| |  Lots of work goes into Patriots' defensive plan
By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
NEW ORLEANS -- With a couple of videotape machines revved to overdrive and
whirring incessantly in the background Monday morning, and computer
printouts identifying down-and-distance trends and personnel packages piled
nearly ceiling high on a crowded conference table, the New England Patriots defensive game plan for Super Bowl XXXVI was conceived.
While the mother hen was roosting hundreds of miles from the ground zero
brainstorming site in Foxboro, Mass., preparing here for the week's first
press conference instead of conniving to slow the St. Louis Rams potent
offense, New England defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel presided over the
crucial game-planning session.
But make no mistake, if Bill Belichick was reduced by his media responsibilities to being a mastermind in absentia at the beginning of the week, the fingerprints of the head coach are
still all over his team's defensive blueprint for Sunday's championship
game.
|  | | Bill Belichick helped lead a Patriots' defense that gave up only 17 points per game in the regular season. |
Acknowledged as one of the NFL's premier defensive minds over the past 20
years, a guy who has displayed more wrinkles than a seersucker suit, the
Patriots' surprising Super Bowl stretch run has validated Belichick as a
head coach in full. And now as a far mellower man, but also one of greater
accomplishment, the respect for him has increased exponentially.
His roots remain in the defensive side of the game, however, with more X's
than O's coursing through his veins, and the manner in which the Patriots
deploy on Sunday will be primarily his brainchild. By the time the game plan
is hatched shortly after 6 p.m., Belichick will have invested countless
hours dissecting the St. Louis attack, attempting to suture up any holes
he's detected in the New England defensive unit.
"He sweats the details," said linebacker coach Pepper Johnson, who played
under Belichick, "and that's what makes Bill who he is. During the
game-planning, when he wasn't around for some of the stuff, he was always on
the phone. It was like, 'OK, let's take a look at this. You better check
this out.' His mind, man, is always in motion. You know what they say about
a shark? If he quits swimming, he'll die. Well, if Bill ever quits thinking
about defense, he'd probably die too. By the time we get on the field, it
will all come together, because it always does."
On Wednesday morning, Rams coach Mike Martz suggested that Belichick's game
plans "should be illegal." St. Louis assistant Jim Hanifan, one of the
greatest offensive line tutors in the history of the league, was a short
Kurt Warner pass away from Martz, nodding in agreement. Nearly two months
after the two teams met in a regular-season game, Hanifan acknowledged he
still hadn't completely figured out the New England defensive scheme from
that Nov. 18 encounter.
The Rams opened that game in a "base" offensive package: two wide receivers,
a tight and two backs. And the crafty Belichick countered with a "dime"
package featuring six, and occasionally seven, defensive backs.
Recalled Hanifan: "You looked out, saw what they were doing, and thought,
'What the hell is this? Are they crazy?' Only (Belichick) would try
something that crazy. And only Bill can make it work, really. He makes it a
chess match every time out and this won't be any different."
With this year's championship game being contested after only a seven-day
break, instead of the typical two weeks between the conference title games
and the Super Bowl, the grind of intense preparation is heightened a bit,
Belichick conceded. Coaches and players forever operate on the seven-day
cycle during the regular season and the first three rounds of the playoffs.
But the Super Bowl magnifies everything, begs for more preparation time,
demands that teams more assiduously scrutinize opponent trends. The
seven-day break this year severely compresses the preparation period, frays
nerves, places enhanced significance on every hour leading up to the
championship matchup.
"It's not just another game, and you impress that on your players right from
the start, even though they're all smart enough to know it," Belichick said.
"On the other hand, especially this year with just one week to get ready, it
really is like most games. So we'll cut out most of the (extraneous) stuff
and get right to it. The seven days is good and bad. Good because it forces
you not to get very caught up in trying to make changes, in playing with
what got you here. Bad because in this game, you'd like to maybe throw in a
twist or two, and you might not have the time now."
The game-planning for Super Bowl XXXVI began shortly after the Patriots
arrived back home on Sunday night after their upset victory over the
Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship tilt. The staff broke out some
video of the Rams, looked through tape of that November 24-17 loss to St.
Louis, and crashed for a few hours sleep before reconvening very early
Monday morning.
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The thing about playing (the Rams) is that you have to communicate all the time. They do all that shifting, have so much movement, and their personnel packages are very creative. So you want all the questions answered before you get on the field. ” |
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— Bill Belichick |
As Belichick prepared to depart for New Orleans, he made mental reminders to
himself and some written ones to staffers, and began the process of putting
a defensive puzzle into place. Through the day, defensive assistants pored
over video, jotted down ideas and plotted suggestions for playing the Rams even
tougher a second time around.
By evening, the skeleton of a game plan was loosely arranged, and Belichick
broke free from his responsibilities in New Orleans to speak with Crennel several
times by phone. The staff faxed Belichick a number of schematic suggestions,
he doodled over them, and faxed them back. By evening, with his appearance
at the "arrival press conference" complete, Belichick adjourned to a large
room in the team hotel to try to dovetail handwritten X's and O's with the
ghostly celluloid images that paraded on the screen in front of him.
Early on Tuesday, before the annual "Media Day" session, the ritual was
repeated. Belichick had the video control in one hand and a marker in the
other. He took a few hours off for the interview period that commenced at
mid-morning, then returned to the team's hotel, where his staff finally
arrived in the afternoon with the mostly-completed game plan. At an
afternoon huddle, there was more video and some tweaking of the game plan,
and then the design was distributed to players at an evening meeting.
For the detail-oriented Belichick, the long-distance planning was not the
optimum way to go, but there was no alternative. Belichick noted during the
"Media Day" festivities that the critical part of any game plan is at the
outset, when he and Crennel and the remaining assistants bounce ideas off
each other. Belichick is the final word but everyone has input, particularly
on Tuesday, when the overall design is settled.
As is the case during the regular season, Wednesday and Thursday are the
heavy work days here, with the game plan transformed from the scribbled word
into the applied scheme. The coaches answer questions from the players, who
have had an entire evening to digest the blueprint, and the team walks
through the basics before putting on pads to commit the game plan by rote.
There are sessions dealing with game-type situations: third-and-long, "red
zone," and various blitz packages. And always, in the morning and evening,
there are miles of videotape studied by coaches and players seeking any kind
of edge.One insight into the planning: The Patriots have demonstrated
special concern this week over Rams tight end Ernie Conwell.
Both before and after the on-field practices, there are meetings, and
Belichick and his staff will alter some elements to address player strengths
and weaknesses.
"The thing about playing (the Rams)," said Belichick, "is that you have to
communicate all the time. They do all that shifting, have so much movement,
and their personnel packages are very creative. So you want all the
questions answered before you get on the field. There's no such thing as a
stupid question in the meetings. Better to be safe than sorry, you know, and
we don't want guys standing around wondering what they're supposed to be
doing on Sunday night."
Some defensive staffers told ESPN.com they expect the meetings to run a
little longer this week, a function not only of the opponent, but also of
the game's magnitude.
The final full-scale practice, on Friday, is basically a walk-through. The
staff goes over down and distances, introduces any last-minute wrinkles
(usually minor), tolerates no mental errors. Just as the week has wound
down, the goal is to have the players wound up, ready to play. With the sort
of veteran unit the Patriots possess, that typically isn't a problem, even
in a Super Bowl game.
By the end of the week, Belichick and his staff will have registered
time-and-a-half type hours. And by Sunday night, they'll know if the
manpower and long-hour investment paid off.
Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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SB XXXVI Over/Under
Mind Games
