Bill Belichick compared the speed of the Chiefs’ offense to Barry Sanders and the ‘run-and-shoot’ Lions
"It would be up there," Belichick acknowledged of the Chiefs' speed.
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It’s no secret that Bill Belichick, even with almost 50 years of experience in the NFL, remains a student of the game.
The 68-year-old Patriots head coach is able to cite offenses from decades past, and regularly does in a given press conference.
The latest historical tidbit Belichick offered came from a question about New England’s Week 4 opponent, the Kansas City Chiefs. Asked if the Chiefs’ skill players were the fastest he’s faced, Belichick took a stroll down memory lane.
“It would be up there,” Belichick said of the Chief’s speed. “I mean, those run-and-shoot teams, they had four receivers on the field – you know, [Darrel] Mouse Davis and that style of offense that Houston ran. I would say we played against them with other teams as well. But, June [Jones] did it in Atlanta and then Mouse did it in Detroit.”
One of Belichick’s first experiences coaching against the run-and-shoot offense in the NFL came during his time as Giants defensive coordinator during the team’s second Super Bowl season in 1990.
In one particularly memorable anecdote prior to playing the Lions’ speed-oriented offense, then-Giants head coach Bill Parcells criticized Belichick’s game plan for having too many smaller players on the field. He even joked about using one of the team’s smallest players on defense.
“Why don’t you put [wide receiver] Stephen Baker out there?” Parcells quipped. “He’s fast.”
The Giants, using Belichick’s unorthodox game plan, ended up winning the game, 20-0.
Decades later, the Patriots’ coach knows the dangers that those teams posed due to the depth of their attack. Especially when the Lions team Belichick faced had a Hall of Fame running back.
“When you put four receivers out there and a fast back, like a Barry Sanders or somebody like that, and you put four receivers out there that run probably 4.4 or sub-4.4 [40-yard dash times], I mean, that’s a lot of speed,” Belichick explained. “Now, these guys have a lot of speed, too. But you talk about just speed, those run-and-shoot teams, they put some pretty fast players on the field, now – a lot of them, not just one or two. I mean, either four or five, depending on how fast the back was.”
The Patriots and Chiefs kick off at 4:25 p.m. on Sunday. New England enters the game at 2-1, while Kansas City is 3-0.
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