If you're searching for reasons to admire Bill Belichick, or even to hate him, you don't have to go any further than what the entire football world witnessed on Sunday night when his New England Patriots beat the Falcons in Atlanta...
...because what we all witnessed was a group of individual players evolving into a cohesive unit - and doing so without the services of three of their top targets on offense and without their cornerstone on defense.
When the adversity is at it's worst, that's when Bill Belichick is at his best - and that comes from meticulous game planning, utilizing deftly acquired players and making them practice situational football over and over and over again.
Two of those acquired players, Aqib Talib and LeGarrette Blount, were Tampa Bay Buccaneers at this time last season, Talib preparing to serve a four game suspension and Blount floundering on the end of the bench, relieved of his featured back role by rookie Doug Martin...
...No one saw the Talib trade coming, but on the day after Halloween Belichick swapped a 4th round draft pick for the former first round pick out of Kansas, and he immediately became the best corner on the team, even while serving the last game of his suspension.
Conversely, everyone knew Blount would be moved at some point - but who would have thought that the Patriots would be his suitor? Blount came to New England on a Draft day trade, Belichick sending Jeff Demps and a seventh rounder to Tampa.
Neither was a Greg Schiano guy. Schiano had nothing invested in them because he didn't draft them, but the way he handled their situations was dismissive and cold - leading to a mutiny of sorts in the Buccaneers' locker room - which has carried over to this season with the escalating Josh Freeman drama...
...which is neither here nor there so far as Patriots' fans are concerned, but Belichick had the players in his crosshairs and took them off of his good friends' hands at what can only be called liquidation pricing.
The point is that the New England depth chart is replete with players acquired on the cheap, but not because they came at a bargain basement asking price - that is just a curious side effect of practicing due diligence - but simply because Belichick is a master at guerrilla warfare, taking other teams' unwanted weapons and using them against all of his enemies.
He did it to the Raiders with Randy Moss and to the Dolphins for Wes Welker - tried doing it to the Giants with Jake Ballard and absolutely mugged his friend in Tampa for Talib and Blount...
...and why not? It had a history of working out pretty well, taking other teams' already trained excess baggage and turning them into the mythical Jericho missile - other than with Ballard, which was a measured victory in that he made Giants' coach Tom Coughlin look like a foolish old man - and he has hit paydirt again with Talib and Blount.
Two weeks straight now that Blount has ripped off something proper to take the will away from the opposing defenses - an eight carry, 56 yard clock killing effort in a four minute offense against his old team and the coach who benched him and Sunday night's 47 yard touchdown run right into the teeth of the Falcons' defense....
...while Talib has just been playing Postmaster General since Game 1, cancelling the opponent's first class receiver like a stamp.
He does the same thing in free agency and in the draft, always looking for value in the dependability and versatility and athleticism that he covets, which can account for the seven - count 'em, seven - undrafted rookie free agents, wide receiver Kenbrell Thompkins, punter Ryan Allen and defensive tackle Joe Vellano among them.
So when the media coerces fans with their typical knee-jerk solution of acquiring washed up veterans every time an injury occurs to a Patriots' starter, perhaps they should stop to remember that the way Belichick has constructed his team provides one the very definition of "Next Man Up", because there's always some swap meet gem waiting in the wings to reward Bill's due diligence.
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