The Setup: While answering an earlier question, Belichick mentioned he still had things to work on to improve his own development as a coach. When asked to elaborate, Belichick had this response.
What Belichick Said: “Getting the team ready, getting back to being a football coach, calling plays, reacting to situations. Look, by the time the play is over and the ball is spotted, the clock is running. You don’t have all day. You only have three timeouts. You don’t have all day out there to make decisions, so you better have an idea in your mind of what your options are going to be and then which ones you’re going to choose based on the circumstances as they unfold, and that’s reaction time. One second, two seconds or three seconds can mean a lot in making the right decision versus making the wrong decision in a situation. It can give your team an advantage or not give an advantage. As a coaching staff, those are the things we have to do — our communication, our decision making, our adjustments during the course of the game in between plays and in between series. The clock is running. We don’t have all day. It’s not time to have a meeting about it. Just have a quick conversation, make your points, figure out what’s going on and fix the problems that your opponents are causing for you out there. So that’s our job, and we need to do a better job of it. I need to do a better job of it. We’ve only had two [preseason] games. There are a lot of things I need to improve on just like everybody else out there.”
What It Means: Belichick didn’t reinvent the wheel with this answer, but he did address a commonly overlooked aspect of the game, and an extremely important one at that. Coaches are often praised for their midweek preparations and the game plans they execute every Sunday, but the slightest details can be bypassed.
It’s not like Belichick and his coordinators are on the sideline playing “Madden '10.” They don’t pick their play by pressing the circle button and have the offense or defense lined up over the ball after a mere three seconds have elapsed on the play clock. Rather, they’ve got to calculate every in-game situation — the score of the game, time on the clock, how their opponents are reacting to certain calls and what Belichick and his staff must do to counter any failures or continue their successes — sputter out a play that sounds like a foreign language and make sure it is relayed to the proper coaches and players. And like Belichick said, this must all be completed within a couple of seconds.
It’s a fascinating and intense set of circumstances that are repeated more than 100 times through every single game.
