Are the Colts thinking like Bill Belichick?

[Wes Heilman]

I find this article pretty insightful about Bill https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/29/bill-belichick-new-england-patriots-strategy-nfl-super-bowl-liii

 

Playing in a league full of copycat speed over bulk defenses, you develop an offense that is designed to pound a lightweight defense. With an offensive line (including blocking tight ends) and backfield that can put it to you down after down, you tire out the defense, dominate possession and score some. When they cover your receivers, you pound it to them. When they stack the box, you still pound it to them, pick up some yards out of the backfield, dump to a TE who releases or watch for the mismatch, blown coverages or just flat receiver beating the coverage and show them why they have to respect the pass.

 

Seems better than designing your offense so opposing defenses matchup well with your strengths.

[Iron Colt]

What do you think the cowboys have been doing? It's not just NE.

[Scott Pennock]

Every Bill Parcells disciple coaches that way with one exception perhaps in Sean Payton.

[crazycolt1]

Well I hope Reich don't pick up Belichick's habit of not knowing anything about cheating or over looking some pretty shady things done by his team. 

[Four2itus]

Well, since BB didn't resign Adam....and we've still got him.....no. 

[AwesomeAustin]

Control time of possession and win the turnover battle. It’s been a winning formula since before Bill came around. 
 

Except that one game vs Miami and the Colts has the ball 15min total and blew them out.  That was a fun game lol. 

[EastStreet]

As far as pounding the ball, NE's rushing rank has been very up and down over the years. So I wouldn't call them consistent rock pounders. The ranked higher on average passing than pounding... 

[CurBeatElite]

15 hours ago, Four2itus said:

Well, since BB didn't resign Adam....and we've still got him.....no. 

 

Adam's a free agent.

[PeterBowman]

Ball control, limit turnovers, but also have a stout defense. 

[Coffeedrinker]

I've been saying on this forum for the last couple of years that the best way to attack a defense with speed rushers and smaller coverage LBers is to run the ball between the tackles.  Tenn did that to the AFCCG and SF did that all the way to the SB.  

 

Of course there are no absolutes in football, so a team still needs to be able to throw the ball well (the reason both Tenn and SF lost), a team needs to be able to take deep shots down the field, they need to have a good short and intermediate passing game, etc.  But if defenses want to go smaller, offenses will get bigger and focus between the tackles rather than outside.  As defenses counter and get bigger in the middle then offenses will counter with speed.  It's as old as the NFL.  BB has proven to the one of the quickest to adjust to the changes... probably from all his "film" study.

[FortheWin]

That is a strange article as the Patriots did not set out in 2018 to be a run first team but were forced into due to injuries to Gronk and their receivers being below average. They were forced to run the ball as Gronk could still block along with Allen and they had their FB as well. It worked but only because Brady was able to match Mahomes in the AFCCG score for score otherwise they get blown out.

[Coffeedrinker]

1 hour ago, FortheWin said:

That is a strange article as the Patriots did not set out in 2018 to be a run first team but were forced into due to injuries to Gronk and their receivers being below average. They were forced to run the ball as Gronk could still block along with Allen and they had their FB as well. It worked but only because Brady was able to match Mahomes in the AFCCG score for score otherwise they get blown out.

So, if you take away the points the patriots scored then the game wasn't close. I would not have thought about it that way. 

[LockeDown]

I’ve always understood that BB wants to attack the middle of the field, the straightest line between 2 points.  Focus on center and guards allowing rushing up the middle and protecting Brady’s biggest weakness, pressure up the middle. Passing attack is short yardage like a running attack. 
oh yeah...and cheat whenever possible.

[FortheWin]

1 hour ago, Coffeedrinker said:

So, if you take away the points the patriots scored then the game wasn't close. I would not have thought about it that way. 

Ha, ha. Right. I was more talking about the nature of that AFCCG. That was not a pound and ground approach by the Patriots. That was let's air it out and win a shoot out.

[Coffeedrinker]

1 minute ago, FortheWin said:

Ha, ha. Right. I was more talking about the nature of that AFCCG. That was not a pound and ground approach by the Patriots. That was let's air it out and win a shoot out.

I'm glad you took it as the joke it was intended.  And it kind of ties into my first post in this thread... about there being no absolutes in the NFL.  Most teams have smart coaches and coordinators so they will adjust and force the other team to adjust.

 

One of the things I've always admired about BB as a coach is most people talk about attacking a team's weakness.  Defensively, more so than offensively, BB likes to attack a teams strength... take away a team's strength and force them to try and beat you with their weakness.

[Smonroe]

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it was going to be about contracts.  And how the Pats always let a guy go a season early, rather than a season late.

 

May be the case with Hooker and Mack.  Possibly TY too?  Who knows.