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It’s Time for Bill Belichick to Teach Jimmy Garoppolo the True Patriot Way
- Updated: September 12, 2016
GLENDALE, Ariz. — If you know anything about coach Bill Belichick, you almost have to feel sorry for what quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is about to go through .
For all the wonderful things that Garoppolo did Sunday night as the New England Patriots posted an improbable and stunning 23-21 upset over Arizona in the season opener, the day-after film review is going to be unpleasant.
Very unpleasant.
Or to put it another way, Garoppolo ain’t gettin’ no love from his curmudgeonly coach. Not anytime soon. Certainly not with three more games to go before the return of Tom Brady from suspension.
Certainly not when guys like Brady have gone through much worse in film review.
You see, that’s how it works with Belichick. You could string together a nice highlight film of Garoppolo from this game and plenty of other coaches around the league would be drooling in anticipation of him becoming a free agent. That’s how it works with quarterbacks. A little success goes a long way in terms of getting paid and getting satisfaction.
Just ask Brock Osweiler.
On Sunday, Garoppolo engineered two field-goal drives in the fourth quarter and converted six third-down situations on scoring drives throughout the game. That included a 3rd-and-15 play in which he had to break the pocket to escape the pass rush and find wide receiver Danny Amendola deep down field for a 33-yard gain. Despite being under duress and having made mistakes earlier in the game, Garoppolo reacted with calm as he moved to his left and kept his eyes downfield to find Amendola.
Mention any of that to Belichick and you might as well have been discussing the joys of a proctology exam. Every mention of Garoppolo in the postgame press conference was met with increasing defiance from Belichick.
At one point late in the session, a reporter asked Belichick specifically about Garoppolo and how important it was for him to get in rhythm early in the game.
“I don’t know, there were times when we threw the ball well, we executed crisply. There were times we needed to be more consistent on that, but that’s everybody, the offense, the defense,” Belichick said. “We just gotta … it’s early in the year. It was a good win here tonight. We need to play better next week and succeeding weeks. It wasn’t perfect …
