Bill Belichick's Spell: Coaches fall into a Super trance when facing genius  

MINNEAPOLIS — The Evil Empire's magical powers need to be investigated.

This is worse than Spygate. Way worse than Deflategate.


Roger Goodell will look at the $5 million he spent on Ted Wells to investigate the missing PSIs as a bargain.

Bill Belichick's football genius is enough to cause a mental meltdown on the other sideline.
Bill Belichick's football genius is enough to cause a mental meltdown on the other sideline. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

What is it about Bill Belichick in the Super Bowl that turns the football brains of the coaches on the opposite sideline into Jell-O?

Philadelphia's Doug Pederson will try to avoid the mental trap Sunday in Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium as the Eagles attempt to win their first NFL championship since 1960. It's hard enough that Nick Foles must outplay Tom Brady, but Pederson must out-think Belichick, or at least not out-think himself.

Eagles coach Doug Pederson will try to avoid the Belichick Spell when Philly battles the Patriots.
Eagles coach Doug Pederson will try to avoid the Belichick Spell when Philly battles the Patriots. (Elsa/Getty Images)

So far, Tom Coughlin is the only coach immune to a sideline meltdown vs. Belichick in the Super Bowl. He beat him twice.

The lineup of coaches who have succumbed to the Belichick mystique won't be joining him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but they were good enough to get their teams to the Super Bowl: St. Louis' Mike Martz, Carolina's John Fox, Philadelphia's Andy Reid, Seattle's Pete Carroll and Atlanta's Dan Quinn.

The Belichick intimidation factor has forced coaches to get out of their comfort zone in an attempt to outsmart The Hoodie.

What happens to them on Super Bowl Sunday? Is Belichick that imposing? Or is it the pressure of trying to beat Brady, the best quarterback in NFL history? Why so many season-blowing blunders trying to take them down?

"I just think the Patriots play mistake-free football. They are consistent. They know what their identity is and they stick to it," said Eagles defensive end Chris Long, who won a ring in his one season with the Patriots last year. "They are also able to game plan really well. When you have a mix of a team who knows exactly who they are and practice and prepare with consistency and also can game plan, that is hard on other teams."

Pederson turned 50 last week and a nice birthday present to himself would be to forget he is facing the greatest coach in NFL history and the greatest quarterback in NFL history trying to win their sixth Super Bowl together.

Pederson has been the Eagles coach for two years. Following a last-place finish in the NFC East in 2016 that had the Philly fans restless and led to speculation that defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz could be promoted if things went poorly, he led the Eagles to a 13-3 record.

In fact, the Eagles were the best team in the league before Carson Wentz tore his ACL and MCL in Week 13.

Now Pederson, with two games of playoff experience as a head coach, faces Belichick, who has been a head coach for an NFL-record 38 playoff games, including two with the Browns. Tom Landry had 36. The biggest difference: Belichick is 28-10 with five titles. Landry was 20-16 with two crowns.

Foles can keep the Eagles in the game if Pederson can build up his confidence early by finding him easy completions. The backup QB showed against the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game that once he gets in a rhythm he can hit the deep ball.

There is a lot for Pederson to digest in preparing for Belichick.


"It's obviously a challenge to go up against a very smart coach, an intelligent coach, a coach that's going to have his team well-prepared," Pederson said. "It's not just the Xs and Os, it's the situational aspect of the game: timeouts, fourth downs, red zone, punt situations, all kinds of things that we've seen from them that I have to be prepared for and talk to our team about."

So, what does he have to do?

"Try to anticipate the best you can and try to put your guys in the best possible scenario and situation on game day to expect certain things," Pederson said.

Where did the other coaches go wrong?

Super Bowl XXXVI
Patriots 20, Rams 17

Martz was enamored with the Greatest Show On Turf with Kurt Warner winging it to Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt. Belichick elected to play five, six or seven DBs 75% of the game. He was challenging Martz: Run Marshall Faulk.

Mike Martz
Mike Martz (PETER MUHLY/AFP/Getty Images)

Martz was a unique game day coach. He was carefree with his timeouts and stubborn that his offensive genius could overcome Belichick's defensive genius.

The running lanes were open but Faulk carried just 17 times for 76 yards. Warner attempted 44 passes. If Martz had kept feeding Faulk the ball with success, Belichick would have adjusted by playing more linebackers, which would have created more opportunities for Warner. Instead Martz did exactly what Belichick wanted him to do.

Former NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski was quoted in a Belichick book by David Halberstam saying he spoke with Rams receiver Ricky Proehl after the game and Proehl told him the players were screaming at the coaches to run the ball. But, he said, Martz was telling them, "I'm going to win it my way."

The Patriots won on Adam Vinatieri's 48-yard field goal on the final play of the game.

Maybe Martz just believed he was the smartest football man in the building.

Super Bowl XXXVIII
Patriots 32, Panthers 29

It's incredible how coaches at this level don't know how to use the two-point conversion.

Follow the logic of how Fox prevented the Panthers from taking the Patriots into overtime and instead lost on Vinatieri's 41-yard field goal with four seconds left.

John Fox
John Fox (ERIC GAY/AP)

Carolina's DeShaun Foster scored on a 33-yard run with 12:29 remaining to pull the Panthers within 21-16. There was way too much time remaining to go for two to try and make it a three-point game. Jake Delhomme's pass to Muhsin Muhammad for the two points was incomplete.

The Panthers went ahead, 22-21, on Delhomme's 85-yard pass to Muhammad with 6:53 remaining. This time, Fox was forced to go for two to try and go up by three points. He was now chasing the point he left behind. Once again, Delhomme's two-point pass attempt was incomplete.

If Fox had kicked the extra point each time, the Panthers would have been up 24-21 instead of their one-point lead.

The Patriots retook the lead, 27-22, on Brady's 1-yard pass to Mike Vrabel with 2:51 left. Because the Panthers had 22 points instead of the 24 they should have had, it made sense for Belichick to go for two to get to 29 to protect against a TD tying the game. Kevin Faulk ran in a direct snap from the shotgun for a 29-22 lead. Delhomme hit Proehl for a 12-yard TD with 1:08 left and the extra point tied it at 29.

If Fox didn't introduce the two-point play into the game with nearly a full quarter remaining, the score would have been Panthers 31, Patriots 28. Vinatieri's kick would have sent the game into OT instead of winning it.

Maybe Fox skipped the two-point conversion lesson in the coach's manual.

Super Bowl XXXIX
Patriots 24, Eagles 21


No sense of urgency by Reid, the worst playoff coach in the modern era.

The Eagles trailed, 24-14, when they started a drive at their own 21 with 5:40 left. They needed a quick score.

Andy Reid

Donovan McNabb, who either did or did not throw up during the game, operated the offense as if it was a one-score game. The Eagles went on a 13-play, 79-yard drive that took 3:52 off the clock. They scored on McNabb's 30-yard pass to Greg Lewis. Not once did the Eagles run the no-huddle offense. Reid's clock management has been an issue his entire coaching career. Just 1:48 remained.

"Well, we were trying to hurry up," Reid said. "It was the way things worked out."

The Eagles played that drive as if they had the lead. "I'm looking at Tedy Bruschi and I'm like, 'What the heck are they doing? Why aren't they going hurry-up offense?'" Pats safety Rodney Harrison told "He said, 'Rodney, it's the dumbest thing I've ever seen.'"

The onside kick failed and by the time the Eagles got the ball back, they were at their own 5 with 46 seconds left. McNabb was intercepted on third down by Harrison.

Maybe Belichick was shining a light in Reid's eyes and he couldn't see the game clock.

Super Bowl XLIX
Patriots 28, Seahawks 24

Run the ball, for Pete's sake.

Give it to Marshawn.

What might be the dumbest call in the history of sports, Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell felt the pressure to outsmart Belichick in the closing seconds. The Seahawks were down four and at the Patriots five after a spectacular 33-yard catch by Jermaine Kearse.

There was 1:06 on the clock. Lynch ran four yards to the 1.

Pete Carroll
Pete Carroll (Matt Rourke/AP)

Belichick had two timeouts remaining. He let the clock keep running. This could have turned into the biggest mistake of his coaching career. If Seattle scored a TD, he would give Brady only 20 seconds and two timeouts to get the Patriots into field-goal range to tie the score.

He went all-in stopping the TD.

The pressure to out-coach Belichick resulted in the Seahawks not giving the ball to Lynch against a packed up tight New England defense. Russell Wilson threw inside to Ricardo Lockette, but Malcolm Butler jumped the route and intercepted.

"We sent in our personnel, they sent in goal line, it's not the right matchup for us to run the football," Carroll said. "So on second down we throw the ball really to kind of waste that play. If we do score, we do. If we don't then, we'll run it in on third and fourth down. Really, with no second thoughts and no hesitation in that at all."

The look of disbelief and then disgust on the face of Seahawks corner Richard Sherman on the sideline told the tale of a Super Bowl literally thrown away.

Maybe it was Carroll having a flashback to his Jets days.

Super Bowl LI
Patriots 34, Falcons 28

Of course, there never should have been any key plays in the fourth quarter after the Falcons held a 28-3 lead with just over two minutes left in the third.

But once Brady rallied to within 28-20 with 4:56 left, the Falcons needed just a field goal to make it a two-score game and ice it. An awesome 27-yard sideline catch by Julio Jones, bringing back memories of Mario Manningham, put Atlanta at the New England 22 — well within kicker Matt Bryant's range — with 4:40 left.

Dan Quinn
Dan Quinn (Gregory Payan/AP)

This game was now on offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who was given full control by Quinn. Run the ball, Kyle. Drain the clock. Make Belichick use all three of his timeouts.

Quinn, who was the defensive coordinator on Carroll's Super Bowl staff in Seattle, surely learned something from his former boss' mistakes, right?

Shanahan had the right idea but a bad result on first down when running back Devonta Freeman lost one yard.

That was okay. Keep the ball on the ground.

Second down: Shanahan went rogue. He called a pass play and Ryan was sacked for a 12-yard loss. Belichick used his first timeout. Right now, it would have been a 52-yarder by Bryant, who was money indoors.

Shanahan called another pass but a nine-yard completion to Mohamed Sanu was wiped out by a holding call, taking the Falcons out of field-goal range at their own 45.

Why didn't Quinn overrule Shanahan? What were the Falcons thinking?

"We're an aggressive team," Quinn said.

They were backed up 23 yards since Jones' catch. A third-down incompletion led to a punt. Brady started from his own 9. He didn't even need to use a timeout to get the Pats into the end zone and then tie it with a two-point conversion. New England won on the first possession of overtime.

Maybe Quinn was just trying to make Carroll feel better.

Pederson seems like a bright guy. So did Martz, Fox, Reid, Carroll and Quinn before they faced Belichick in the Super Bowl.

If Pederson implodes on Sunday night, it will be time for another Goodell investigation. Just call it Hoodiegate.