THE GREAT NFL FILMS PRESIDENT STEVE SABOL ON BILL BELICHICK
Steve Sabol: Great teams have always had a playing style similar to their coaches' personalities. Lombardi's Packers perfected the Power Sweep, Bill Walsh's 49ers ran the sophisticated West Coast Offense, but what about Bill Belichick's New England Patriots? On the surface, they have no defining style. Turns out that's exactly how Belichick wants it.
{Patriots practice footage}
Sabol: Bill Belichick is a man of contradiction. The type of coach who always carries a whistle, but rarely needs to use it. A coach who appreciates football's past, yet is always focused on the future.
{Clips of Belichick's post-game press conferences}
Belichick: It's good to win…we have a long way to go … Put it behind us and get on to the Browns … We'll face another challenge next week … We'll get on to Miami next week … We play San Diego next week … Now we're moving on to Cincinnati … Move on to Dallas … Move on to Miami … Take it one week at a time, get ready for next week. I'm sure that's what you were looking for. 
{Patriots practice footage}
Sabol: Critics say he's as unreadable as James Joyce, and doubly complex. But that inscrutability may be his genius, and, the reason for his team's success. Like their coach, the Patriots are not concerned with developing a specific style.
{Patriots game footage}
Sabol: They can beat you with the pass, or the run; with defense, or special teams; with power football, or trick plays. Like their coach, they are predictably unpredictable.
{Patriots practice footage}
Sabol: And they prepare for every possibility.
Belichick: OK now, look. What I'm looking for here is speed, communication, and alertness to all the different situations. Mentally, play it like you're playing a game. And I don't want to hear about what any of the situations are, you just play them.
Sabol: The Patriots don't practice definites, they practice the hypothetical.
Belichick: {To Charlie Weis} All I want to do is create different situations, keep them alert, keep them thinking.
Sabol: Belichick makes his players imagine every possible variation of a play. Call it 'situational foresight.'
Belichick: {To players} What are you guys thinking about right here? Six seconds. {Player responds.} Getting out of bounds? Scramble. Ready for the scramble, OK? {To Matt Cassel} Don't be afraid of throwing an incomplete pass. Especially in a 2-minute situation where you're going to stop the clock. {To Josh McDaniels and some players} You're better off in this situation, where you're down by a touchdown, having less time and more timeouts than more time and fewer timeouts. {To the late Marquise Hill} That's the situation. They're backed up. You have to be ready for a hard cadence. That gets them off the goal line.
Sabol: Opponents never know what style the Patriots are going to play, and that's because the Patriots have so many variations to choose from.
Belichick: Right there. Beautiful. Here we go. Call it, AD. {AD makes a call.} Call something else. {AD calls something else.} Something else. {AD calls something else.} Something else. {AD calls something else.} Run it.
Sabol: Their flexibility and their ability to adapt should send the Patriots into the postseason undefeated. And you can bet that's a situation Belichick has already prepared them for.
Belichick: Alright, it's down-and-distance. Down-and-distance. Let's be right on these substitutions. Know the situation here. Know the situation.
{{{ Watch the full video on NFL.com }}}
BACK IN THE NFL NETWORK STUDIO
Rich Eisen: It is remarkable. I mean, it is really remarkable when you think about what they've been able to do, and then you take a look behind the scenes like that. What are your impressions – a guy that's spent all that time in the NFL with some of the great coaches, like Chuck Noll – what are your impressions when you see that?
Ron Woodson: Well, I think it's a lost art. Back in the old days, teaching was everything because you're going to have guys with you for a long period of time. So Chuck Noll, he did the same thing – even though Bill Belichick has gone more in-depth with it. I think it's great to go over different situations constantly. Teaching – and Rich, I've {inaudible} for four years and I say it all the time – there's not a lot of good teachers in the National Football League today. There's a lot of X&O guys, and that's OK, but there's not a lot of good teachers, and Bill Belichick is one of the best teachers in the business and that's why his football team is always ready to play a football game on Sundays.
Eisen: What always impresses me is how it seems that all the players, no matter who they are, what position they are, know exactly what to do with the football when something happens. Vince Wilfork, for instance: he was the only guy on the field who knew that that was a live ball in the Wild Card win against the Jets last year. Crucial moment. How about this moment: San Diego, seemingly wrapping up their victory in the divisional round last year, and Troy Brown strips the ball away and they continue on down the road. This year: Ed Reed with a crucial pick against the New England Patriots towards the end of the first half. These are points that the Ravens could have had, needed at the end of the game, and who comes in and strips it out? Kevin Faulk, a running back. And then it continues on in the NFL Network game: Mike Vrabel {playing on the hands team, snagged the Giants' onside kick in the final minute}.
Woodson: But you know what he does? He's out of the box. Most coaches put players in boxes. They'll go, 'He's an offensive lineman and he only can play on the offensive line. He's a DB, he only can play in the secondary.' And {Belichick} thinks out of the box. To me, a good coach does think out of the box. You have to get away from being normal in the National Football League, and he's done that with his players. You see linebackers in the backfield, a tight end; you see receivers playing DB. He's putting the best players on the field, and that's why this team could win another Super Bowl. Because he does that.
Eisen: And it's neat talking about it, and then you see it in a game, but you never see it in practice because we're not there. That's why what we just saw with Steve Sabol was so important – you hear how it comes about. He screams, 'Know the situation. Know the situation.' What was he doing with Adalius Thomas? What was he doing?
Woodson: He was just making him do different combos of {inaudible} and he finally heard one of the combos he liked and said, 'Run it.'
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