Belichick sleeps in his office a couple nights a week. Gruden rarely sleeps, needing maybe a three-hour stop at home to change his clothes. But what Belichick is to defense, Gruden is to offense. They are masters of innovation.

Saturday's game between the Raiders and Patriots in Foxboro is intriguing from the standpoint that it matches a team thought to be going to the Super Bowl against one of the league's Cinderella teams. More interesting, though, is the matchup of Gruden against Belichick. They could sell out an arena just watching the two play Madden 2002 on PlayStation 2, but the computer chips would burn out because there wouldn't be enough plays.

"We became friends at a couple of combines and a couple of owners meetings when the coaches get to go for a couple days in the springtime," Gruden said. "He's been a guy that I've always kind of looked up to. He's a grinder. He likes to sit in a dark room and just mess around with football and films and things like that. It's something I kind of take pride in also. He's a big Bon Jovi fan and got me tickets to a concert a couple of years ago. I'll never forget that. I owe him one."

	Bill Belichick, right, and Romeo Crennel must devise a scheme to stop Jon Gruden's offense.

Gruden's biggest worry is the unknown that will come out of Belichick's office. With the Patriots' earning a first-round bye, Belichick has had two weeks to prepare for Saturday's game. Even worse for the Raiders is the fact that the Patriots have had two byes over the past three weeks. Injuries have had a chance to heal. The Patriots will be healthy and prepared for the Raiders.

"Knowing Bill Belichick personally, it's a great advantage for them because I'm sure he's prepared them for a couple of opponents," Gruden said. "I'm sure he's managed the bye week extremely well and I'm sure they're going to be healthy. They're going to be excited and they're going to really play well."

In some ways, initial game plans may be outdated by the first quarter. The strength of each coach is the way they adjust in games. Gruden kick-started a stale offense last Saturday against the Jets by having the Raiders come out in a no-huddle offense. Tempo had been a problem. So had zone defenses.

The offense regained its confidence by establishing the early tempo. Quarterback Rich Gannon stepped into throws better and fired longer tosses, giving Jets defenders fits in trying to figure out the routes. Gruden threw enough varied running plays at the Jets that defenders wore down and surrendered 215 yards on the ground. Gannon found a hot receiver in Jerry Rice and kept feeding him the ball.

"I knew it was in there," Gruden said of the team's resolve to end a three-game losing streak. "It's just a matter of getting it out of the guys. Honestly, the age of this football team is an issue. The injuries of the team are an issue. Rich Gannon pointed out discipline is an issue. You've seen players and coaches screaming at one another. Deep down in my heart, I know we got a lot of veterans on this team. Many of these players have played more than 10 years in the NFL and they are passionate about football. Their emotions are going to spill out."

Belichick's biggest task is using that passion against the Raiders. He needs to frustrate them early, stop their running game, limit them to field goals and try to prevent the big plays.

"Belichick has a great scheme there on defense," Gruden said. "They've got all the fronts, all the coverages, all the rotations that you could ever prepare for. They believe in it. They've got some passionate guys, some veteran players on that defense."

Veterans such as Bryan Cox, Roman Phifer, Willie McGinest, Otis Smith and others execute Belichick's schemes to perfection. Belichick will use every hour of the day to find new ways to make old schemes work.

"Bill's strength is his concentration and focus," said Ravens vice president Ozzie Newsome, who worked with Belichick in Cleveland. "He'd sleep two nights a week in his office, but he stays focused. He has a great eye at seeing the whole picture, and he makes sure there aren't many ambiguities for the players. If a player has to make more than one decision on a certain play, he'll leave it out."

	Rushing Toward Foxboro
	The Raiders are rediscovering the running game that was their staple last season. Oakland is averaging 167 yards per game in the last two games after averaging just over 74 yards in the previous four games, equaling its touchdown output and putting up two 100-yard performances.
		Last 2 games*	Prev. 4 games
	Rush YPG	167.0	74.5
	Yds. per rush	5.5	3.3
	Rush TD	2	2
	100-yd. games	2	0
	*Including postseason

Like Gruden, Belichick is a second generation football coach. Like Gruden, he's all football. When Steve Belichick was at Navy, he'd have Bill sit in his office as he broke down film and devised plays. At the age of 10, Bill started breaking down the films and helping with diagrams. What surprised his father was that his 10-year-old was meticulous about those assignments.

Belichick is 49 and still learning. The biggest thing he learned in a five-year stint as head coach of the Cleveland Browns is that it takes more than schemes to win. It took him four years to build the Browns into a playoff contender. After a 6-10 year and two 7-9 seasons, the Browns went 11-5 and won a wild-card playoff game. The next year, the Browns moved to Baltimore at midseason and everything fell apart.

He learned in Cleveland that he needed to be more personable with the players. They were not just icons on a computer screen. Browns players complained about his language. In his initial address as a first-year coach of the Browns, he told them that he'd worked too long and too hard to let the players foul it up for him. And to the fans who didn't like his conservative offense, he said once, "I don't give a damn what the fans think."

This is a different Belichick. Players respond to him better because he emphasizes making them better players and not making himself a better coach. While victories were the goal in Cleveland, the Patriots won this year and had fun. As complicated as some of his schemes are, Belichick has tailored his system so more rookies and younger players can understand and execute it.

"I think it's important to not just communicate with the players but to kind of be in constant touch with them, so I've tried to be more responsive to that," Belichick said. "Things change in a hurry. You need to stay on top of them and really have the pulse of the team and on the individuals. I've made more of an effort to do that."

Gruden had that knack in his first head coaching job. He's popular with fans and players. Belichick was 39 when he first became a head coach. Gruden was 34 when Al Davis named him head coach in 1998. On Saturday, Gruden won his 40th game and he's only 38. That's incredible when you consider he's won 40 games before Belichick had a chance to be a head coach.

And where Belichick's foul mouth in Cleveland was considered a negative, Gruden's sideline cursing in games is considered a treat. During the telecast, Gruden was caught swearing at an official. Everyone in the broadcast booth laughed.

"There are times when my body shakes into another zone," Gruden said. "I've got to do a better job of controlling that."

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.