Bill Belichick Is NFL Coach of the Year At Halfway Point

By Justin Patrick @calling_allfans on October 30, 2014

He may have the luxury of having a future Hall of Fame QB under center, but New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is the Coach of the Year at the midway point of the 2014 season. There are other viable options such as Jason Garrett (Dallas Cowboys) and Bruce Arians (Arizona Cardinals) among others, and Patriots haters would probably vote for another coach besides Belichick, but The Hoodie is more deserving of any of them at the moment.

The Patriots were left for dead after an embarrassing loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football in Week 4, which led to the team starting the season 2-2. Everyone was saying the Patriots, particularly Belichick and Tom Brady, were finished. The Patriots then won their next four games, and their record is currently 6-2. The Patriots’ offense averaged 39.5 points per game during that four-game stretch, while the defense allowed an average of 21.75 points per game in that same span.

Their only two losses were on the road, and after rattling off four consecutive wins, the Patriots all of a sudden look like one of the favorites in the AFC and could possibly win the Super Bowl.

Yes, Brady has been magnificent (particularly in October), but Belichick deserves much of the praise. The 2-2 start, the horrible loss to the Chiefs on national TV, and all of the outside chatter might have driven most teams into the ground, and their seasons would have been all but over. That didn’t happen to the Patriots. They regrouped, didn’t make any excuses and righted the ship in a big way. Belichick is an enormous reason for the Patriots’ dramatic turnaround and success thus far this season.

The Patriots have been one of the NFL’s hottest and best teams through the entire month of October despite a young and largely unproven wide receiving corps. There have also been injuries to key players, including LB Jerod Mayo (out of the season), RB Stevan Ridley (out for the season) and DE Chandler Jones (probably out for the season). Somehow, the Patriots’ defense is playing well without Mayo and Jones, and the offense is clicking even with Ridley on IR.

Belichick has been named the AP Coach of the Year three times in his career (2003, 2007 and 2010) and as of right now, he deserves to receive this distinction for a fourth time.

Justin Patrick is a New England Patriots writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @calling_allfans, like him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google. You can also email him at [email protected]