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I luckily bought a couple books before getting my "stay at home " orders. I stumbled upon Mike Lombardi's book "Football Genius". Lombardi (no relation to Vince) has worked for Bill Walsh, Al Davis, & Bill Belichick. I was surprised by how honest and forthcoming he was with all of their philosophies / thoughts on different aspects of the game, and his own thoughts on players! The book starts out with the story behind NE's interception of Seattle in the 2015 SB. The year before NE was awful in goal line defense. The traditional defense at the time was: 6 down lineman, 2 LBers, 2 CBs, and one safety. The problem was that teams were now passing more and would get the safety matched one-on-one with a WR. Belichick came up with a simple solution. He would take his safety out (even though it was one of his best defensive players at the time) and replace him with a CB. They worked the offseason on this defense, installed it, but then lo and behold, they went all season with never being in a situation to have to use it! When the moment comes, Seattle expects NE to take a TO, they don't, as Carrol sees the extra d-lineman come on the field the sideline mikes pick up him hollering "goal line defense". Obviously, based on the year before they expected a standard 6-2 defense and had installed a pass play to exploit the matchup with the safety for this very situation. We all know what happens, the defender the Patriots inserted was Butler, he jumps the route and they win the game. I wonder if AR would have noticed the change in the defense and gotten out of the play? Crazy to think that NE was very lucky that they didn't have to use the defense during the season & it was an unscouted look.There is also a detailed account of a whole week of preperation for a playoff game vs. Ravens , which I am reading now. I know some on here scorn Belichick, but the book is great insight into his mind, which you have to respect.
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