. In the National Football League, when you have roughly half of the games being decided by a touchdown or less, if you can get those seven points that you basically can’t count on, that tilts a lot of games right there.”

  EVOLUTION OF COACHING SPECIAL TEAMS

  “I would say it’s evolved a lot. You’re playing some of your starters on special teams. You have six linebackers on the roster, four running backs, four receivers—well that’s what they had, too [in 1977]. Now you have a lot more specialization. You have a lot of teams that have a core group of players in the kicking game, five or six guys that are pretty much on every team. Then you have your specialists and you have maybe a couple other guys that may play on one or two teams depending on what the needs of that team are. Obviously you can plan more smaller guys on punt return and kickoff coverage than on the punt team because you only have two guys split out there, right?

  “So depending on which team you’re talking about there’s one or maybe two-phase players and then those four-phase players are usually four, five, six, seven players on your roster depending on how it’s comprised in addition to the specialists. Definitely the players on the smaller roster, they were true backup players. They were one play away from playing middle linebacker or tight end or running back or corner or whatever. Now you see teams going into games with five safeties, five corners, five running backs. Heavier positions because there’s depth there in the kicking game for those guys. Then schematically I’d say it’s changed a lot just in terms of punt formation.

  “The kickoffs have changed because of the ability of the kickers and the rules, where now it’s a touchback game. The same thing on the field goals. It’s hard to block field goals now because of the rules. Fifteen, 20 years ago, you had a lot of options. You could overload, you could load up certain spots in the protection. Now it’s hard to do that. You can’t hit the snapper, can’t jump, can’t push, can’t pull. Yeah, it’s changed.”

  SPECIAL TEAMS MENTALITY

  “The best thing for a player is to really understand his role and maximize that. I think that all players want to go out there and do the best in all situations but not everybody is called on to do everything. Some guys have specific roles to do and once players identify how productive they can be in those roles and really work at them then they can build those roles into more than roles. They become core parts of your team. Some players understand that. Some players do that and they build on it.

  The coach in mid-November garb during practice for the 2015 road date with the Giants. (photo by Barry Chin)

  “I’ve seen other players who were good special team players maybe their first year or two in the league and they don’t want to do that anymore. They want to go and try to have a bigger role on offense or defense, and then sometimes in two or three years they’re out of the league. If they took a different approach, like guys who just build on establishing a bigger role for themselves on the team… whether it’s a third-down back, a short-yardage back, a swing lineman, a third-down cover linebacker, whatever those roles are that aren’t necessarily full-time unit roles, offensive or defensive roles. But those guys can make a great contribution to the team and be very valuable for it and have long careers. Long snappers, guys like that.

  “Some players really embrace that and can build on it and can have longevity doing it and get better at it. Then there are some players that don’t understand that is what their role is. They want their role to be something else, and then if they can’t get to whatever that other one is sometimes end up with nothing. And that’s unfortunate that sometimes that happens.”

  SPECIAL TEAMS INJURIES

  “When you lose a player on special teams you really lose a starter on four teams at least. Sometimes you have one person that can replace the player, so it’s Player A in for Player B. But a lot of times you have a combination of players where you either have to move somebody around or you use more than one player to replace that guy. It just depends on the player, but that’s the challenge as a special teams coach, especially when it happens during the game. You lose somebody and then, okay, it’s the kickoff team, the kickoff return team, the punt team, the punt return team. It’s hard during the game, usually, to have one player that does all four of those.

  “Maybe the next week if that player is out, if you have one person that can do that you might be able to make that guy active. But normally during the game you end up having to juggle some balls there, ‘Okay, you’re in on this team. You’re in on that team. You’re in on something else. You’re in here but now you’re moving to there.’ It’s one of those deals. That’s why we try to use guys at different positions all through training camp, work them at different positions in practice. A lot of times on your punt team you have maybe one guy on the inside and he’s the first guy in, so if you lose any of your interior people he’ll be the first guy in and you bump somebody else over or he plays all the way across the board. And then you have your first gunner and then on the punt return maybe the same thing, one inside guy, one end, one vise guy, that type of deal. There are some moving parts there. It’s definitely challenging.”

  KICKING-GAME SPECIALISTS

  “It always comes down to the specialists. If your returners and your kickers and your snappers do a good job then you have a chance to be good. If they don’t do a good job then it’s hard for the other 10 guys to overcome that. It’s hard to be a good punting team if you can’t punt. It’s hard to be a good return team if you can’t return.”

  PUNTERS AS HOLDERS

  The day when the backup quarterback was the holder on field goals and conversions largely has passed. For the Patriots and most
other clubs, the punter now handles those duties. Ryan Allen and kicker Steve Gostkowski form a seamless combination, largely because they spend so much time together in special teams meetings and on the practice field.

  “Most college teams have a pure snapper as well as a pure kicker and a pure punter. When you have that situation, if your punter can hold, then the amount of snaps and time that those guys get to practice together, work together, meet together, watch film together, watch slow-motion films, concentrate on the technique as opposed to the backup quarterback or somebody like that who has a lot of other responsibilities. If your holder can be your punter then the amount of practice time, consistency, preparation time that those guys have together just so outweighs what it would be with any other player…. If it’s a position player like a defensive back and something happens to them, now who’s your backup player because those guys are regular players? Not only do you have to replace them at their offensive or defensive position, you have to replace them in the kicking game so it cuts into your depth.

  “Back when you had 36, 37 players, it was a whole different ballgame. Everybody doubled up in one way or another. I think that’s the way it is on most teams. Most teams’ punters are the holder and the snappers are the snappers and the kickers are the kickers. That’s the way it was in college so we’re recruiting players that are in that very specialized phase themselves.”