[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

It was pretty ridiculous to sit him the entire game. That was all coaches ego. Fine him. Don't start him or even bench him for an entire half if you think you need to make a point, but when your D is getting torched and at least one DB is banged up in the second half of an "all hands on deck" game you really have no excuse for not letting Butler play. That's all on Belichick.

I am no doubt biased against New England, but my view is St. William is living on past laurels. Sure he's better than most, but this notion that he's at a whole nother level is bunk. For the most part he gets to cruise through a perennially weak division (although slightly better this year). He should have lost the SB to Seattle, where he mismanaged the clock horribly at the end. He should have lost last year to Atl, and got bailed out by the most monumental collapse in SB history. Now this Butler stupidity. The coach's job is to put his team in the best position to win, and he did a lousy job of it in Minneapolis. Only the even worse 4th qtr. coaching of two offensive coordinators the preceding two Super Bowls has kept the Pats from dropping their last three. IMO, being "better" because the other guys' coach choked worse than you isn't saying much.

What bothered me more than Butler was the lack of any creativity on the defensive side of the ball. Bill is known for disrupting quarterbacks with his schemes. He had a perfect opportunity with Foles, who for all his recent accomplishments is not an elite QB and had to be nervous. But the Pats just handed them short to medium range passes the whole night, and to make it worse gave up lots of yardage after the catch. You could see Foles' confidence rise as it became clear he could throw those passes at will.