The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills for the seventh straight win Monday, despite attempting just 3 passes in the game
Sean McDermott is right. It didn’t take a coaching genius to come up with the gameplan the New England Patriots used to beat the Buffalo Bills on Monday night. But watching that wind-blown game, when the Patriots attempted just three passes — the fewest by any NFL team in a game since 1974 — it still was hard not marvel at what Belichick is doing in New England. Belichick, for my money, is the greatest coach in NFL history, and paired with Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback in NFL history, it’s no surprise the Patriots were able to dominate the league for two decades. New England won six Super Bowl championships and 17 AFC East titles in a 19-year span with Brady and Belichick as co-pilots, posting 17 straight seasons with double-digit victories. That all came to an end last year, when Brady bolted for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he won his seventh Super Bowl, while the Patriots slumped to a 7-9 record (oh, how the Detroit Lions long for slumps like that). This year, the Patriots are back atop the AFC playoff race, winners of an NFL-best seven straight games, and it’s due in large part to Belichick’s mastery.
