Bill Belichick isn’t the first coach to have heard of wind, or to have taken it into consideration as a significant factor in his game planning process. But he is the first coach in more than 30 years to have gone an entire half with just one passing attempt, and the first coach since Lou Saban in 1974 to call three or fewer passing attempts throughout the entirety of a game.
During one of the fastest renditions of Monday Night Football we’ve ever seen, Belichick was called both arrogant and painfully conservative. Even when the Patriots had the wind at their backs in the fourth quarter, even with lead running back Damien Harris hobbling with a hamstring injury he re-aggravated after the half, rookie quarterback Mac Jones was only allowed to unholster a handful of times.