Bill Belichick shares New England Patriots' Super Bowl strategy against Julio Jones

[T-post Tom]

A little insight into the mind of our avowed enemy...

The New England Patriots held Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones to four receptions for 87 yards in Super Bowl LI on Feb. 5. And if that doesn't sound like "held," there are two things to consider.

First, during the regular season, Jones averaged six receptions for 101 yards per game on his way to All-Pro honors for the second straight year.

Second, four passes were all the receptions that Jones could have made. The former Alabama star hadn't been targeted by his quarterback so few times in an NFL game since Nov. 27, 2011, in his rookie season. Jones had no targets in a game against the Minnesota Vikings because he left the contest early with a hamstring injury.

During "Do Your Job Part 2: Bill Belichick and the 2016 Patriots," which premiered on NBC on Sunday night, New England coaches shared how they schemed to try to keep Jones in check.

Jones had missed two games in December with a sprained toe, and he had foot surgery a month after the Super Bowl.

"We noticed that Julio, from a defensive standpoint, most of his routes would go from our right to left," Belichick said. "So he would plant on his left foot and explode on in-cuts from the right side of the ball. But he didn't run too many routes going to the right, and when he did, he kind of rolled them and didn't have the same explosiveness coming out of those cuts. So we felt he might be favoring the foot or the ankle a little bit. So we tried to overplay the routes going to our left."
Despite the overplay, Jones still caught two passes cutting to his right, including his final reception -- a 27-yard gain to the New England 22-yard line with less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter that's considered one of the best grabs in Super Bowl history.

The catch didn't pay off for the Falcons, though. On its next three snaps, Atlanta came up with a 1-yard loss on a run, suffered a 12-yard loss on a sack by former Columbia High School star Trey Flowers and had a holding penalty.

New England, which trailed 21-0 in the second quarter, 28-3 in the third quarter and 28-9 entering the fourth quarter, won the NFL championship game 34-28 in overtime.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2017/09/bill_belichick_shares_new_engl.html

[notorious]

If Shanahan doesn't completely shit the bed..........

[Discuss Thrower]

Must be nice to have the Rainman of football locked in a closet, eh there Bill?

[wazu]

So much of success comes from at least having a strategy and a plan. The plan doesn't always work. It doesn't have to. If you can get players to focus on a few key points that are in their control, the rest falls into play. This seems like a great example of that.

[suzzer99]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DI5nKnCXgAA2jtY.jpg:large

Suck it Belichick.

[notorious]

LMAO

[RobBlake]

Hones is a dumbass lol

[cooper barrett]

I thought it is pretty standard to play off your opponents weaknesses. And really you think that that observation (cough) wasn't because he had missed 2 games for the toe?

Belichick is a great coach, has great personnel but any NFL team that failed to pick up on that foot injury should start over in flag leagues.

Looks like a repeat of someone else's promo for an NFL network TV show...

[penbrook]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DI5nKnCXgAA2jtY.jpg:large

Suck it Belichick.

I've always liked MJD

[T-post Tom]

Maybe have Hill or Kelce do a little rope-a-dope the first half of the first quarter. Lull Belichick in & then BOOM...have Smith unleash one of his patented 65 yard ropes to a streaking, wide open.......

sorry...2 much cough syrup tonight. :)

[cooper barrett]

Open the game with it: Either Alex11 has an arm or he doesn't. Why wait to find out?

[Coochie liquor]

Open the game with it: Either Alex11 has an arm or he doesn't. Why wait to find out?

We've found out the last 4 years. He doesn't!!! At least not a consistent one.

[cooper barrett]

We've found out the last 4 years. He doesn't!!! At least not a consistent one.

The media can't say it like I can but more and more sports writers and media people are saying that Alex11 has grown a much stronger arm and a pair of testicles to match, and that (as I have said all along) is between a rock and a hard space as far as his career goes.

I say put him through the acid test to find out. I don't think he is going to leave without making his mark, one way or the other.

[ChiefGator]

The media can't say it like I can but more and more sports writers and media people are saying that Alex11 has grown a much stronger arm and a pair of testicles to match, and that (as I have said all along) is between a rock and a hard space as far as his career goes..

You might want to watch the first quarter and a half of the Seattle game then.

It was all too eerily similar to things I heard before, and the Seattle game really burst that PR bubble for me.

[cooper barrett]

You might want to watch the first quarter and a half of the Seattle game then.

It was all too eerily similar to things I heard before, and the Seattle game really I burst that PR bubble for me.


I did and I thought it too but something in my head said to me that he is going to somehow, someway, pull his head out of his ass and learn some new tricks.

I guess it's just like the guy thinking his wife couldn't have sleeping with her hair stylist because he assumed he was gay. Everyone else may have seen it but he held out until the end.

I may be in denial about Alex11 being able to learn new tricks but Andy says we are going with him so I have try to stay positive.

After that game and his performance against Seattle is when I started advocating for a threshold to be set where Alex11 was yanked when the forecast no longer said we were not going to own the division (a 12-4 record). If he is not on plan to bring us that then he is expendable..

He may already be one down unless somehow he starts the season out beating the Patriots. Alex11 is going to have to own the losses in the future unless we put 24 points on the board.

If we do beat the Pats do you think the Alex11 haters will back off?

[chiefzilla1501]

The media can't say it like I can but more and more sports writers and media people are saying that Alex11 has grown a much stronger arm and a pair of testicles to match, and that (as I have said all along) is between a rock and a hard space as far as his career goes.

I say put him through the acid test to find out. I don't think he is going to leave without making his mark, one way or the other.

He's not going to change. We've seen flashes of Alex unleashed. Like the end of the first season with the Chiefs including the colts game. Alex Smith presses when his defense sucks, and plays ultra conservative when his defense plays well. He looks good in the preseason because there is nothing to lose. The competition isn't going to get him to open up the offense. Only a bad defense will. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

[cooper barrett]

2 more days 'til we have an answer.

[JD10367]

I thought it is pretty standard to play off your opponents weaknesses. And really you think that that observation (cough) wasn't because he had missed 2 games for the toe?

Belichick is a great coach, has great personnel but any NFL team that failed to pick up on that foot injury should start over in flag leagues.

Looks like a repeat of someone else's promo for an NFL network TV show...

Even though you guys despise the Patriots, you should watch "Do Your Job Pt 2". It'll air on the NFL Network tomorrow night, I think. It's not just Belichick: it's the entire staff of guys they've assembled and their detail to minutiae which is the difference. They talk about everything from the conditioning (which allowed the Pats more stamina in the end, as Atlanta got tired) to the 2-point plays (which Belichick asked for, weeks before the game, just in case) to the play where they strip-sacked Ryan (which they called because the RB went out and they'd already scouted that the other RB had pass protection issues) to probably the most pivotal and underlooked play in the game: the holding call on Chris Long that pushed the Falcons out of FG range. That last one ties directly to the KC hold in the playoffs: Belichick knew it was the same official, and on the play prior to the hold there was an uncalled hold on that same guy, so they called the play again to see if he'd hold again.

It seems like an obvious thing: do a diligent detailed scouting of your enemy. But apparently not many teams actually do it for some reason.

[dj56dt58]

We've found out the last 4 years. He doesn't!!! At least not a consistent one.

It seems when they go deep early it works, later in the game is when his deep ball goes to shit. Maybe he is more willing to sling it early and plays it safe later?

[Baby Lee]

Even though you guys despise the Patriots, you should watch "Do Your Job Pt 2". It'll air on the NFL Network tomorrow night, I think. It's not just Belichick: it's the entire staff of guys they've assembled and their detail to minutiae which is the difference. They talk about everything from the conditioning (which allowed the Pats more stamina in the end, as Atlanta got tired) to the 2-point plays (which Belichick asked for, weeks before the game, just in case) to the play where they strip-sacked Ryan (which they called because the RB went out and they'd already scouted that the other RB had pass protection issues) to probably the most pivotal and underlooked play in the game: the holding call on Chris Long that pushed the Falcons out of FG range. That last one ties directly to the KC hold in the playoffs: Belichick knew it was the same official, and on the play prior to the hold there was an uncalled hold on that same guy, so they called the play again to see if he'd hold again.

It seems like an obvious thing: do a diligent detailed scouting of your enemy. But apparently not many teams actually do it for some reason.

And entire paragraph, written on CP, that doesn't mention let alone obsess over the QB position.

https://media.giphy.com/media/wxZVenBE9msRq/giphy.gif

[PAChiefsGuy]

Even though you guys despise the Patriots, you should watch "Do Your Job Pt 2". It'll air on the NFL Network tomorrow night, I think. It's not just Belichick: it's the entire staff of guys they've assembled and their detail to minutiae which is the difference. They talk about everything from the conditioning (which allowed the Pats more stamina in the end, as Atlanta got tired) to the 2-point plays (which Belichick asked for, weeks before the game, just in case) to the play where they strip-sacked Ryan (which they called because the RB went out and they'd already scouted that the other RB had pass protection issues) to probably the most pivotal and underlooked play in the game: the holding call on Chris Long that pushed the Falcons out of FG range. That last one ties directly to the KC hold in the playoffs: Belichick knew it was the same official, and on the play prior to the hold there was an uncalled hold on that same guy, so they called the play again to see if he'd hold again.

It seems like an obvious thing: do a diligent detailed scouting of your enemy. But apparently not many teams actually do it for some reason.

Very impressive. BB is a genius

[ping2000]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DI5nKnCXgAA2jtY.jpg:large

Suck it Belichick.This is correct. Andy can eat more ribs.