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Matt Patricia Lionized In New 'SI' Profile Story

By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) -- There's an ever-popular narrative in New England that Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia was merely a "rocket scientist," a bookworm whom Bill Belichick pulled from a lecture at RPI on aeronautical engineering and plonked directly into the Gillette Stadium film room. But contrary to popular belief, Patricia did have something of a football background.

Patricia's career from college to the present day was spotlighted in a new story on SI.com, a piece that goes in-depth but, at the request of the team, does not feature any interviews with Patricia himself. It describes his brief college career as one built on smarts and dependability more than talent or athleticism, which Belichick values strongly in his own players.

As a 5-foot-11, 200-pound guard, Patricia struggled to cover defensive linemen that pushed 300 pounds in a conventional manner. So the RPI coach instructed him to cut-block, a.k.a. cut his opponents down at their knees. He did that on literally every play, which earned him the nickname "Scissors." Patricia held onto a spot on the RPI roster largely because of his encyclopedic knowledge of the team playbook, a quality that certainly drew Belichick to him. It also helps that he coached the defensive line at Amherst College for two seasons.

Speaking of Belichick, he's described in the story by former assistant Mike Judge as a coach who likes his assistants to have a "clean mind." The reason why is clear; so Belichick can "program them to think the way he wants." But while Patricia may ultimately be just a Belichick clone when it comes to defensive strategy or philosophy, he still brings plenty of value in his own right and has done it since he started with the Patriots as an assistant in 2004.

Matt Patricia - New England Patriots Practice
Matt Patricia (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Belichick is known to pore over every last detail in his preparation, and Patricia has been no different. The story says that Patricia "established himself as one of the smartest coaches in any room" from the beginning in New England, which really shouldn't be hard for a man who could have been a rocket scientist. He obsessed over film study at levels rarely seen among coaches, even by Belichick's standards. He helped "digitize" the team's film studies, streamlining the process with computers and generally helping the entire coaching staff, Belichick included, to be more efficient.

He may even have a little bit of the G-word in him when it comes to football ... "genius".

"He'd be helping crack the code for that week's opponent," said Judge. "There were guys in the building that didn't see [a tendency on film] until he pointed it out." And that was back in 2005. Patricia has since worked his way up the ladder from defensive assistant to linebackers coach to defensive coordinator.

Sure, it may be a stretch to suggest that Patricia is actually a football genius. But it was in 2012 that Belichick officially gave Patricia the title of defensive coordinator, and according to the story, "more and more freedom." It was also in 2012, perhaps not coincidentally, that the defense started playing better during that season after several years of ranking near the bottom of the NFL.

The defense's improvement in 2012 was likely more because of a fresh infusion of talent, like the drafting of 2012 first-round picks Chandler Jones and Dont'a Hightower and the midseason acquisition of cornerback Aqib Talib. The defense played even better when it had future Hall-of-Fame cornerback Darrelle Revis manning the secondary in 2014, when the Patriots won their fourth Super Bowl, and hardly missed a beat in 2015 when Malcolm Butler ascended from little-known undrafted rookie to one of the top cornerbacks in the league.

There may be no direct correlation with Patricia, but the reality is that the Patriots defense has generally looked better on the field since he took over as defensive coordinator. Which brings us to the 2016 season, which has presented an entirely new challenge for Patricia.

The article describes the Patriots' surprising amount of turnover on defense as a "makeover," as in the offseason linebacker Jerod Mayo retired and passed the captaincy torch to Dont'a Hightower and the team traded Chandler Jones to the Arizona Cardinals. The real test for Patricia and the defense has come in the weeks since Belichick made the shocking deadline trade of linebacker Jamie Collins, arguably the group's most dynamic talent.

Matt Patricia - AFC Championship - New England Patriots v Denver Broncos
Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

It has not been pretty in the three games since, as the defense had no answers for Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and made middling QBs like Colin Kaepernick and Ryan Fitzpatrick look better than they are. There's no question that essentially cutting a player of Collins' caliber would likely make the defense worse, and at best the move would require a significant transition period in the middle of the season. This isn't the kind of makeover that can transform the defense overnight.

Patricia's group has yet to show that it can stop any passing game since losing Collins and replacing him with a linebacker platoon of Elandon Roberts, Kyle Van Noy, and others. Criticism has started to float Patricia's way, and he could handle it better. But this is undoubtedly the most trying time of Patricia's career, a task that the piece describes as "the most difficult" one Belichick has ever given the defensive coordinator. It remains to be seen if he can pull this test off, and the answer probably won't come until the playoffs.

While the article may come across as a letter of recommendation for Patricia to prospective teams to hire him as a head coach, it concludes by implying that Patricia is happy in New England and wouldn't necessarily want to leave the team in its current situation just to have the top spot on the coaching staff. It nonetheless paints a portrait of a coach who has elevated himself beyond just another slappy. Belichick "sees himself" in Patricia perhaps more than he has in any other coach.

Yes, Patricia has long been indoctrinated by the Belichickian mindset and as a defensive coordinator may be little more than a Belichick surrogate. He may not have the chops to be a head coach, as ex-Belichick assistants like Eric Mangini and Jim Schwartz have shown. He may not be a so-called "football genius" like the head coach is. But his time in New England and ascendance into Belichick's tightest inner circle shows that he's more than just the coach's errand boy. He's an essential cog in the Patriots machine, and much of the defense's performance for the rest of the 2016 season will be up to him.

Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.

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