Lions Xmas Wish List

[David]

Bill Belichick was merely an average NFL head coach before he got Tom Brady, with a pre-Brady record of 41-55.

I think people put way too much stock in a coach. Yes they do play an important role, but even someone who's considered the best NFL Head Coach of all time was not looking very good before he got arguably the greatest QB of all time as his QB.

Respectfully, the head coaching position in football is critically important. He may not succeed all the time with bad quarterbacking, but the flip side of your argument doesn't guarantee a bad or mediocre coach will succeed with good quarterbacking either. Take the 2018 Edmonton Eskimos. This team featured (arguably) the best quarterback in the league and a future Hall of Famer in Mike Reilly and didn't even make the playoffs.


DH

I'm not saying it isn't important. Just that it's not as important as some people make it out to be. A great coach isn't going to be successful if he doesn't have a good team. But I've noticed a tendency for people to put way too much blame at the feet of our coaches, or perhaps they overrate the talent this team has.

Okay, then. So you're not saying a good coach isn't important, but I am telling you it is CRITICALLY important. This was a good team, as evidenced by some big wins down the stretch. It had talent across the board that belied our 9-10 overall record. Ed Hervey acquired Lemon, Awe, Posey, Parker, Sutton after the Week One. I submit with the talent we had, we should have won 3 more games overall. Not gone down listlessly and blown out in the final 3 games of the season, including a 40 point differential in the playoff loss.

I am quite certain that with Dave Dickenson's or Rick Campbell's staff, this club would have won more games.


DH

[Matt Baker]

Bill Belichick was merely an average NFL head coach before he got Tom Brady, with a pre-Brady record of 41-55.

I think people put way too much stock in a coach. Yes they do play an important role, but even someone who's considered the best NFL Head Coach of all time was not looking very good before he got arguably the greatest QB of all time as his QB.

Belichick was/is also a highly successful defensive mind whose defensive game plan from the New York Giants win over Washington in the 1992 NFC Championship is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

[WestCoastJoe]

Belichick was/is also a highly successful defensive mind whose defensive game plan from the New York Giants win over Washington in the 1992 NFC Championship is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Thanks for the information, Matt. Here is some more info on that Belichick game plan.

https://www.si.com/2014/05/14/nfl-histo ... -game-plan

by Mark Mravic, May 14, 2014

Super Bowl XXV, played between the Bills and the Giants on January 27, 1991, is best known for “wide right,” Buffalo kicker Scott Norwood’s missed 47-yard game-winner as the clock expired. Just as noteworthy, though, is the way the Giants defense, coached by coordinator Bill Belichick, stopped Jim Kelly and the Bills’ K-Gun offense. Kelly was the best quarterback in the league during the 1990 season, piloting a high-powered no-huddle attack that led the league in scoring and hung 51 points on the Raiders in the AFC Championship Game. Belichick had different plans for the Super Bowl: He deployed extra defensive backs to take away Kelly’s deep options, and instructed his defenders to hit hard to limit the short passing game. Final score: Giants 20, Bills 19.

Belichick’s defensive plan for that Super Bowl is now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and rightly so—it’s tangible evidence of one of the most creative minds the game has seen. Once he took over in New England in 2000, his ability to outsmart opponents, both in coaching and in selecting personnel, helped transform the Patriots into perennial AFC East bullies and three-time Super Bowl champions. Though his tenure was marred by the “Spygate” scandal in 2007 and two subsequent Super Bowl losses (both to his old team, the Giants), his genius for replacing missing pieces and adapting game plans week by week to expose opponents’ shortcomings instills respect, and a bit of dread, in coaches who face him. A recent victory: sending shockwaves through the division by snaring ex-Jet Darrelle Revis, one of the game’s best cover corners, in free agency, to take the opposition’s best receivers out of the game.

—Jenny Vrentas

2018-11-24_1517.png

Side note: Marv Levy and Jim Kelly deserved at least one Super Bowl victory, IMO.