Unless you were part of a team that had an absolutely dominant defense, chances are you're looking for ways to improve, or tweak a few things to be better come fall. Even coordinators that led defenses that ranked towards the top of the nation, state, or their respective conference, are looking to make a few changes in order to be better.
Many experts would say that the achilles heel of the New England Patriots last season was their defense, and Monday, Bill Belichick explained what the defense did to improve big time since last season.
“Preparation, practice, execution. There’s no magic wand," Belichick shared, according to Pro Football Talk.
It's not about changing a bunch, it's about finding the right formula and combination for your program, and that's the message that Belichick conveyed to the media.
“There’s no switch that you can flip. It comes through a lot of hard work, a lot of meetings, a lot of communication on how we’re going to do things and then a lot of on-the-field execution at actually doing them at a good competitive level so that we can gain confidence in each other as a unit as to how that’s going to happen in a live game situation. Working hard, continuing to improve and guys taking whatever opportunities they get and either moving forward with it or possibly somebody else getting an opportunity and moving ahead of a player at a point in the season. That’s just a competitive situation."
"We’re going to play the best players and basically everybody will get a chance to do it somewhere along the line, and the players that play the best will play more and the players that don’t do it as well need to improve and need to change their playing time status or they’ll continue to not get the playing time behind somebody else who is performing better.”
That simple approach led to an improved defense that helped Belichick get his Patriots back to another Super Bowl. Already one of the most accomplished coaches in the history of the game, it's always fascinating when he opens up enough to provide some insight into one of the most brilliant football minds the game has ever witnessed.
Read the full piece here.