Bill Belichick will be in the Hall of Fame five years after he retires. That is a foregone conclusion. He has eight rings as a coach in his long career, including six as a head coach with the New England Patriots. Most consider him the greatest of all time. It is hard to argue with that. Beating him is never easy. The Chicago Bears should know. Before last night, they were 1-6 against the man. Needless to say, it was a shock to everybody when the Bears throttled New England 33-14.
Belichick admitted after the game that everything went wrong. The Patriots were beaten in all three phases. By far, the most interesting comment was he’d been outcoached. That in itself was a high compliment for Matt Eberflus. As it turns out, he had similar words for the rookie Bears head coach when they met on the field after the game ended. Eberflus didn’t go into great detail about the private conversation they shared, but it sounds like Belichick is impressed with what this team is morphing into.
“It was obviously a private conversation. But I can just generalize and say that he was complimentary of the way we’re doing things and what we’re building here.”
The two have a lot in common. Both had great success as defensive coordinators. Both have similar philosophies on how to construct a winning team. They even have direct ties to college coaching legend Nick Saban. Belichick also knows what it’s like to be a young head coach trying to find his way. He inherited a bad situation with the Cleveland Browns back in 1991. It took him time to rebuild a depleted roster and establish a culture of high standards. It almost worked. Unfortunately, ownership ruined it by abruptly choosing to move the team after the 1995 season.
Those lessons he learned proved vital to his eventual success in New England. He’s seen enough football to know when a head coach is doing it right or wrong. What Bill Belichick said to Eberflus should have Bears fans beyond excited. After dealing with Marc Trestman, John Fox, and Matt Nagy for the past decade, it feels like they might finally have somebody to get this organization back to relevance. The only obstacle is finding enough talent to bring his vision to reality.
