Super Bowl 2012: Patriots Coach Bill Belichick's Legacy Grows Despite Loss

Bill Belichick is widely regarded as the best head coach of this generation. He has led the New England Patriots to five Super Bowls, winning three of them. Despite suffering his second loss in his last two trips to the Big Game against the New York Giants, he added to his already stellar legacy. 

There will be a large contingent of fans and analysts around the country that disagree with that, but they are only looking at things through a keyhole, not the bigger picture. 

As Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald put it, the critics are going to be out in full force today. The talk will be about his "defensive genius" label and why he can't put together a make-shift group capable of stopping anyone. 

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Belichick would have joined Chuck Noll as the only head coaches to win four Super Bowls. He remains at three and counting, except all that matters now, all that will be talked about in any discussion of Belichick, is that he has lost two of them. Both to the Giants.

His critics are going to have a field day with this latest loss. If it’s true Belichick’s strengths are his attention to detail and his ability to assemble teams that are focused and prepared, how did his team sputter out of the gate?

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Belichick can only do so much. It is up to his players to go out there and execute, which they did for 58 minutes. The Patriots did not play a perfect game, but Tom Brady found a rhythm late in the first half and the team held the lead until the final drive of the fourth quarter. 

With the Giants driving, Belichick knew what he had to do in order to give his team a chance to win. He let Ahmad Bradshaw run through the defense into the end zone, though he tried to stop in a hilarious gag you would see in a Marx Bros. movie. 

His bold decision-making late in the game is what gave his team a chance to win. Most coaches would have just let the defense try to take the ball away, but considering how good Eli Manning has been at not turning it over and Lawrence Tynes' cool-under-pressure attitude, it would have meant nothing. 

To blame Belichick for this loss, when in reality he is the biggest reason the Patriots even made it to the Super Bowl with a bad defense, is insane. He did what was necessary to put his team in position to win another Lombardi Trophy. 

Plus, this whole thing is moot if Mario Manningham does not make that spectacular over-the-shoulder catch on the Giants' final drive. Belichick could not have done anything to stop that and his legacy should grow as a result of getting this team to the Super Bowl. 

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