Saint coach Sean Payton wanted to win badly enough to take a pay cut to facilitate the hiring of Greg Williams.
Williams preaches aggressiveness, but not mindlessly so. He teaches players not to simply roll the dice, but to take advantage of being prepared -- "believe in what you see". On his game sealing interception -- the Saints' second in two games -- Tracy Porter said: "All week, we watched it on film... They went to it a lot. And when that route came, it was just like I was watching it on film."
This approach rubbed off on Payton. His signature call, the aptly named Ambush, was pure preparation-driven aggression.
Earlier in the season I contrasted one approach -- attributed to Belicheck's supporters -- of making coaching descisions according to a logic deaf to effect on players, with one that is first of all concerned with player and team development.
The former camp would have supported Jim Caldwell's choice to throw the last two games of the season. But that descision sent a clear message to his team that they were good enough to be champions without giving their best through every minute of every game. In some way it was also the message Bill Polian sent the team when he replaced a Hall of Fame coach with an unproven one.
There is justice, then, in the Saints victory. The tragedy is that Peyton Manning, who unlike the organization he plays for, takes nothing for granted, was not able to impose his values on his team.
No comments:
Post a Comment