Patriots’ Bill Belichick Impressive Against Rookie QBs

When the term football genius is used, Bill Belichick the head coach of the New England Patriots comes to mind.

This weekend the Patriots will play the Houston Texans and the New England head coach loves to face rookie quarterbacks. His next victim could be Houston’s Deshaun Watson on Sunday.

Since Belichick took the reins as the Patriots head coach, opposing rookie quarterbacks have gone 0-8 straight up and just 2-6 against the spread on the road at New England. The eight signal callers have passed for a combined 5 touchdown and 16 interceptions and have a collective passer rating of just 50.7.

Belichick loves to make life difficult for first-year quarterbacks with a career record as a coach of 16-5 SU while 12-9 ATS dating back to 2001.

Houston (+13.5) is the fifth straight team with a rookie starting at quarterback to be double-digit dogs versus New England. As of Saturday morning, the line had increased to Patriots -14. The Patriots are 10-0 SU and 7-3 ATS when chalk of 10 points or more and facing a rookie quarterback.

In nine out of the first 12 games that Belichick coached against a rookie quarterback, the OVER cashed, but over the past nine games rookies have played against Belichick coached teams the UNDER has cashed in 7.

On Sunday, the total for the Texans and Patriots game opened at 44 and has remained close to that figure all week. Watson did face New England during the preseason where he was 3-for-10 passing. He also had a rushing touchdown.

Watson said he expects the New England defense will throw up several defensive sets, schemes and alignments against him.

It cannot be too comforting for Bill O’Brien the Houston head coach to be sending his rookie quarterback out against the Patriots.

O’Brien’s teams since he took over at Houston in 2014 have gone 0-3 SU and ATS versus the Patriots. In the three games, Houston has been outscored by New England 88-22, and that was a veteran starting under center for the Texans.