FOXBORO — Patriots coach Bill Belichick has gone through this before. After all, when you’ve been a head coach in the NFL for 14-plus seasons, you’re bound to face a former assistant once in a while.
But for Belichick, a game against a former assistant has almost become an annual event — whether it’s Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel or Nick Saban, Belichick frequently has squared off against men who have worked underneath him.
This Sunday, Belichick will face Josh McDaniels for the first time since McDaniels left the Patriots organization to become the head coach in Denver. McDaniels joined the New England organization in 2001 and spent eight seasons working for the Patriots, including the last three running the New England offense, before being named head coach of the Broncos in 2009.
Belichick and McDaniels clearly developed a warm relationship over the course of their time together in New England, one that apparently transcended the usual head coach/assistant coach relationship.
“I have all the respect in the world for Josh,” Belichick said Monday morning. “Both as a coach, personnel evaluator and in general for his football knowledge and his ability to manage the game, whether it is as a coordinator or as a head coach. I think he has great insight into the game.”
Said McDaniels: “It will be fun. It will be fun coaching against Bill and the staff there. I’ve got a great deal of respect for them. I know how talented they are, and how tremendous of a staff they have there.”
McDaniels endured a rocky start to his tenure — a quarterback controversy involving Jay Cutler sparked Denver fans to create Facebook groups like this one. But he has managed to guide the Broncos to a surprising 4-0 start, and he said Monday that the lessons he’s learned under Belichick have served him well in Denver.
“The philosophies about how to win come straight from Bill,” McDaniels said. “I was there for eight years and had a great deal of success being a part of that organization. It is a great organization with a lot of great coaches and great players.
“Most of the things that we do with our football team in some way, shape or form, I get from Bill.”
It’s not just Belichick’s coaching style (and grey hoodie) that McDaniels has adopted. There’s also his approach to dealing with the media. Both were asked about the pregame hype that’s sure to build in advance of their first meeting, and both responded to the question in astoundingly similar fashion.
“What it will come down to is that’s probably overrated, overhyped and overtalked about,” Belichick said. “It’s going to come down to the same thing we just said: who blocks, who can get open, who can cover who, who can tackle, who can break tackles, who throws accurately, who catches the ball, who drops it.
“That’s what it’s like every game, and that’s what it comes down to.”
Said McDaniels: “It is going to come down to whoever tackles better, who blocks better, who throws better, who catches better. I don’t think this game is going to be about deception. I think it is going to be about us trying to play good football, and they are going to do the same thing.
“Whoever plays better on Sunday will win the game.”
The overall level of familiarity between the two is likely a wash — both McDaniels and Belichick picked up more than enough from each other over the course of their time together that there will be few surprises on Sunday.
That familiarity is compounded by the fact that McDaniels brought in several former Patriots, including running back LaMont Jordan, long-snapper Lonie Paxton, defensive lineman Le Kevin Smith, offensive lineman Russ Hochstein and receiver Jabar Gaffney.
In the end, according to the Patriots, it’s going to come down to execution.
“We all know he knows,” linebacker Tully Banta-Cain said of McDaniels. “He knows everybody here, he knows what we do, so we’re not going to try to get concerned about what he knows or what he doesn’t know.
“It’s more just doing what we have to do, and that’s executing the plays that are called and playing good technique football. Whether they know the play or not, they’ve still got to stop it.”
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