If you’re Bill Belichick, it is fair to pat yourself on the back and try to kick yourself in the backside at the same time after a Sunday night loss that, as it turns out, was never really about Tom Brady. It was more about what the Patriots are now and where they’re headed.
The good of it all, something Belichick will probably not allow himself to marinate on—certainly not in the moments after his seemingly painful half-hug of Brady at midfield, or after that gut-shot second on the sideline when Nick Folk’s potential game-winning field goal loudly thudded off the left upright and Belichick’s eyes dropped to the turf—was that this was one of his finer coaching performances of the last few years.