Tom Landry didn’t have a winning season in his last three years with the Dallas Cowboys. George Halas only had a winning record in two of his final four seasons with the Chicago Bears. It was the same for Chuck Noll in Pittsburgh.
As you see, some of the NFL’s greatest coaches struggled at the end of their illustrious careers. Bill Belichick seems like he’s taking a similar path.
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The New England Patriots are 0-2 for the first time since 2001 with both losses coming at Gillette Stadium. That team started 1-3 and 5-5 before winning its last nine games and the Super Bowl.
That’s not happening with this team.
The New England Patriots will play four of their next six on the road, and three of its opponents will be Dallas, Miami, and Buffalo, among the league’s best teams.
The Patriots play the New York Jets on Sunday, and it’s about as close to a must-win as Belichick has ever had in New England.
An 0-3 start with two losses at home and two losses in the AFC East would make it difficult for the Patriots to make the playoffs.
Belichick hasn’t won a playoff game since winning the Super Bowl in 2018. Since Tom Brady left, Belichick is 25-27, and they’re 0-2 in the playoffs. They’ve finished above .500 once.
Belichick remains a superior defensive mind. He put the clamps on Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill last week, limiting him to five catches for 40 yards a week after he had 215 yards receiving.
But Brady spoiled Belichick by putting up big numbers and winning with a largely anonymous group of receivers.
The players Bill Belichick has put on the field for New England Patriots
Belichick, the general manager, has failed Belichick, the coach.
Starting receivers DeVante Parker, JuJu Schuster-Smith, and Kendrick Bourne have combined for two 1,000-yard seasons. They have played a combined 23 seasons. Hunter Henry and Mike Gesicki are good tight ends, but neither is a game-changer. So quarterback Mac Jones doesn’t have many playmakers.
Only four of the New England Patriot’s 179 plays this season have gone for 20 yards or more; Dallas had five last week against the Jets.
Jones has 40 touchdowns and 26 interceptions in three seasons. Nothing says he’s the long-term answer at quarterback.
The Patriots have scored just 37 points this season.
“I’d like to score as many points as possible. More than the other team,” Belichick told reporters. “What do you want to do? Run the ball 50 times? Is that a goal? All right, if you win, great. If you don’t then… so.
“We’ve won games throwing three passes and we’ve won games throwing 50 passes. So do what you need to do to win.
“You want all your plays to be good plays. Runs, passes, kicks, returns. You want them all to be good. That’s why you call them.”
Robert Kraft: ‘It’s very important to me that we make the playoffs’
The question is how much patience Patriots owner Robert Kraft will have.
Yes, Bill Belichick has won six Super Bowls and played in nine. He has 13 trips to the AFC Championship game, and he has a 30-12 playoff record.
But in the offseason, Kraft made it clear he was tired of losing. Belichick is only 19 wins away from surpassing Don Shula’s record of 347.
“Look, I’d like him to break Don Shula’s record,” Kraft said in March at the league meetings, “but I’m not looking for any of our players to get great stats. We’re about winning and doing whatever we can to win. And that’s what our focus is now. … It’s very important to me that we make the playoffs, and that’s what I hope happens next year.”
If they don’t beat the Jets on Sunday, the playoffs will be a long shot, like Belichick breaking Shula’s record in New England.
Jean-Jacques Taylor is an NFL Insider for Sportsnaut and the author of the upcoming book “Coach Prime“, with Deion Sanders. Follow him on Twitter.