Tom Coughlin won't be coaching the Jaguars in next Sunday's AFC Championship game between Jacksonville and the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots. But his mere presence at Gillette Stadium will surely be a symbolic reminder of his impact on Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.
Coughlin is now the Jaguars' director of football operations, and his team has been the surprise of this year's playoffs, eking out a 10-3 win over the Bills in last week's AFC wild-card round and shocking the Steelers, 45-42, at Heinz Field in Sunday's divisional playoffs. The last two times Belichick faced a team under Coughlin's influence: the Patriots' only two losses in the Super Bowl.
Belichick's Patriots are now one step away from getting to their eighth Super Bowl during his tenure, but to get there, they must beat a Jaguars team that has been positively magnificent in bouncing back from a 3-13 season last year and winning the AFC South. Jaguars coach Doug Marrone has been on the sidelines for that run, but Coughlin's influence in creating important changes to the team _ including the drafting of rookie running back Leonard Fournette and the signing of free agent defensive end Calais Campbell _ has been undeniable.
And while the Patriots are favored to get past the Jaguars and into the Super Bowl Feb. 4 in Minneapolis, Belichick must now face a team with a lead executive who has proven to be his Super Bowl kryptonite. As a coach, Coughlin led the Giants to shocking wins over the Patriots in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI, with Eli Manning getting the best of Tom Brady both times.
Belichick didn't know whether he'd be facing the Steelers or Jaguars next week when he met with the media after Saturday night's 35-14 win over the Titans and again on Sunday morning. He thus won't address any storyline like his matchup against Coughlin until Monday, but rest assured it will be a relevant theme in the run-up to next week's game.
Coughlin watched Sunday's shocking upset from the press box, and was a nervous wreck, muttering to himself throughout the game and even cursing as his team eventually survived a wild finish. He'll likely do the same in the Gillette Stadium press box, where the lead executives from opposing teams usually sit to watch games. Coughlin may have been shown the door by the Giants after coaching his 12th season in 2015, but his competitive fires burn just as brightly now that he's in the Jaguars' front office.
So even though Belichick won't look across the field and see Coughlin on the Jacksonville sideline, the Jags will certainly reflect Coughlin's pugnacious spirit as they face the NFL's longest running dynasty.
Belichick will no doubt downplay any outward significance of facing a team influenced so greatly by Coughlin, although the Patriots coach has consistently expressed respect for the former Giants' coach, who was an assistant on Bill Parcells' staff when the Giants beat the Bills in Super Bowl XXV after the 1990 season.
As he always does, regardless of the circumstances, Belichick will concentrate on his own team and what the Patriots need to do to win. The coach was particularly pleased after Saturday night's convincing win over the Titans, and it was yet another example of Belichick's remarkable ability to assimilate so many different players during a given season. Surely Brady's presence can't be ignored as the one constant for a team that has dominated so many of the past 18 seasons, yet Belichick's skill at dealing with ever-changing rosters has been equally important to the team's overall success.
No Rob Gronkowski in last year's playoffs? No problem; the Patriots won their fifth Super Bowl title since 2001, in large part by focusing more attention on diminutive wide receiver Julian Edelman to make up for the injured tight end's absence.
No Edelman this season? All good; Belichick has spread the ball around plenty, with Danny Amendola the latest to replace Edelman's catches in Saturday night's 35-14 win over the Titans. It was Amendola who produced his first 100-yard receiving game in the postseason, as he led New England with 11 catches for 112 yards and drew effusive praise from Belichick afterward.
"Danny does a great job for us," the coach said. "His ball handling, his reliability, dependability is exceptional. Danny has great concentration, tough, really a smart football player, makes good decisions, good judgment, knows how to get open, makes some big catches in tough situations. So, he's kind of guy you take for granted, but he delivered a lot tonight, as he always does."
Saturday's win, which put the Patriots into the AFC Championship for the seventh straight season, was a textbook example of the coach putting the right pieces together and producing another gem _ or, as Belichick likes to put it, "a great team win."
"I think you just have to give these guys a lot of credit," Belichick said of his players. "This group is this group. It's not really about some other team or some other group, what they did or didn't or have or haven't done. But these guys come to work every day, they work hard, they compete well. They do what the coaches and what the staff ask them to do. They try to get better and they're very professional and attentive to detail and work hard to improve.
"That's really what we all need to do, is to keep working to improve and do a better job. They've done that. I think that's shown up over the course of the season. I'm proud of the way they've gone about it."
He hopes to be proud once more after Sunday's game against the Jaguars. But he knows not to underestimate a team that is so new to the playoffs. After all, Belichick knows from experience that the man at the top won't settle for anything less than victory.
