If there’s anything Bill Belichick respects, it’s thoroughness.
There’s nothing that makes his warm heart warmer than a team that prepares for the worst, and overcomes it.
When injuries beset his 2015 Patriots, Belichick and his coaches patched and filled and advanced to the AFC championship game. To no one’s surprise, they had backup players ready to produce; after all, it’s Belichick.
The Patriots’ injuries two years ago look like a case of the sniffles compared to the epidemic the Eagles endured this year. Belichick knows how hard it can be to remain competitive in a normal year, much less a year in which you lose seven of your first top 26 players for a significant amount of time.