COMMENTARY
Belichick sets standard for coaches
Early this week, Ralph Wilson told the Associated Press that he hadn’t made up his mind about Dick Jauron’s future. Presumably, the owner still might pull the plug on his head coach — signed contract extension or not — if the Bills embarrass him against the Patriots on Sunday.
I’d hate to come off like some sort of Grinch on Christmas Day. But my feelings are fairly well established on the head coach. He’s not good enough. It shouldn’t matter one way or the other whether the Bills win this Sunday.
But there is a growing sense that Jauron might be coaching for his job. The Bills rose up and won for him in Denver. If they beat the hated Pats, who have won 10 straight over Buffalo, Wilson might get so giddy he’ll sprint down onto the field and re-sign Jauron on the spot.
If this is a must-win game, I actually feel sorry for Jauron. Talk about a difficult spot. If beating Bill Belichick was a condition for employment, half the coaches in the NFL would be back in college or clowning it up with the fellas on those goofy pregame shows.
Belichick is the best coach in the league, maybe the best ever. He’s been especially merciless against Buffalo. In the 10-game losing streak, the Pats have outscored the Bills, 308-96. Old man Potter in “It’s a Wonderful Life” was a kind, charitable soul by comparison.
The record is even more grim in the second game of a season. The Bills have lost five straight to the Pats in the second meeting of the year and been outscored, 179-29. That’s an average score of 30-6.
This is not the time of year to run into Belichick. Give him a full season of game tapes and he’ll pick you to shreds. The Pats are smart, they’re tough, and they practice outside. They’ve won 11 straight games in the month of December, and 23 of their last 25. I don’t imagine they’d shrug it off if they were forced to move a late-season home game to Canada.
Now, throw in the fact that the Pats come to town needing to win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Despite a 10-5 record and a tie for first in the division, the Pats are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2002. They could win and still not get in.
The Patriots are, gulp, desperate. Belichick has defined himself in big games, going back to his masterful defensive game plan against the Bills in Super Bowl XXV. He has a roster filled with veterans, more than a dozen of whom have won at least two Super Bowls.
“To me, and to our football team, every game is a big game,” Belichick said Wednesday in his conference call with the Buffalo media. “Let me know when there isn’t a big game that’s on our schedule. They’re all big.
“Right now, it’s a one-game season,” he said. “There’s no bigger game than this one; we’ll do our best to be prepared and play our best. That’s similar to the way it’s been the last few weeks, really.”
It’s coachspeak, yes, but it rings true when it comes from Belichick. The Pats lost Tom Brady. They’ve had 25 players miss at least one game. Sixty players have appeared in at least one game. Forty different players have started. But they keep on humming along.
You won’t hear the Pats telling you how they won the game for their coach. They don’t win for Belichick. They win because of him, and because he has established the highest possible standard for his players and his organization.
That’s the standard the Bills have been struggling to compete against since Belichick arrived in New England in 2000. In the last meetings, the standard has been Pats by three touchdowns.
Maybe all Wilson really wants from his beleaguered coach on Sunday is to avoid getting blown out. That’s the standard, nine years into the rivalry with Belichick and the Pats. Just keep it close.
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