Quote:
Originally Posted by August
But whatever the reason he's not that good that he would have made the difference.
|
I'm not so sure on that. The Patriots posted a 13-3 record as did the Eagles during the regular season. The Patriots did that with Malcolm Butler in the secondary. There are a lot of variables and factors that contribute to that record including the coaching and Tom Brady at quarterback. The Eagles quarterback, Nick Foles, shredded the patriots secondary, doing a good job of mixing his passing with an effective run game.
The Patriots were caught flat footed a number of times as the Eagles moved up and down the field at will. Malcolm Butler was scheduled to play CB in the Superbowl but scratched the night before ? If Butler was good enough to play during the regular season and helped get the Patriots to the Superbowl, why remove him ? This seems like a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Apparently, adding Outside Linebacker James Harrison wasn't enough to make much of a difference either although he did have a sack.
Belichek, if the Patriots aren't playing well, will make adjustments during half time to counter whatever the other team is doing to play better in the 2nd half. If Belichick did make adjustments, it had no effect on what Nick Foles and the Eagles were doing. On the other hand, the Patriots offense and TE Gronkowski woke up a bit and played better in the 2nd half.
The very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
If the patriots couldn't stop the Eagles from moving the ball, then inserting Butler back in at Cornerback couldn't possibly hurt and I think he would have helped slow down the Eagles offense and passing game. At the very least, the Eagles would have had to make adjustments in their passing game to compensate for Butler being in the secondary. With Butler playing, the Patriots might have been able to be more creative with corner blitzes and other defensive schemes to disrupt what Nick Foles and the Eagles offense was doing. On the other hand, as Mr Quatro had said, Butler was battling the flu so who knows how much of an impact he would have had if he had played.
That's just my thoughts though.