Mike Giardi on Bill Belichick: ‘I feel like I’m watching Jeff Fisher’
During his weekly hour-long segment with Toucher & Rich, Mike Giardi from the Boston Sports Journal, shared his thoughts on Bill Belichick so far this season and how the Patriots coach seemingly changed the coaching.

MEMPHIS, TN – MARCH 02: Jeff Fisher, former NFL Head Coach watches the action from the sideline during an Alliance of American Football game between the Memphis Express and the San Diego Fleet at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium on March 2, 2019 in Memphis, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Murphy/AAF/Getty Images)”n
Giardi notes that Belichick has shifted from a dominant team with a focus on winning championships to a team that often makes excuses for their performance in recent years, similar to Jeff Fisher’s teams, which were notorious for consistently having around a .500 record.
“He’s [Bill Belichick] changed from what he used to be when they were this dominant team that stomped everybody and had Tom Brady. Now, in the last three and a half years, there are all these little caveats like, ‘Well, you know, but we played well,’ ‘we can’t turn the ball over there,’ and ‘I thought they did this, that, and the other thing.’
Wait, what happened to the idea that you’re here to win championships, and to win championships, you have to win games? The team has been sub-.500 for the last four years. I feel like I’m watching Jeff Fisher. That’s what Jeff Fisher was, right? He did the ‘Forever .500,’ right? 7-9 … 9-8… 9-7 every single year.
Yes, he had a three or four-year window where the Titans ended up in the Super Bowl, but he started his career as a .500 coach and finished it as a .500 coach. Bill Belichick, in the last four years, is a .500 coach.”
Rich adds that Belichick has more control over personnel decisions, making the team’s struggles more concerning. Giardi emphasizes the Patriots’ historic ability to turn average players into stars but highlights the absence of elite talent on the current roster. They also discuss the impact of key defensive players like Matthew Judon and Christian Gonzalez potentially being unavailable for an extended period of time.
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In Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys, Mac Jones was benched and replaced by Bailey Zappe in the third quarter. Jones had completed only 12 out of 21 passes and had thrown two interceptions. The score was heavily in favor of Dallas at 31-3, and the final score ended up being 38-3, indicating that the switch to Zappe didn’t help much.
The 35-point loss was the worst in Bill Belichick’s coaching career, and the Patriots have scored only 55 points in their first four games this season, the lowest since Belichick’s first year with the team in 2000.
Nick Gemelli is a Producer for the Toucher and Rich program and contributor for 985thesportshub.com. you can follow Nick at @NickGemelli on Twitter.
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