The Art Of Football, Part 4: Belichick "Cooks" Up Enticing Receiving Corps

"A modern day warrior
Mean, mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride."

When Neil Peart, the world class drummer for the Canadian rock band Rush, penned the lyrics to the band's most recognizable and signature tune Tom Sawyer, New England Patriots head ball coach Bill Belichick was just starting to cut his football teeth as linebackers' coach for the New York Giants under the tutelage of Ray Perkins...

...the same Ray Perkins who, along with Ron Erhardt, devised the concept-based Erhardt-Perkins offense while they were both offensive assistants with the Patriots, a system so complex in it's simplicity that learning the playbook has ruined many competent veteran receivers with it's reliance on versatility.

Perkins' influence on Belichick is evident every time his Patriots take the field, as the mantra for the Erhardt-Perkins offense, "Pass to score, run to win" is pretty much how it's done in New England with their pass-first mentality and their ability to close out games by running out of their four-minute sets - but finding players that "get it" when it comes to the concepts is not an easy task.

The offense requires that every player knows what every other player is supposed to be doing, and relying on their diverse skill sets to give them the ability to line up at any position on the field, be it split wide, in the slot or in the backfield.

For years, Brady has called the play in the huddle - a simple one word designation that tells each player where to line up and what route he is running, breaking the huddle quickly and then using the rest of the play clock to survey the defense, unmask the coverages by sending any number of players in motion and gauging the defenses' reaction, then adjusting the pass catchers to a spot in the formation to take advantage of mismatches.

So, there's a reason why Belichick selects the pass catchers that he does, a reason why Patriots' receivers are no-name, often nomadic creatures who wouldn't make another team's roster because they lack any number of requisite qualities that fans will pay to see - literal jacks-of-all-trades, receivers that are successful in the concept have three things in common:

They are intelligent, both academically and in football vernacular.  They are versatile.  They are dependable.

Not a list of traits looked at with any degree of enthusiasm by the casual fan - or by many coaches, it seems - it is these traits that have fueled the Patriots' offense for close to two decades, ruining the aforementioned tenured veterans and making cult-figures of ambiguous, ill-figured athletes, some of whom had not played at receiver until Belichick got hold of them.

"Tom Sawyer was a collaboration between myself and Pye Dubois.  His original lyrics were kind of a portrait of a modern-day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world wide-eyed and purposeful.  I added the themes of reconciling the boy and the man in myself, and the difference between what people are and what others perceive them to be." Neil Peart

The gap between what Belichick is and what people perceive him to be has narrowed exponentially with each division title, with each conference championship and with each Super Bowl.  Initially, the man we've come to call "The Dark Master" was perceived to be a curmudgeonly old malcontent who loathed the media and didn't give two shits what anyone thought of him...

...his sole saving grace in the public eye was the obvious affection that he had for the men who played ball for him - and even that took hits every time he released or traded away a player whom the fanbase had decided had lots of gas left in their tank.

He discarded certain hall-of-fame receiver Randy Moss after he ceased to be useful, and dumped slot receiver Wes Welker after openly mocking him with the moniker "Wally Pipp" and giving his job to Julian Edelman.  He took chances on a washed-up Chad Ochocinco and Reggie Wayne, but both crashed and burned at the prospect of having to learn the playbook.

His track record of drafting receivers that could actually function in the system is abysmal, so instead he concentrates on collecting already broken-in talent with varying degrees of success and rides the lightning with them - his track record in that endeavor solid gold despite the failed Ochocinco experiment.

Moss set records and made mockery of secondaries throughout football.  Welker became the prototype for garden gnome-sized slot receivers, holding the fort for Edelman, a former-college quarterback that worked his way into the lineup.  Danny Amendola was signed the day that Welker was shown the door and became one of the most clutch receivers in team history.

Chris Hogan didn't even play college ball at Penn State, instead playing Lacrosse on scholarship then using his final year of eligibility to learn to play the position at tiny Monmouth College, and last season became the Patriots big play game breaker - and in Malcolm Mitchell, all indications are that Belichick may have finally gotten a draft pick right.

Indeed, Mitchell was the highest-drafted receiver on the roster last season - with the exception of late-season rental Michael Floyd - being taken in the fourth round and wowing the fans at Gillette Stadium with his toughness, resilience and electric moves after the catch, and all indications were that Mitchell was ready to break out onto the scene as a sophomore...

...that is until Belichick traded away his first-round draft pick to New Orleans in exchange for Brandin Cooks, a move that will either limit Mitchell's progress by taking snaps from him or make him that much more dangerous as opposing secondaries look to contain the speedy Cooks.

Running a blazing fast 4.33 in the 40 yard dash, Cooks routinely ran away from coverages operating out of the slot, his short area burst causing instant separation as he took slot corners inside out across the face of the intermediate zone and up the sidelines which draws the attention of the high safety and should leave the other pass catchers on the roster in single coverage.

That's bad news for defensive coordinators on the Patriots' schedule, especially considering that Mitchell and Hogan are no sloths, running 4.45 and 4.47 respectively - we saw what both did last season when left in man coverage, and the fact that they rose to the occasion when their team needed them most in the post-season makes them solid gold in Belichick's system.

No, his mind is not for rent
To any God or government
Always hopeful but discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent

Terminally discontent despite holding another trophy, in trading for Cooks Belichick addressed the most worrisome issue coming out of their championship season, that of not having a speed merchant to force the defense to defend the entire field and allowing defenses built on quickness - such as the Atlanta Falcons - to key down on taking away the short game that has been a staple of Belichick's offenses throughout his tenure.

His Patriots overcame that disadvantage in the Super Bowl, barely, but Belichick can't count on making epic comebacks week-after-week after spotting teams large leads - so he went out and did something about it.

In Cooks, Hogan and Mitchell, the Patriots are suddenly youthful in their receiving corps.  Cooks is 23 and still working on his rookie contract, though Belichick picked up his option for 2018 and making him a multi-millionaire.  Mitchell is in his second season at age 24 and also on his rookie contract, while Hogan is still just 28 and entering his sixth season...

...joining Edelman (30) and Amendola (31) to form perhaps the most dangerously versatile receiving corps in the National Football League.

Now add in the combined talents of tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Dwayne Allen - both just 27 years old and under contract for multiple seasons - along with the pass catching talent coming out of the backfield in the personages of Super Bowl hero James White (25), Dion Lewis (26), Rex Burkhead (26) and Mike Gillislee (26), and one has to wonder how anyone is going to stop the apparent juggernaut that Belichick has built.

Luckily for opposing defenses, the Patriots are only allowed five skill position players on the field at any one time - but that is going to be hard enough for them to cover and account for...

Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you

Dolphins,Patriots Playing For Seeding, Will Not Rest Starters

Where would you rather have to play in the dead of winter in a one-and-done playoff scenario?

Your first choice is in a climate-controlled domed stadium against an opponent with a weaker record and who just barely qualified for the playoffs by winning the worst division in all of football, while your second choice is in an open-air stadium in the northeastern United States where the temperatures are liable to be in the teens with a windchill of negative connotations against a team that also just scraped into the playoffs, but are battle-tested in the tough AFC North.

Martellus Bennett is part of New England's downfield threat

If you are the Miami Dolphins and you have control over a scenario where you could go to Houston to face the offensively-challenged Texans in the Wildcard round of the 2016 NFL Playoffs, you do everything in your power to take that kind of favorable matchup - but if you don't, or can't, make that scenario come true, you will find yourself smack in the middle of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania against a Steelers team that is operating on all thrusters and as dangerous as any team in the tournament.

All the Dolphins have to do on Sunday to win a trip to Houston is to beat the visiting New England Patriots.

The Dolphins need this game if they want the easiest path to the Divisional round and perhaps even to the AFC Championship game - the Patriots just need it, for a plethora of reasons, not the least of which is to secure homefield advantage throughout the playoffs - but there is a far more dark reason.

You see, the Dolphins represent the best on-field challenge for New England, which in turn will keep the team sharp going into their first-round playoff bye without being over-challenging in game-planning and preparation, since they are a well-known commodity in Foxborough.  Miami is relentless and plays with the heart of an underdog, and what they do well is what the other teams in the AFC East do when playing the Patriots: They find a way to hang around and give themselves a shot to win in the fourth quarter.

But unlike the Buffalo Bills, who have no defense, and the New York Jets who have no offense, the Dolphins have just enough of both to make things tough for New England on Sunday.

Much has been made of Miami's "prolific" running attack, led by second-year back Jay Ajayi, but the fact of the matter is that their ground game runs hot and cold.  For all of the coverage Ajayi received for topping 200 yards in consecutive games around midseason, the Dolphins as a team hit triple-digits on the ground only six times, going for two hundred against the Steelers and twice against the Bills...

...but in games against average to good run defenses, they sport an average of just 84 yards per game on the ground, which feeds into what the Patriots defense does best.

The New England run defense is ranked third in the National Football League, which illustrates how the Patriots approach each game - priority one being to stop the opposition's running game, which they have by holding nine of their fifteen foes under the century mark, and five of their last six, a period which has seen the Patriots surrender a league low 72 yards per game.

The New England pass defense gave up a season-high 387 yards to Miami in week two, but in truth 308 of those passing yards came during a furious second half rally which saw the Dolphins recover from a 24-3 halftime deficit, cutting the Patriots' lead to seven and knocking on their doorstep in the final seconds for the tie before centerfielder Duron Harmon ended the threat with a clutch interception at the New England nine yard line.

And therein lies the rub. Miami is not excellent in any unit on offense, but they are relentless with the style of a mean counter-puncher - and they have to be, because their defense, particularly their run defense, is absolutely atrocious, having given up nearly 150 yards per game since their bye.

Good news for a Patriots' team that sports a top-ten running game themselves, that has averaged 117 yards per game since their own bye week - and that phase of the offense is going to be important to the Patriots as they face a Dolphins' pass defense that is vertically challenged. Miami's opponents have demonstrated great balance on offense, and the ability to remain patient, knowing that their running game will set up their intermediate to deep passing game...

...which New England actually has this season. Since the departure of Randy Moss, the Patriots have relied purely on the short "Dink-and-Dunk" passing game, employing garden gnomes as receivers and monoliths as tight ends, and tying the entire thing together with prolific passing backs - but this season, with the addition of former Buffalo Bill Chris Hogan and rookie Malcolm Mitchell, not to mention recent acquisition Michael Floyd, the Patriots have demonstrated a protracted ability to go over the top of defenses.

That makes New England's offense even more dangerous than they have been in previous meeting through the past few seasons with Miami, and affords them excellent balance and depth - which, despite the aforementioned struggles for the Dolphins on defense, will be as important as any other factor for the Patriots' offense, as Miami is tops in the league in their down defense, accomplished simply by bringing heat from their violent pass rush in obvious passing situations.

This game has all the makings of a classic Patriots / Dolphins showdown, but with much more on the line for both teams. Last season, the Patriots sleepwalked through their season finale and lost home field advantage throughout the playoffs because of it - and that in itself should tell you everything you need to know about this game...

...because if the Dolphins played that hard and that mean in a meaningless game for them to end last season, how much more motivated are they going to be when the game means the difference between going to a toasty warm Houston as the fifth-seed or to iced-down Pittsburgh as the sixth-seed, something that a win over New England will provide them.

But the Patriots are not without motivation either, as they well remember what that loss to Miami last season cost them in the playoffs. New England is in a similar boat this time around, in trying to fend off a challenge from the Oakland Raiders for the top seed in the AFC, which a victory over the Dolphins will give them.

Patriots Ground Jets Playing Clutch, Complementary Football

James White was a hero, then a goat, and then let off the hook.

So went the day for the New England Patriots.

It was enough that the Patriots were at MetLife Stadium and playing an arch-nemesis New York Jets that always plays New England tough, but to add a hobbled quarterback Tom Brady to the equation meant that the rest of the team had to pick up the slack - and they did.  Barely.

Facing a fourth and four at the Jets' 37 with just under three minutes to play and playing from behind a one-point deficit, Brady floated a short pass to White on a quick out - White took the pass on his inside shoulder, spun to square his shoulders upfield, and absorbing a hit from Jets' linebacker Darron Lee, White stretched as far as his 5' 10" body would go, picking up the vital first down.

From the spot where the play started, to settle for a field goal in that situation would mean entrusting shaky place kicker Stephen Gostkowski to nail a 54 yard field goal, but neither miss-or-make circumstance was plausible.

Long, silencing the crowd, ended the game with his strip sack

If Gostkowski missed, the Patriots would have been down by two points and the Jets would have taken over the ball at their own 44 and the Patriots with only two time outs to work with - but had he made it, the Patriots would have taken a one-point lead, but left Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Jets' offense nearly three minutes to drive for a game-winning field goal.

So it was all on White's shoulders to gain the first down.

"He made a great play because the ball was thrown short of the sticks" Brady said of White, "and if we don't make that play, it's hard to win the game - it was a game-winning play, a championship-type play that James made. He did enough to shake off the tackle and get the first down."

A deep pass to wide open receiver Chris Hogan on the ensuing play took the ball down to the Jets' eight yard line, and then Brady hit rookie Malcolm Mitchell for a touchdown pass at the left pylon to give the Patriots a five-point lead - then White took a motion handoff from Brady and crossed the same pylon for a two-point conversion to give the Patriots a seven-point lead...

...the only problem being, while White's body crossed the goal line before going out of bounds, the ball never did, so the Patriots were left clinging to that five-point margin and kicking the ball back to Fitzgerald and the Jets' offense with just under two minutes left.

But defensive end Chris Long stripped the ball out of Fitzgerald's hand two plays later and the ball was recovered by fellow defensive end Trey Flowers which meant that White and, indeed, the entire Patriots team, were let off the hook, leaving MetLife with a victory in a 22-17 street fight.

The Patriots, were expected to set scoring records this season - what with the virtual plethora of extraordinary talent at Brady's disposal - but after running roughshod over their opponents to take a 7-1 record into their week-nine bye, New England has stumbled out of their off week, looking sluggish for long stretches of each of their three contests, losing a heartbreaker to Seattle before posting a 30-17 win over San Francisco last week and winning by five points over New York.

The only thing that has been consistent in any of the three has been the Patriots' clutch play when it counted the most.

Brady looked every bit the hobbled old warrior on Sunday afternoon, his already limited mobility reduced to sloth-like trudging, but after throwing away the ball on five attempts simply because the Jets were sending extra rushers to force Brady's hand, and after overthrowing wide open receivers at least as many times, the quarterback that many consider the greatest to ever play the game summoned up his clutch nature on the last two possessions of the game.

Considered a game-time decision, Brady's right knee was so sore and swollen during the week that he didn't attend practices, and it was clear that the knee was still bothering him, and accounted for the seemingly endless collection of overthrows - when the quarterback can't push off well with his right knee, it affects not just the follow through, but also the release point of the ball, which will be slightly higher...

...but as the game reached it's pinnacle, Brady was able to adjust his mechanics to compensate for his bum knee, throwing strikes on the last two critical possessions, and at the same time earning him his 200th career victory, tying him with Peyton Manning for most all-time - and Brady can break that record with a win against the Los Angeles Rams next week in Foxborough.

Brady - who threw the ball a ridiculous fifty times, completing thirty for 286 yards and two scores - went four-of-six on an eight-play, fifty three yard drive that produced a field goal to get the Patriots within one point, then after the New England defense forced a punt after a short Jets' possession, Brady went five-of-nine on the game winner to take his team to a 9-2 record.

Rookie Wide Receiver Malcolm Mitchell hauled in both of Brady's scoring tosses, snatching a dart at the back of the end zone to cap a seven-play, fifty yard drive after the Patriots' defense forced a Jets' fumble at midfield in the second quarter to tie the game at ten, then the gamer to bring his touchdown total to three in the past two games as his playing time has increased due to injuries in the pass catching ranks...

...while power back LeGarrette Blount ran the ball eleven times for 67 yards and is closing in on 900 yards for the season with five games to play, scatback Dion Lewis adding 24 yards on six carries, including a nifty 15-yard job deep in Jets' territory that featured his trademark cut-on-a-dime elusiveness.

While the Patriots' offense again looked sluggish for much of the game, for the third straight week the defense has seemed lost in a fog until one takes a look at the stat sheet.

Giving up 17 points, which is one fewer than their season average, the New England defense held New York to 5 of 11 on third down conversions, forced four punts, caused two turnovers and allowed the Jets to venture into the red zone just one time - giving up plenty of yardage between the twenties, but hardly anything in scoring position.

The bend-but-don't-break philosophy that the Patriots defense has employed causes frightful tremors among their faithful, but the fact that it works for them is a huge consolation.

On the season, New England has surrendered 197 points on defense, good for third in the NFL, while giving up a whopping 3900 yards, which places them 13th in the league - the spread between these two stats probably have Patriots' fans reaching for bottles of Xanax, but it does indicate how very clutch the defense is when the game is on the line.

And no defender in recent history has been more clutch than cornerback Malcolm Butler, though he took his lumps against the Jets' gigantic wide outs, giving up six catches on as many targets for 106 yards and both of Ryan Fitzgerald's scoring throws - but the difference between what happened to Butler on Sunday and just plain getting toasted was verbalized by Patriots' head ball coach Bill Belichick after the game.

"Look, we're going to play against good receivers and good quarterbacks every week. That's what the National Football League is." said Belichick on his Monday morning conference call from Gillette Stadium, adding, "Malcolm competed hard, which he always does, and tackled and was competitive on a lot of those plays and was close. They made some plays and he made some."

They made some plays, and he made some.  The Jets made some plays and the Patriots made some.  Imagine that.  The Jets made plays all over the field, made plays that totaled 333 total yards on 56 plays, but only 18 of those yards and four of those plays came inside the red zone - otherwise, Fitzgerald hooked up with receiver Quincy Enunwa on a 22 yard miracle touchdown in the back right corner of the end zone that Butler couldn't have covered any better...

...and one Nick Foles field goal.  The rest of the Jets' ten possessions were a testament to the competitiveness that Belichick keeps speaking of, with the aforementioned punts and forced fumbles, and also an Alan Branch blocked field goal on a 54-yard Foles attempt.

That is the very definition of complementary football.  Can things be better? Rhetorically speaking, absolutely.  The offense could run the ball a little more to give the defense a bit more rest, and the defense could pressure more to perhaps give the offense a little better starting field position.

Other than that, your Patriots are fine, and are on to Los Angeles.