The New England Patriots, still underrated despite their success, and still short of great players, are approaching greatness because of the unique talents of their coach, Bill Belichick, and quarterback, Tom Brady.
Belichick is the first defensive expert who as a head coach has abandoned conservative offensive football in favor of play-after-play passing.
Brady combines an ideal passing style and a gift for accurate passing with a quality that's rare in a quarterback, a remarkably even temperament.
Thus it wouldn't be an accident if the Patriots won an NFL-record 19th consecutive game Sunday, against Miami.
That would raise the Patriots ahead of the 1972 Dolphins and the four other pro clubs that managed to win 18 in succession.
In this NFL parity era, how can New England win so consistently?
Belichick, parking his conservative history in the ashcan, has created the league's only all-out passing team.
With any game on the line, the Patriots routinely throw and infrequently run. No other NFL coach does that. It does take some moxie, but look at the payoff.
Belichick Scouts Too
Belichick can look back on a 30-year pro football career in which he spent 21 years as an assistant coach and nine as a head coach.
The coach he defeated last Sunday, Buffalo's Mike Mularkey, had spent only nine years as an assistant before he got his first job as a head coach several months ago.
Some pro coaches are even less experienced. At Jacksonville, Jack Del Rio has been a coach for only eight years, six as an assistant and two as the head man.
Belichick, thus, is perhaps the best prepared coach since Vince Lombardi, who labored for 16 years as an assistant before taking Green Bay to five NFL championships in the 1960s.
Belichick and Lombardi both came up when, in smaller NFL organizations, assistant coaches doubled as personnel scouts. When Belichick, for instance, was coaching linebackers or special teams, he spent as much as half his time evaluating college prospects for the player draft.
Some remember Belichick as the best scout they ever worked with -- he insisted on detailed, individualized credentials for each of the 22 offensive and defensive positions.
In other words, Belichick has had a more valuable in-depth football education than most of his adversaries. No wonder he drafts and trades efficiently. No wonder he wins.
Seattle No. 20?
One danger ahead for the Patriots is that administering self-congratulations for winning streaks in October could bring a relapse and loss of focus later on.
So if they get past the Dolphins this week, it might be healthier for the Patriots, in the long run, not to win No. 20 next week when the Seattle Seahawks come to Foxboro.
They might have a hard time winning anyway. The Seahawks, with their new defense coached by Ray Rhodes, seem fully capable of an upset.
If Seattle and New England both go into the game undefeated, that will be the NFL game of the season, maybe a sneak preview of the Super Bowl.
Still, the Seahawks will be facing wiser coaches than they see in their own division, the struggling NFC West.
Belichick updates game plans in great detail each week to counter the strengths and tendencies of each new opponent, as he did in Buffalo when the Patriots scored on two surprise plays:
* On first down at the Buffalo 15, a passing down for the Patriots, they faked the pass and sent new running back Corey Dillon through the Bills for all 15 yards on a specially prepared trap play. Typically, NFL teams make power-running calls in that situation. The Patriots, when they run, run deceptively, and aggressively.
* On Brady's 30-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver David Patten, New England sent Patten out 15 yards on a crossing pattern and also put a tight end in the vicinity. Both receivers were accompanied by Buffalo defensive players, and as Patten ran underneath his tight end, he got the throw from Brady. It had the effect of a pick play, which is illegal, but this wasn't a pick.
New ideas are characteristic of Belichick, whose 44-14 record is the NFL's best over the last four years.
He wins by emphasizing three football verities: a sound defense, a well-designed offense, and smart pass plays on first down.
Another Good Miami
The Mid-American Conference is represented in the NFL this year by no fewer than three starting quarterbacks -- more than any other conference in college football except the Pacific 10, which has six starters.
Last Sunday, the big Mid-American winner was a surprising Pittsburgh rookie, Ben Roethlisberger of Miami of Ohio, who led the Steelers past Carson Palmer and Cincinnati, 28-17.
Roethlisberger, who faces Cleveland this week, has the Steelers at 3-1 and first in the AFC North.
At 6 feet 5 and 242 pounds, Roethlisberger has the size of the NFL's best new big quarterbacks but seems to be a better leader than most and a promising passer -- considering that he came into the NFL with only four years of experience as a starter on any level.
