Belichick: Lawrence Taylor knew his blocker by the fear in their eyes

For Lawrence Taylor, arguably the greatest defensive player in NFL history, all it took was a look at the face of the opposing offensive lineman to know who would be attempting - and likely failing - to block him.

According to New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who was Taylor's defensive coordinator with the New York Giants, the pass-rusher could work it out due to the fear he could see in an opponent's eyes.

"A player like Lawrence was such a special athlete, but a really special player because of his awareness and instinctiveness," Belichick said in May on Paul Rabil's podcast, according to Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith.

"Taylor had the ability, when he stood on the end of the line of scrimmage, which is where he played as an outside linebacker/defensive end, he could just tell, it didn't matter who the person was, or what the play was, or anything else, he could just tell by the look of the opponent on the other side of the line of scrimmage who was going to block him, and that was by how scared they were."

He continued: "When that tackle was looking at him like, 'If I'm one split-second late out of my stance, if I am a few inches off on my angle or step, this guy's going to be behind me.' They'd have that scared-to-death look. And Taylor could just tell by looking at the guy whether the guy was blocking him or not."

And it wasn't just offensive linemen who couldn't hide their dread at facing Taylor, whom Belichick called "the best defensive player I've ever coached, by a good margin."

"The same thing with the quarterback," Belichick said. "Taylor would anticipate it was a run because the quarterback didn't care about him, it was somebody else's problem. But if it was a pass play, and the quarterback looked at Taylor like, 'Is he rushing? Is he not rushing? Do I have him picked up?'

"Before the ball was snapped, he could just tell by the terror he felt from that individual, look in the guy's eye or how nervous he was from play to play, you know run/pass, which guy's blocking me, that kind of thing. He would often times come off and tell me that, after the first or second series, he said, 'I can read this on every play. It's easy.' Because the tackle, if he had him in pass protection, was scared to death."

It's hard to blame any offensive player for being petrified by the uniquely dominant Taylor, who finished his career with 10 first-team All-Pro nods, three Defensive Player of the Year awards, and 132.5 sacks.