The Patriots 22-10 win versus the Jets on Sunday was massive for plenty of reasons. It temporarily put to rest the quarterback controversy, it got New England back into the AFC playoff hunt, and it showed that they can win ugly.
But it was also massive for Bill Belichick.
Sunday’s win was coach Belichick’s 325th, passing George Halas for second all-time.
When asked about the feat after the game, Belichick naturally deflected:
“We can talk about that when it’s over, add them up at the end here,” Belichick said. “But it’s good to come down and win. Happy for our team, and appreciate all the great players that we’ve had that won those games… Had a couple of them in the locker room there, besides our players — guys like McCourty and Slater – Mayo, Troy Brown, those guys won a lot of games for us, for me. Really, those are team wins.”
Several Patriots players shared their kudos to Belichick after the game:
“Wanted to give a huge congratulations to Coach Belichick.” said Mac Jones. “To be his quarterback right now is a huge blessing.”
“We’re very proud of our coach,” Matthew Judon said. “He tells us players win games but he won all those games. He game planned, he did the film, he did the preparation, he did the study, and he put his players in position to make plays.”
“It’s a big win. I think everybody on the team is excited for him.” said kicker Nick Folk.
The praise from the team is surely great for coach Belichick to hear. But the best words he got today were before the game. On 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Patriots Pregame Show, team president Jonathan Kraft had glowing words to say about his coach:
“Bill [Belichick]’s earned the right to manage the team that way,” Kraft said when asked about the quarterback position. He also added: “nothing has changed in terms of his energy level and his job day to day.”
Belichick is now 23 wins away from passing Don Shula’s 437 – the most all time. If I were a betting man, I’d say the odds of him sticking around to pass Shula are pretty high.
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