'Beli' of the beast: Why young QBs struggle against Bill Belichick's Patriots

Sam Darnold saw ghosts against Bill Belichick’s defense. Zach Wilson heard boos.

The Patriots’ coach is a master at flustering young quarterbacks. He changes coverages. He disguises things. Belichick’s defense makes them feel uncomfortable and forces them into bad decisions and bad throws.

The Patriots do it against most young quarterbacks and have feasted recently on the Jets.

Darnold had his first four-interception game the second time he faced the Patriots as a Jet. It was a 2019 Monday night game when a mic’d-up Darnold famously said, “I’m seeing ghosts.” He threw one touchdown pass and six interceptions in three games against New England.

Wilson had his first four-interception game in his first career game against Belichick last year at MetLife Stadium. When the teams met three weeks ago, Wilson had a career-high 355 passing yards but threw three interceptions in the Jets’ 22-17 home loss. He was booed both times.

The Jets play at Gillette Stadium on Sunday looking to end a 13-game losing streak against the Patriots. That probably won’t happen if Wilson doesn’t take care of the ball.

“He can’t worry about what happened in the past,” offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said. “He has to learn from what’s happened in the past. I’m not worried about him or anybody else doing too much. They got to make their play, not the play.”

The Jets continue to express complete confidence in Wilson.

Robert Saleh said people on the outside are “holding [Wilson] hostage to four or five plays he had against New England.” Saleh believes that Wilson, 23, learned from that. He said everyone has “a lot of faith” in the second-year quarterback doing what the Jets need to win.

First and foremost is playing a clean football game, which means throwing the ball away sometimes. Wilson said it’s “frustrating” to throw the ball away and not be able to make a play. Sometimes that’s the best play, though, especially against Belichick.

“I got to throw the ball away,” Wilson said. “Even in a moment of feeling like you want to make a play and have something happen, you can’t just throw a ball up like I did.”

Wilson has endured nothing but pain in three games against New England. He had his two worst games and suffered a second-quarter knee injury last year that kept him out of four games. In the two games he finished, he was 39-for-74 for 565 yards, two touchdowns and seven interceptions. His passer rating was 47.4.

Same old, same old.

During the Jets’ 13-game skid, they started a quarterback with less than three years of experience eight times. Those quarterbacks led four touchdown drives — total — and threw three touchdown passes and 14 interceptions. The Patriots’ average margin of victory in those eight games was 22.9 points.

“Historically, they’ve done a very good job against young quarterbacks,” LaFleur said. “That can’t be an excuse.”

Wilson said the Patriots play “good team defense” and it’s “tough to know what to expect sometimes.”

That’s the Patriots’ Way, or the Belichick Way.

He believes in playing to his team’s strengths and attacking the opponent’s weakness. It’s a philosophy he adopted from “Art of War” by Sun Tzu.

Backup quarterback Mike White, who replaced Wilson last year and threw his first NFL touchdown pass against New England, said many things factor into why Belichick’s defense has been successful against young quarterbacks.

White said the Patriots play a “flavor-of-the-week defense,” meaning they will show you something totally different from your last matchup or in their last game. White also said there is the mystique of playing against the legendary coach and an organization that has won six Super Bowls this century.

“They play sticky man coverage and then they’ll pop out into their zones and change it up,” White said. “They do a good job of always keeping you guessing. They’re what you call a Rolodex defense: They always change their calls.

“You can kind of get caught, like when people play the Yankees, they say don’t get caught staring at the pinstripes. Kind of really similar, especially recently with the Patriots’ success.”

Joe Flacco, who is 3-7 against New England, including two playoff wins, credits the Patriots’ coaching staff for “being able to manipulate their game plans” based on the opponent.

Flacco said it’s hard to know what the Patriots will do. It can affect young quarterbacks who thought they would see one thing and are hit with something else.

“Maybe that can throw guys for a loop,” said Flacco, who also thinks the New England mystique is real. “You definitely can feed into that a little bit. I’m sure that’s one of a handful of factors. They don’t beat themselves. They let you beat yourself. When people win so many games, you tend to overdo it and talk yourself into making mistakes.”

White said the talking points in the quarterback room are the same this week: protect the football and make good decisions. If there is a difference, it’s expect the unexpected and then adjust.

Wilson is a competitive player. He probably wants to have that statement 350-yard, three-touchdown passing game against the Patriots to quiet his critics, but the Jets aren’t concerned about him trying to do too much.

The Jets believe he is good at turning the page, win or lose, and focusing on the next game. Wilson did that after the New England debacle. He didn’t throw an interception against Buffalo and led the Jets to an unexpected win.

“This kid is very, very resilient,” LaFleur said. “That’s why I believe in this kid so much because he’s extremely resilient. He was going to play the best game possible [against] Buffalo, whatever that meant. He was going to go do his job. He was going to learn from his mistakes.”

Said White, “You got to have short-term memory and you got to make the best decision play in and play out for the Jets. Zach did a great job of that against Buffalo. He learned from New England and he keeps getting better. I think he’ll show it again this week.”

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.