It’s almost unfair for anyone to coach against Bill Belichick in a Super Bowl. He is the master tactician. He game plans to expose the other team. He did it every week this season, and now, for the Super Bowl he has 2 weeks to get the game plan right.

On the other sideline will be red-faced, and always red-assed Tom Coughlin. The man always seems he’s about millisecond away from a heart attack, but to his credit he has rallied his troops this year against all kinds of odds and scrutiny. The team lost their best rusher (Tiki Barber), and the Giants offense outperformed the squad from last year. On the coaching side Kevin Gilbride is to thank for that performance. The Giants defense has played very well, especially of late. They have had to contend with major injuries in the secondary, and on the defensive line earlier in the season. If Giants Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnola can devise a scheme to stop the Patriots offense in the Super Bowl, he deserves any head coaching position that’s offered him. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t be opposed to him taking over for Lovie Smith. But that’s a different story.

On the Patriots sideline, everything runs through Coach Belichick. He’s the boss. Defensive Coordinator Dean Pees, and Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels lead their respective sides of the ball, but in the locker room and meeting room, I’m sure there is no doubt that Belichick is the unquestioned leader. In the past few years Belichick has lost his coordinators to other job openings, Charlie Weis to Notre Dame and Eric Mangini to the Jets. So he’s brought in new guys to run both sides of the ball.

Despite my love of watching to see if Tom Coughlin is going to blow a gasket each game on the sidelines, I have to give the edge to the Patriots and Bill Belichick.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 12:12 pm and is filed under NFL, New England Patriots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.