3 Games That Didn't Change The Game

. . . and One That Did

Ron Jaworski, one of ESPN's true football experts, has just published The Games That Changed the Game, a look at seven individual games in which major tactical advancements were introduced for the first time. Along with the debut of Buddy Ryan's 46 defense, Dick LeBeau's zone blitz scheme, and Bill Walsh's West Coast offense, Jaworski includes Bill Belichick's defensive gameplan for Super Bowl 36. Jaworski claims that at Belichick's direction, New England Patriot defenders crushed Marshall Faulk on every play, even when Faulk didn't receive the ball.

With that in mind, let's look at three games that didn't change the game:

1. February 3, 2002: This game is the only Jaworski selection of the last 18 years, and Jaws knew that when he selected the game, it would cause controversy. It is a controversial selection - mainly because it doesn't fit with the theme of the book.

The first six games selected displayed an advanced scheme that the rest of the league was not ready for. It was difficult to conceive of the deep ball being the primary vehicle for offense in 1964. It was difficult to think of a using a tight end as a primary wide receiver in 1980. It was downright ridiculous to think of using a short passing game as a substitute for the running game in 1981.


It is not that difficult to think of hitting somebody on every play, for it is the goal of the defensive line on every passing down. Defensive linemen attack the quarterback; that's what they're paid to do. To extend this concept to a running back does not a quantum leap in thinking; it is a logical extension of the game, especially when Marshall Faulk saw the ball almost as much as Kurt Warner during the 2001 season.

Belichick's tactics changed one game: Super Bowl 36.

2. January 27, 1991: Belichick became a defensive legend for his gameplan to stop the run and gun Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl 25. The Jim Kelly-led Bills offensive appeared unstoppable leading up to the game, but the New York Giants limited them to 19 points and won the Super Bowl. Belichick's defensive gameplan was placed into the football Hall of Fame.

A closer look at the game shows Belichick to be unworthy of such a distinction.

The Giants' offensive gameplan was to hold onto the ball as long as possible, thereby limiting the amount of snaps Belichick's defense would have to play against that unstoppable offense. With an effective short passing attack and a more than healthy dose of power running, the Giants kept the ball for over 40 of the game's 60 minutes.

The Bills' time of possession was 19:27. The Bills scored 19 points. For those keeping score at home, Belichick's vaunted defensive gameplan hemorrhaged a point for every minute they were on the field.

There are two asterisks involved with that tally. The first is that two of the Bills' 19 points came on a safety; in reality, Belichick's defense only allowed 17 points. That's true, but the second asterisk is even more incriminating: Wide Right. If the Bills had a competent kicker, they would've won the game at the last second, scoring 22 points. That is 20, excluding the safety, and a tally of more than a point per minute against a so-called Hall of Fame defensive gameplan.

The Giants lost Belichick after the game, and it took both Belichick and the Giants about a decade to recover. The gameplan did not change the game of football in the near term, because the Bills appeared in the next three Super Bowls. And the strategy itself was officially declared dead during the 2009 season, when the Miami Dolphins used the gameplan against the Peyton Manning-led Indianapolis Colts, the successor to Kelly's Bills. Miami held onto the ball for an insane 45 minutes . . . and lost the game.
3. September 21, 2008: Coming up against a Belichick coached Patriots that had gone 18-0 before losing the Super Bowl, the Miami Dolphins, who went 1-15 the previous season, needed to do something out of the box. The Dolphins knew that they had no chance if they employed a conventional strategy against the Patriot juggernaut, even if that team had lost Hall of Fame bound quarterback Tom Brady two weeks earlier. The Dolphins had quarterback issues of their own.

Enter the Wildcat.



The Dolphins effectively did without a quarterback for many key plays. With running back Ronnie Brown lining up in the shotgun, and fellow RB Ricky Williams coming in from the side, the Dolphins employed a smoke and mirrors strategy that would make any magician blush. Brown could run the ball himself; he could hand the ball off, or pitch it, to Williams for a run; or, most impressively, Brown could fake a run and then throw the ball to an open receiver. Led by Brown's versatility, the Dolphins crushed the Patriots, 38-13.

The NFL is a copycat league, and the next season, over two-thirds of NFL franchises attempted to use a variation of the Wildcat. With great success, this innovation could have truly changed the game of football.

The problem was soon on display for all to see: only the Dolphins could work the damn thing properly.

Every other team lacked the ingenuity of the Dolphin scheme and the talent necessary to run the scheme correctly. Not everyone had Ronnie Brown's deft moves and superior throwing arm; not everyone had a Ricky Williams, complete with fresh legs from a multiple year suspension, ready to outrun the defense; not everyone had an offensive line that could bulldoze the opposition.

No one had the combination of the three except the Dolphins. So while the Dolphins may have changed their team's hopes, the game at large remained in a state of inertia.

***It may seem that this article is focusing unfairly on the hoodie-wearing functional mute who coached the New England Patriots to three Super Bowl victories in four years and orchestrated the league's first 18 win start. This is not, however, out of any personal vitriol towards Belichick; this merely acknowledges that some of the more highly thought of and supposedly "influential" moves that he was a part of, directly or indirectly, not have the effect of changing the game forever.

In the interest of fairness, we will end looking at one Belichick operation that did change the game of football forever:

4. January 16, 2005: Peyton Manning's Colts were the undisputed offensive juggernaut of the NFL, making opposing defenses look silly. In the opening round of the playoffs, Manning dropped 49 points on the Denver Broncos, setting up a rematch of the previous year's AFC Championship Game: Colts at Patriots. In that game, Manning was intercepted four times, and the Patriots went on to the Super Bowl, winning 27-17. This time, Manning was determined to perform better.

It didn't matter that he did. Manning only threw one interception, but his offense was completely stymied by the Patriots' unrelenting defense. Manning's offense was held to 3 points and 276 yards, and his receivers were mauled on every play by the Patriots' defensive backs. It was a miracle that Manning managed to perform as well as he did.

The Patriots scored 20 points and held the ball for over 37 minutes, leaving Manning little time to operate. When he did, he watched almost helplessly as Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne were mugged as soon as the ball snapped and thrown off their precision-based timing routes by vicious defensive play. Manning, too, was mugged by a precise blitzing scheme that left him, more than a few times, on the cold tundra.

This game was the culmination of Belichick's career, combining the time of possession domination that helped win Super Bowl 25 and the thuggish tactics that helped decide Super Bowl 36. This was his finest hour, and while he needed to win at Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game and win the Super Bowl in order to cement his status as an all-time coach, this was the game everyone remembers from the 2004 campaign.

In response to the Patriots' unrelenting ambush, Colts general manager Bill Polian lobbied to have the league's rules changed. The NFL adopted some of his suggestions, and the Patriots were no longer allowed to act in such a manner. If there was contact initiated by a defensive back more than five yards from the line of scrimmage, a penalty would now be called, with a first down awarded to the offense. Defensive backs had to hold themselves back, and offense soon exploded, reaching its zenith last season, when nine quarterbacks threw for over 4,000 yards - a previously special milestone.

The Colts won the Super Bowl in 2006 and returned to the Super Bowl in 2009, thanks partially to these rules; the Patriots only made the Super Bowl once more, in 2007, but by that time, the team more closely resembled the Manning juggernaut than any of their own previous Super Bowl victors.

If a defensive gameplan can make the league change its rules, then the head coach and de facto defensive coordinator can rest assured that his game changed the game.