Winslow Townson / AP

Suddenly, Bill Belichick doesn't look like a genius anymore, NBCSports.com columnist Ron Borges writes.

Or was it simply a case of Steve Belichick understanding all along that you can have all the books written about you that you want (the younger Belichick has had two in the last two years) but that doesn't change the fundamental fact of coaching life — nobody's a genius if he doesn't have great players.

Take safety Rodney Harrison out of the secondary and suddenly not only is there a hole at his position but there's a far less productive player at the other safety position too.

Take Tom Brady out of the Patriots offense and suddenly ... Oh, Lord don't even think about that.

Bill Walsh is considered by many to be one of the greatest offensive coaches ever to lead an NFL team. What he did with the 49ers is the measuring stick of his era. Yet when he had Steve DeBerg running his West Coast offense instead of Joe Montana, no one thought of him as a genius. So what was he doing then? Calling different plays?

This is not meant to disparage Bill Belichick. He is one of the finest coaches of his time and the most successful coach of the New Millenium, having won three Super Bowls in the salary cap era. He is a brilliant tactician both during the week and on game day.

But the fact is he is not a genius' any more than Tony Dungy is now, or Walsh and Shanahan once were. They are all good coaches. So is Andy Reid and Bill Parcells and Joe Gibbs and a number of other coaches.

The coaching job Belichick did to win his first Super Bowl over the high-flying St. Louis Rams was a remarkable plan, a tour de force in which he used the Rams' reliance on throwing the ball against them. His counterpart on the other sideline, Mike Martz, has never been accused of being a genius and he proved why in that game, stubbornly refusing to abandon the pass despite the inability of New England to stop Marshall Faulk.

The plan was genius. So was the execution. But if asked to run the same plan with the team he has this year, one doubts Bill Belichick would have much success against that Rams team.

Such is the fragile nature of genius among coaches. Bill Belichick is among the finest coaches in professional football. He is brilliant. But, as his father well knew, he's no genius except when there's enough talent on the field to make him one.

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