Things haven’t gone according to plan in Josh McDaniels’ head coaching career, but one area he has excelled in is beating his former boss.
McDaniels will get another opportunity to face Bill Belichick when the Las Vegas Raiders host the New England Patriots on Sunday. The Raiders head coach spent a total of 18 seasons on Belichick’s staff and has used that experience to his advantage in the past.
Back in 2009, McDaniels got his first crack at Belichick in his fifth ever game as an NFL head coach. McDaniels’ Denver Broncos, who were 4-0 at the time, hosted the Patriots and wound up winning 20-17 on an overtime field goal.
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How Belichick has fared against former Patriots coaches, players
According to one person on that Broncos team, McDaniels’ method for exploiting Belichick’s strategy was a major key to the victory.
“All of a sudden, Thursday, [McDaniels] comes in and says ‘I think we’ve got something here,’” Chris Simms, the Broncos’ backup quarterback in 2009, said on Thursday’s “PFT Live.” “If you remember the game, we lined up in Wildcat probably 30 times during the football game because he knew they would automatically check to another defense. Then Kyle Orton would come back and be the quarterback, move the Wildcat, Knowshon Moreno, back over to running back and now we knew what coverage they were in because they had this automatic check they got to.
“We gave them fits that day. That was a great example of an ex-coach knowing the other team and finding that one thing that ‘Oh, I know they’re going to do this’ and using it against them.”
New England Patriots
The Miami Dolphins had famously flummoxed the Patriots using the Wildcat in a 2008 beatdown at Gillette Stadium. McDaniels was on New England’s sideline that day and knew how Belichick planned to adapt to the formation moving forward.
“He was there and then the next year he went to Denver, so it was very fresh as far as a conversation and knowing what they would do the next time they saw Wildcat,” Simms said.
The overtime victory over the Patriots was a high point in McDaniels’ first head coaching stint. The Broncos finished 2009 with an 8-8 record and fired McDaniels after Week 13 the following season. McDaniels returned to New England in 2012 and worked under Belichick’s tutelage for 10 more years before accepting the Raiders’ head coaching position in January.
After making the playoffs with interim head coach Rich Bisaccia in 2021, the 5-8 Raiders have taken a step backwards this season. They have blown double-digit leads in four of their defeats while also losing to the Indianapolis Colts in Jeff Saturday’s head coaching debut and collapsing to the Los Angeles Rams last week just days after they acquired Baker Mayfield.
“I don’t understand the Raiders and I’m not even going to try and understand the Raiders,” Mike Florio said on “PFT Live.” “They win three in a row, and before that they lose to a coach who just showed up five days earlier, and after that they lose to a quarterback who showed up two days earlier. There’s just these momentary lapses that take down the whole operation.”
Before the disappointing regular season, McDaniels already got the better of Belichick once this year. Their teams held joint practices together ahead of their preseason finale, which the Raiders won 23-6.
The Patriots’ offensive issues from the preseason continue to linger well into December. The current coaches have had a tough time getting the offense going all season, and a former coach could make things even harder for Mac Jones and Co. in Sin City on Sunday.
“The thing I would probably look at is if the Raiders can just stop the Patriots’ run game, I think they’ll have a good chance to make things very interesting,” Simms said. “We know the Patriots’ pass game is not ultra-explosive, they’re not an amazing pass-protecting team and they’ve got some pass-rushers over there for the Raiders that are pretty damn good here.”