The guy's life expectancy can't be more than a few years in his occupation and that physical condition.
I'm a Patriots guy. The Belichick defenses are rather complicated, not easily learned. You may need a bit more time before you judge your defense. Mangini, while he was a great assistant coach, didn't do so well as a defensive coordinator last year. In the early part of the season, he ran base defenses a lot, didn't blitz, didn't take chances, got the Patriots into a hole we never really got out of. Towards the end of the season, others convinced him to use the whole package and take some chances. We'll have to see what happens...
This year the Patriots D is not that good either which goes to show that players make the system work!
The System Hmm... Our D is holding opponents to 17 points or less. Most recent years, that would be plenty good enough defense. I'll still take it. This year, our passing offense of all things is problematic. We lost too many good receivers, and Brady seems to be a bit off. The coaches seem to be so fascinated by the idea of a solid running game, they are forgetting what usually is the bread and butter of the offense. But, yah, any system needs the right players to make it work. The Belichick approach supposedly looks for intelligent, unselfish players that can handle multiple roles and work within a system. Oh, yah, decent speed, hard hitting and 2 gap D-line technique are also sought. They also like depth to keep players fresh and to survive the inevitable injuries, rather than spending all the cap money on first string 'skill position' stars. Thus, the deeper team is the fresher team in the fourth quarter, and finds a way to win... usually over the fallen bodies of an exhausted and bruised opponent. Last year, we did have some player turnover (as usual) and a new D-Coordinator (Mangini). Our D struggled until Bruschi got back, and started pushing to play a more aggressive style, less sitting back in base D. I haven't seen enough Jets games to know if Mangini learned from that, but his error last year was in playing too conservatively when he didn't think his players knew the system well enough. He didn't trust the players enough to use the full system. Is this a problem with the system, the players, or the coach??? All of the above??? I just know that given the right players and coach, the system can work. Anyway, this year the Jets have allowed 16, 24, 20, 31 and 41 points. The Patriots, 17, 17, 17, 13 and 10. Granted, some of that is the opposition, but I'll take the direction the Patriots D is going. Now, if the Patriots can just get the passing game going...
