Where does windy MNF rank in Belichick's career?
Peter King and Mike Florio discuss where the Patriots' windy Week 13 win over the Bills ranks in Bill Belichick's long history of wins.
Video Transcript
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MIKE FLORIO: "PFT" on "Yahoo Sports", Peter King and Mike Florio with all the big stories in the NFL. And one of the biggest stories now, obviously, the resurgence of the New England Patriots-- seven straight wins on average, holding their opponents in the neighborhood of 10 points per game. Where does last night's victory, 14 to 10, over the Bills-- windy night in Western New York-- rank in your estimation, Peter, among some of the best coaching performances we've seen from Bill Belichick?
PETER KING: Well, Mike, I was reminded watching this game of walking through Bill Belichick's library in his home in Massachusetts 17 years ago. The library has since gone to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, but it was this big football library. And I looked up on one of the shelves, and I saw "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.
And Belichick told me that all the books in his library taught him something about how to coach football and how to win it football. And I said, "The Art of War", what could that have taught you? And he shrugged and he goes, "You know, don't go to war when the ground is muddy." you know, and he sort of chuckled. But I think his point was, what Sun Tzu clearly taught him is that you can't choose your battlegrounds.
And in football, there are so many things out of your control. You have to control your own controllables. And I believe in this game, Mike, the reason that this will easily go among his top 10 victories is that it came against a team that, if you think about it, what are the Buffalo Bills?
They're Western New York's team. They are used to or should be used to all kinds of conditions. And yet, the Patriots, who also are used to playing in lousy weather too-- but the Patriots basically handled it better than the Buffalo Bills on the road in a division, perhaps, division-deciding game. So I think Belichick figured out what they needed to do to win. He put a plan in place and his players executed it.
MIKE FLORIO: And I think that on the flip side, the plan that the Patriots used may have influenced the Bills to mimic it and caused them to not take full advantage of the talents of Josh Allen until maybe it was too late. That's something Chris Simms and I spent some time talking about on "PFT Live" Tuesday morning-- the idea that they didn't unleash Josh Allen until really those final two drives that petered out in the red zone.
If they had let Allen throw the ball in the first half the way he was in the second half, they may have had more than 10 points on the board by the time it was all said and done. And it really makes me wonder whether or not Belichick set the tone and Sean McDermott tried to answer it just assuming, "Hey, this is the way Bill is doing it. This is the way I should do it to."
PETER KING: Well, look, I think one of the interesting things about this game, Mike, was that even though one of the runs came on a very long run, it seemed like the Bills were slightly scoffing post-game that the Patriots ran it down their throat.
And I would only say, Patriots ran at 46 times. One of them was that long run. But on the other 45 plays, when the Bills constantly knew exactly what was coming, Patriots averaged 3 and 1/2 yards a carry. That is good in that kind of environment, in that kind of weather when the opposition knows exactly what's coming.
If you can get 3 and 1/2 yards every time you run it, that means that you are dictating on a horrible night your will on the opponents. I think that's a little worrisome for Buffalo coming up for the rest of the year.
MIKE FLORIO: And a huge advantage for the Patriots moving forward. They have their bye. The Bills have to go to Tampa Bay in five days, which will not be great for them. But they get together again in New England the day after Christmas. And Bill Belichick was asked on "WEEI" earlier today, Peter, what last night's game means moving forward.
He said, "Well, we can use our entire passing game. All the pass plays we have, they haven't seen them." Which actually makes a lot of sense. The Bills aren't going to know what happens when it's time to throw the foot ball.
PETER KING: Yeah, and Mac Jones is going to show his competence the day after Christmas.
MIKE FLORIO: That's it for this edition of "PFT" on "Yahoo". Have a great day. We'll see you next time.
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