There’s a great season finale scene in the HBO drama Succession during which protagonist Kendall Roy rips a page out of his father’s playbook, double crossing the CEO in a high-stakes press conference. Dad, Logan, looks on with a Mona Lisa-like expression: is it a hint of a smile? A grimace? A slightly proud smirk?
I imagine that’s exactly how Bill Belichick looked watching his successor beat the Bengals Sunday, because Jerod Mayo’s game plan and execution could not have adhered more to the Gospel of Bill.
For 20 years, the Patriots played a Hippocratic Oath style of football: first, do no harm. Ball security is job security. Let the other team beat themselves.
These aspects of coaching became so ingrained in Patriots football, it took a couple seasons before everyone looked around and said, “Hey wait, this team is playing kind of moronically.”
Smart, patient football was back Sunday …