FOXBORO – Whenever the Patriots play the Bengals -- and that’s happened six times while Bill Belichick and Marvin Lewis have been the head coaches -- each man gives the other a verbal rubdown.
They are contemporaries and had significant AFC North (and AFC Central prior to 2002) ties when Belichick was with the Browns and Lewis was with the Steelers and Ravens.
Lewis, who is 1-5 against the Patriots and Belichick, was asked Wednesday what he’s learned from the New England coach.
“Patience,” answered Lewis. “When I came to the league, it was Bill’s second year in Cleveland, with me in Pittsburgh and the Cleveland-Pittsburgh thing, and always competing against them. I noticed his steady hand and patience with building a football team. He has his kind of people; physical and big-bodied. Later on, he ended up in New England as the coordinator when I was given my first opportunity to be coordinator in ’96. I remember we played the Patriots, and it was one of those shootouts. I think the only person who looked worse than me in the stadium after the game was Bill, because neither one of us had great days as coordinators [Belichick was actually a secondary coach for that ’96 Patriots team that beat the Ravens 46-38 in a Drew Bledsoe-Mark Brunell shootout].
“He learned a lot,” Lewis said of Belichick. “I got an opportunity over time to spend time talking with him about different things. I see football similarly to the way he does, and you appreciate that about him. He’s a real football person that way; very genuine. You appreciate that when you have a chance, whether in meetings or on the road, or spending time talking about things. You like his ability to adjust the football team, to get them to understand what’s important at the moment, and not worry about last week or next week. That’s very important, and you learn that as you follow him. One year when we were up there I went up to work a football camp and he brought me over and said, ‘Let’s go coach the DBs.’ You enjoy that part of Bill.”
Lewis takes a lot of heat for his inability to win a playoff game (0-7) and the perceived lack of respect shown for his authority as a head coach. That came into focus last January when the Bengals came unhinged against Pittsburgh and handed the Steelers a playoff win.
That’s the kind of performance that had commentator Stephen A. Smith unloading on Lewis this week, stating that the only reason Lewis hasn’t been fired is because he’s black. Seems a stretch. More accurate would be Smith’s other point, that Lewis doesn’t get fired because he works cheaply.
Either way, Belichick’s opinion of Lewis remains steady.
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“Marvin obviously does a great job, his staff,” Belichick said Wednesday. “There’s a lot of continuity with the Bengals even though they’ve had some changes to the coaching staff through the years, particularly this year with Hue [Jackson], that they still have a lot of continuity in what they do. They keep doing the same things with Coach Lewis’ plan regardless of who the different coordinators have been and who the personnel have been. They’ve been able to replace those people, players and coaches, and continue to achieve a lot of success on the football field. Marvin does a great job with the team, their fundamentals, their execution, again, their overall consistency.”
