Belichick's Not Panicking About His Offense, Don't You Be Panicking About His Offense

Elsa. Getty Images.

Bill Belichick began his contractually obligated in-season weekly appearance on WEEI today. And while he didn't specifically say he misses the days when that was me sitting three feet across the desk asking the most brilliant, insightful, informed and well-crafted questions he's ever heard, it was very much implied. Reading between the lines and judging by his tone, he still appreciates that my football knowledge, based on those years I spent assistant coaching youth JV teams, is the closest to his own he's even encountered. That is a fact not in dispute. 

Anyhoo … apart from some good news regarding the injury status of Ty Montgomery, who would be tough to replace but sounds to be coming back at some point, the conversation was mainly focused on the Patriots' misfiring offense. Asked if he's worried about his starting unit scoring three points in four possessions against the Raiders' backups Friday night:

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I'm not about to lecture Patriots fans not to be frustrated. Mainly because I'm one of them. It's the normal, human reaction to what we've been seeing. A training camp that began with well executed run plays and precision passing declined into a preseason of outside zones to nowhere, negative plays and shaky pockets forcing bad throws. And sometimes, just bad throws without any help. And with nothing else to go on this summer but watch the Red Sox go 19-33 since July 1st and secure last place in their division, it's only natural that we'd fixate on the Pats struggles. I mean, House of the Dragon and the Manti Te'o doc can only fill so much of your week. So I won't criticize. 

Yet this is why Belichick's thoughts are so important here. You can't evaluate a team on the basis of any preseason game. If we're being totally fair and honest with ourselves, we'd admit that if they were looking like the 2013 Broncos over the last three weeks, the consensus would be it doesn't matter. It's only preseason, after all. In fact, the talk would be that they're only doing this against vanilla looks from opposing defenses' depth guys. Or the narrative would pivot to how they're "peaking too soon" or some such horseshit. When the fact of the matter is it doesn't matter one way or the other. Now is a time for evaluating individuals, assessing the structure of your roster, and making educated guesses on whom you might be able to sneak through waivers and re-sign. Not how drives in Las Vegas went.

So says the guy who has been through this process in some capacity or other for so long that he's three years away from his 50th preseason. We can take his lead, or we can go with our own expertise on this. Which is limited to how not a man, woman or child among us can remember how any preseason went. Other than the ones where someone got injured and lost for the season. Beyond those moments, these games are all an abstraction. Something that feels important until it isn't. 

Right now this Matt Patricia offense (I'm going to keep saying it until it stops being weird) is like the 20 minute mark of an episode of The Magic of Oil Painting. Belichick is Bob Ross, using a beveled scraper to spread a big blob of black paint into triangles on the side of the canvas and it looks like there's no way to turn this into anything. Then in the last 10 minutes, he adds a few white highlights and roughs it all up with a brush dipped in water, and boom! It's a mountain range at sunrise. And if he makes a mistake at this point? He turns it into a beautiful bird. 

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He thinks it might take until Week 5 or 6, and he's willing to keep adding touches until it's an impressionistic, landscape masterpiece worthy of being hung in your front hallway. So am I. You can't rush great art.