"If it doesn't go well, blame me."
Honestly, it could all stop right there with that quote from Patriots head coach Bill Belichick to The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy on the eve of what became another lost season for New England.
Belichick, responding to the first-guessing about his decision to effectively split offensive duties among himself, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, took preemptive responsibility. The buck stops here, Belchick said.
"I think they're both good coaches," Belichick told Shaughnessy. "Ultimately, it's my responsibility, like it always is. So if it doesn't go well, blame me."
Well, here we are. The Patriots went 8-9 and missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. Patricia sure wasn't good, nor was quarterback Mac Jones for most of the season. The Patriots haven't won a playoff game since Super Bowl LIII, a drought that is the longest of the Kraft ownership tenure, let alone Belichick's time in Foxboro.
Belichick is the greatest of all time, and he's not only compensated as such but he is afforded a level of trust and autonomy that is unlikely matched in the rest of the NFL.
It is his fault.
"Ultimately, I'm responsible for all of it," the Patriots coach told WEEI in August. "If you want to ask who's in charge, then it would be me. I have the final say in everything. That's the way it's been, and I don't see it changing."
It will be quite interesting to see whether Robert Kraft agrees with that last part. If he doesn't, and if Belichick is unwilling to change, there might be seismic change inside Gillette Stadium this winter and spring.
The assumption is, at the end of the day, Belichick and Kraft come to some sort of agreement about changes to the staff. That's not an informed assumption, though both stand to lose too much otherwise. If Belichick refuses to play ball, it could cost him his job. On the other side, does Kraft want to lose the greatest quarterback and head coach the sport has ever seen over the course of just a few years?
Good leaders give credit to everyone else when things go well, and they take the blame when it doesn't. After winning all of his Super Bowls, Belichick makes sure to credit his players and coaches before anything else.
He has said all along this season that he would shoulder the blame for failing to meet expectations. That is what happened with his team once again this season. That said, Belichick lamenting the team's willingness to spend money paired with a tepid review of the quarterback he spent all summer gassing up is an odd way to say "my bad" less than 24 hours after the season ends.
Regardless, the mounting disappointments paired with his costly decision-making with his Patriots coaching staff might require a little more than "blame me" from Belichick this time around.
