Playing Belichick
I asked Mark Sanchez—the opposing quarterback in nine of the 429 games Belichick coached for the Patriots—to tell me what it was like to play a Belichick team, and what made it different than other games. Sanchez was 3-6 in the nine games, including a huge 28-21 upset in the 2010 playoffs. Said Sanchez:
“When I was a rookie [in 2009] that was our second game, and it was at home. I knew who he was, obviously, and I had respect for him and the team. But so much about the week was just weird. Everyone was on notice. You’re gonna tell the media the games are all the same. But that’s a bunch of baloney. First, division games are bigger, and this was a big rivalry game. My head was spinning anyway, just playing right away as a rookie, and then, Patriots week, we got [coach] Rex Ryan, calling season-ticket-holders, leaving voicemails, ‘We’re 1-0, we need your help this week, come early, stay late, be loud!’ What in the world? Felt like SC-Notre Dame.
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“Our coaches, the reverence they had for Belichick was so noticeable. We must have met eight to 10 hours more that week than any normal week. Like, Here’s what you gotta know, here’s the pitfalls, every little detail matters, they will be in prime position for everything we do. We held him in such high regard. The anxiety, the angst that week. I kept thinking, ‘Good God, who is this wizard up north?’ Then I watched tape, and man, he made good quarterbacks look bad. Really bad. So I went into that game knowing we had to be close to perfect.”
Sanchez said his earliest success against that Belichick defense actually came when the rookie QB messed up his pre-snap assignment—foiling the Patriots’ read of his third-quarter TD pass to tight end Dustin Keller. Imagine that: Because Sanchez threw off the Patriots’ scouting of the New York tendencies, he confused the defense enough to actually succeed.
Said Sanchez: “The throw to Keller was an out and up to the corner of the end zone. But I screwed it up. I was supposed to motion Jerricho Cotchery off the same side. Jerricho knew I forgot the motion so he stayed low to bring the coverage from Keller. The Patriots weren’t expecting that—you could tell. The confusion actually ended up helping us and we scored.
“Later that season we went to Foxboro and got absolutely smacked. There was all this other stuff that I couldn’t believe. We got these instructions: You can’t leave your playbook in your room, bring earplugs in case they pull the fire alarm, here’s the plan if the headsets go out during the game. I knew the NFL, but I wasn’t so well-versed in this rivalry. Man, what is this mystical place we’re going to? We got destroyed, and I really understood why Belichick was so good. I learned what a false game plan was that day. Belichick showed us a specific defense for the first couple of drives and then completely switched everything at the end of the first quarter, early second quarter, and it really threw me for a loop. We tried to rally and solve the puzzle but by that time I had already put Leigh Bodden in the Pro Bowl with a couple interceptions.” (Three, actually.)
“I saw him later in the year in a bar in Miami. Bartender comes over and hands me a drink and says, ‘This is from your friend over there.’ I look over, Leigh smiles, tips his glass. I said, yeah, thanks a lot.
“Next year, we beat ‘em in the first game at home, then get buried [45-3] up there. Next day back in New Jersey, Rex takes one of the game balls, digs a hole at our facility and buries the ball. That’s how embarrassed everyone was. But that’s what Belichick can do to you. Then we came back, beat ‘em in the playoffs. I didn’t realize it till much later. I mean, beating Belichick and the Patriots in the playoffs. Man, oh my God, we went toe to toe with those guys, with Belichick. We bounced them out of the playoffs! So huge! Now I understand it.
“Sometimes, when you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s actually better against a guy like Belichick. I was young, we were slingin’ it, we had a little swagger. Knowing too much can almost paralyze you against them. They’re the team, when you take the snap, the half-second after the ball’s snapped, you confirm what you think you’re gonna see, and they always, always were disciplined, in the best spot. I just don’t remember many errors by them, and other teams you’d know you could catch ‘em sometimes.
“I always wanted to shake his hand after every game, and I’m pretty sure I did. Just a quick thing, but I respected him so much. First couple of times I shook his hand, I got the feeling from him like, ‘This rookie doesn’t really know what he’s doing.’ But man, I loved the competition. Loved going against them.”