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Why do I think Bill Belichick and the Patriots will not run up the score against the Jets this weekend? I’ll tell you, in a roundabout way…

I know the prevailing view is that New England is going to run the score up and run the Jets out of town in retaliation for many things, not just camera-gate, or whatever buzz word is being used by the media these days. But I think that view is shallow, and shows why the rest of us are always one step behind the Patriots.

To wit: It is anathema to Belichick that the media, or the public in general, would know what he is going to do before any event happens. Besides trying to win football games, he keeps us guessing at his every move. When we think we have things figured out, he does something different. When we think we know what he did, and why, it often later comes out that we were wrong in our interpretation of events. He's like a magician that way.

Case in point...The spying: The Pats had a cameraman very obviously taping the Jets sideline in Week One. They got caught and punished.

Is that it?

Are some of us actually dumb enough think that Belichick - acknowledged by most who know him as some sore of workaholic / demi-genius - would not have known that he would get ratted out by his former protégé if he flaunted this filming right in front of his face? Of course he knew Mangini woud rat. He had to.

So why did Belichick have someone filming? To get caught, of course. Why else would you do something against the rules in front of the person most likely to rat on you? There is no other reason, unless insanity or stupidity runs in your family, and Belichick appears to have clean genes in those regards, anyway. And if not, he has certainly outsmarted the defective ones.

Bear with me here: Why would he want to get caught?

It seems pretty apparent that Belichick is, as mentioned, a workaholic. He studies film, photos, audio, everything, it seems, all the time. When he is not actually coaching, he is looking for something to coach about. He is not a lazy man.

Now, many people are lazy. At least lazy to the point that they might like to lessen their workload, and who wouldn’t? Having this sort of video would make game study that much easier, but would it really give you any more information than what you can get going by the rules and using audio, still pics and good, old-fashioned note-taking? No. All the film does is expedite the process of putting together the pieces of the puzzle, so to speak. From all accounts, this is the sort of thing Belichick relishes in doing.

So, again, why would he film? Again, to get caught. So, we are back to asking why he would want to get caught.

The not-so-obvious answer is that Bill Belichick wanted to get caught filming so that the practice would be brought out into the open and stopped. Have we noticed that no other coaches said anything about the whole scandal? That is because they were either doing the same thing or had done the same thing, or had been involved with an organization that did the same thing at some point. And no one wants to cast a stone knowing that they, too, are guilty, even if only by association.

So, without making any enemies in the coaching fraternity, the only way for Belichick to take this practice out of the league was for he himself to get caught. He is smart enough to know that the first timer would get a relatively small punishment compared to what someone who got caught afterwards would get. The fines he and the Patriots had to pay were small potatoes compared to what they received in return.

Even losing a first-round draft pick is not necessarily that bad of a problem for a team like New England. What round was Brady picked in? Bruschi? Colvin? Harrison? What round was the pick they got (gave up) Moss in? Thomas? Vrabel? Welker? If you can tell me what round Welker was drafted in, I’ll send you a pencil.

Point is that first-round draft picks are often somewhat overrated. Especially when you have a good front office and scouting department such as those had by the Patriots. Now, for a team like the Dolphins, who lack intelligence in either of those, a 1st-rounder would be a much bigger blow.

So, did New England get in return? Basically, a guarantee that the rest of the NFL would henceforth have to put as much effort as Belichick and his staff do into figuring out what the opposition is going to do in any situation. The info is there for all, if they want it, but it takes a lot more work now to piece it all together.

Work that Belichick loves to do.

He also knew what a special team he had coming into this season. Anything that could help this team show how special it is, Belichick would do. He just made sure that the rest of the coaches would have to work hard if they wanted to have any chance of beating his team

Back to why the Patriots won’t run up the score this Sunday.

There is no revenge factor. Mangini did just as he was supposed to. He ratted. If anything, Belichick is merely thankful that he knew the man so well and could use him to this advantage. He has no reason to embarrass Mangini now, at least not for the spying thing.

There is one more reason Belichick won’t tell Tom Brady and Randy Moss and the rest of the crew to run up the score. Going back to how The Coach hates to think anyone knows what he is going to do. What do you think would make him the happiest, besides just plain winning the game on Sunday?

Proving the media, and the rest of the world wrong about him. Yet again.

There you have it. The Patriots will not rout the Jets in Foxboro this Sunday…because they can.

It seems TheFanYard.com crew feels the same way, as they have the Yardstick for the Jets at Patriots game favoring the Pats by just 15 points. Feel differently. Join FanYard and make your prediction.