Tom Coughlin to Beat Patriots Again
Tom Coughlin won't be coaching the Jaguars against the Patriots in next Sunday's AFC Championship Game, only his mere presence at Gillette Stadium volition exist a symbolic reminder of his impact on Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.
Coughlin now is the Jaguars' managing director of football game operations and his team has been the surprise of this yr'due south playoffs, eking out a x-3 win over the Bills in the AFC wild-bill of fare round and shocking the Steelers, 45-42, at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh in Sun's divisional circular.
Belichick's Patriots are up next. The final two times he faced a team under Coughlin's influence in the postseason? Those were the Patriots' only two losses in their seven Super Bowl appearances under Belichick.
The Patriots are in the AFC Championship Game for the 7th straight season, and to go to the eighth Super Basin in Belichick's tenure, they must beat a Jaguars team that has been positively magnificent in bouncing back from a iii-xiii season last year and winning the AFC Due south championship. Jaguars autobus Doug Marrone has been on the sideline for that run, but Coughlin'southward influence in creating important changes to the team — including the drafting of rookie running dorsum Leonard Fournette and the signing of costless-agent defensive end Calais Campbell — has been undeniable.
The Patriots are favored to get past the Jaguars and into the Super Bowl on Feb. 4 in Minneapolis, merely Belichick now must face up a team with a lead executive who has been his Super Bowl kryptonite. Every bit a omnibus, Coughlin led the Giants to shocking wins over the Patriots in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI, with Eli Manning getting the all-time of Brady each time.
When he met with the media after Saturday night'southward 35-14 win over the Titans and again on Sunday morning, Belichick didn't know if he'd exist facing the Steelers or Jaguars side by side week. He won't accost the Coughlin story line until Monday, only it will be a relevant theme in the run-upwards to next week'south game.
Coughlin watched Sunday'southward shocking upset from the press box at Heinz Field and was a nervous wreck, muttering to himself throughout the game and even blasphemous as his team survived a wild finish. He'll likely do the same in the Gillette Stadium press box, where the pb executives from opposing teams usually sit to sentry games.
Coughlin may take been shown the door past the Giants after coaching his 12th season in 2015, but his competitive fires burn down simply as brightly now that he's in the Jaguars' front office. And so even though Belichick won't look across the field and run across Coughlin on the Jacksonville sideline, the Jags certainly will reverberate Coughlin's pugnacious spirit as they confront the NFL'south longest-running dynasty.
Belichick no doubtfulness will downplay any outward significance of facing a team influenced and then greatly past Coughlin, although the Patriots' double-decker consistently has expressed respect for the sometime Giants omnibus. Both were on Bill Parcells' staff when the Giants beat the Bills in Super Bowl XXV.
As he ever does, regardless of the circumstances, Belichick will concentrate on his own team and what the Patriots need to do to win. He was particularly pleased after the convincing win over the Titans, and it was even so another example of his remarkable ability to digest and so many different players during a given flavour.
Surely Brady'southward presence can't be ignored every bit the one abiding for a squad that has dominated so many of the past 17 seasons, but Belichick'south skill at dealing with e'er-changing rosters has been equally important to the team'south overall success.
No Rob Gronkowski in final year's playoffs? No trouble. The Patriots won their 5th Super Basin title since 2001, in large part by focusing more attending on atomic wide receiver Julian Edelman to brand upwards for the injured tight finish'due south absence.
No Edelman this season? All good. Belichick has spread the ball around plenty, with Danny Amendola the latest to replace Edelman's catches in Saturday night's game. Amendola produced his first 100-thou receiving game in the postseason, leading New England with 11 catches for 112 yards, and drew effusive praise from Belichick subsequently.
"Danny does a great job for us," he said. "His ball handling, his reliability, dependability is infrequent. Danny has cracking concentration, tough, really a smart football player, makes good decisions, good judgment, knows how to get open, makes some big catches in tough situations. So he's kind of a guy you take for granted, simply he delivered a lot tonight, as he always does."
Sabbatum's win was a textbook example of the coach putting the right pieces together and producing another gem — or, every bit Belichick likes to put it, "a great squad win."
"I think yous merely accept to give these guys a lot of credit," he said of his players. "This grouping is this group. It's non actually about some other team or another grouping, what they did or didn't or have or haven't done. But these guys come to work every 24-hour interval, they work hard, they compete well. They do what the coaches and what the staff ask them to do. They attempt to become meliorate and they're very professional and attentive to detail and work hard to ameliorate. That's really what nosotros all need to do, is to keep working to meliorate and do a better task. They've washed that. I recollect that's shown upwards over the grade of the flavor. I'm proud of the way they've gone about it."
He hopes to be proud after Sunday's game confronting the Jaguars, too, just he knows not to underestimate a squad that is then new to the playoffs. Later on all, Belichick knows from experience that the man at the top won't settle for anything less than victory.
Bob Glauber has covered the NFL since 1985 and has been Newsday's NFL columnist since 1992. Twice selected every bit the New York Country Sportswriter of the Year past the National Sports Media Association, he is president of the Pro Football Writers of America and author of "Guts and Genius."
Source: https://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jaguars-tom-coughlin-patriots-1.16181243
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