NFL Playoff Predictions: Rex Ryan vs. Bill Belichick Head Coach Showdown
The New York Jets and the New England Patriots are ready to square off in the Divisional round of the playoffs. Who cares about the teams though. This is Rex Ryan vs. Bill Belichick, and this time it's personal!
Roger Goodell has to love Ryan. The guy is an f-bomb-dropping hype machine. The way he portrays this matchup, you would think he and Belichick were getting ready to put on their man diapers and enter the sumo ring.
While they're not going to physical battle, they will be calling the shots and preparing their teams. In light of that, let's breakdown the finer points, or maybe more appropriately, just points, of this matchup.
They're So Defensive
1 of 11
Ryan and Belichick love defense. Their proficiency and passion in this area are the reasons why they rose to the head coach rank.
Defensive Calling Cards
2 of 11
Rex Ryan
Exotic blitzes are the trademark of a Rex Ryan defense. He is going to send pressure from anywhere he can, be it from linebackers, corners, safeties, the punter or the ball boy. He is going to go after the quarterback no matter what; 14 different Jets players had sacks on the season.
Bill Belichick
Here is how successful Belichick has been: when he took over the Patriots with his 3-4 scheme, only a handful of other teams were running a 3-4. In 2010, over half of the league's teams made the 3-4 their foundation defense.
While their base defense is the 3-4, New England is the king of switching things up. They want to give quarterbacks multiple looks. Belichick will scheme to hide weaknesses and discourage teams from their strengths.
He will throw out defenses that don't even have a number name. The Patriots just know how to adjust.
Defensive Strengths
3 of 11
Rex Ryan
While Ryan is famous for his exotic blitzes, it is stopping the run where he is most successful. The Jets finished the year third in both yards allowed per rush and rushing yards allowed per game.
Ryan's run defense features blocker-eating defensive linemen, the kind that help free up his linebackers to make tackles.
Bill Belichick
Belichick's defense usually features a corner who is among the league leaders in interceptions. This year it was rookie Devin McCourty, who ended his first season with seven interceptions. The Patriots led the league in interceptions as a team.
While New England has been blessed with excellent corners over the years, Belichick puts them in zone coverages that allow them to get the picks. This leads to our next slide.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
The Defensive Differences: Man Vs. Zone
4 of 11
While Ryan and Belichick share many commonalities, their defenses are far from duplicates of each other.
Rex Ryan
Ryan likes to get athletic corners and leave them to go man-to-man on the outside—hence "Revis Island". The single coverage on the outside is what frees him up to send different blitzes.
Bill Belichick
Belichick favors a more zone-oriented coverage scheme. He switches up the zones and likes to get his ball-hawking corners in the areas he is expecting teams to attack. They may stay in the flats or drop deep into coverage.
Defensive Achilles
5 of 11
Rex Ryan
The Jets struggled in the redzone. They allowed opponents to convert 59.1 percent of their redzone trips into touchdowns, ranking 25th in the league.
As great as the Jets are on defense, they are 17th in the league in allowing 30 percent of touchdowns scored against them to come on the run.
Bill Belichick
While the Patriots were the best team in the league at intercepting passes, they were far from the best at actually defending the pass.
The Patriots were 30th in the league in pass defense and 23rd in yards allowed per pass. Opponents completed 63.5 percent of their passes against New England, ranking 24th in the league.
Their pass defense woes start with stopping teams' No. 1 wide receivers and running backs in the passing game.
On The Offensive
6 of 11
Enough about the defense. These guys are head coaches, not defensive coordinators. Still, I don't think we need to get too in depth here about each offense. In fact, here is a brief overview: The Patriots' offense is way better!
Well, we can get a little more in depth than that.
Bill Belichick
Just like on defense, Belichick likes to have a creative, versatile offensive attack. Like any great coach, he tries to utilize his strengths. This has seen him evolve his Patriots offense over the years from a run-first offense, to a deep-strike attack, now to a West Coast Offense.
Rex Ryan
Ryan may try to evolve his offenses in future seasons, but for his first two years, he has been a run first, second and third coach. Ryan likes to work off play-action in the passing game, but he prefers to wear opponents down with the run.
How They Attack Each Other
7 of 11
The Patriots and Jets split their regular season matchups. This perfectly highlights what these two coaches will try to do to attack the other's defense.
Bill Belichick
In the first game, the Patriots were still incorporating the deep ball and Randy Moss. It led to Tom Brady throwing half of his season total interceptions in that game.
In the second game they went to the short, efficient passing attack. Brady finished 21-29 with 326 yards. The majority of his yards were of the yards-after-the-catch variety. New England exploited the Jets' blitz with dump-offs to their backs; Danny Woodhead finished with four catches for 104 yards.
Rex Ryan
First things first: The Jets are not built to come back. In the second game they fell behind and Ryan was forced to go to the pass more, which led to three Mark Sanchez interceptions.
New York is going to try to get their running game going. In their victory over the Patriots, they carried 32 times for 136 yards. When they did throw, they got their tight end involved early and often; Dustin Keller finished with seven catches for 115 yards.
The Intangibles
8 of 11
While these two coaches have some similarities on the field, they couldn't be any more different away from it. The next few slides are going to highlight the differences.
We could devote some time to talking about experience here, but why bother? It is all on Belichick's side. Let's just get into the things that really matter.
Attire
9 of 11
Bill Belichick
Belichick is a fashion icon. His hooded sweatshirt look is straight from the runway in Paris. He is versatile in this look too. Sometimes he rolls his sleeves up, sometimes he leaves them down and sometimes he cuts them off all together.
Rex Ryan
Ryan prefers the Jim Tressel classic long-sleeve under a sweater vest look. In the end, it is really hard to notice his attire because I can't take my eye off his chins. Actually, he is not double chinned, because it just combines to meld into his stomach.
Press Conferences
10 of 11
Rex Ryan
Ryan is the king of the quote. The guy is always good for a tasty nugget or two. He tries to deflect the pressure from his team by placing it all on him. He likes to take shots at his opponents, and he will do it in weeks they aren't even playing each other.
Ryan will even come out in costume to drive home his points. Compared to other coaches, Ryan is the Louis C.K.
Bill Belichick
Belichick prefers to express himself in grumbles and grunts. He always has the tone of someone whose cat just got eaten by a dog. On the rare occasion he tries to crack a joke, he does it in the same monotone grunting fashion, which actually makes it twice as funny.
Scandal-Iiscious Video
11 of 11
Rex Ryan
Ryan likes feet. You could even say he has a fetish. I really, really wish I never knew this, and I am not sure why anyone thought I would want to know it. This story was first reported with the hype of scandal, but not only was it harmless, he taped it with his wife.
Bill Belichick
Belichick likes to tape other teams' practices. While not as interesting as a foot fetish, in the eyes of the league, it is far more illegal. It was such a sneaky move it even earned the nickname "Spy-Gate".
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Post-June 1 Trade Candidates ☎️")
.JPG?w=600 "TO Talks Cowboys Relationship")
.jpg?w=600 "Taylor Heinicke Retiring")
.jpg?w=600 "49ers OC Hypes Mike Evans 🤩")