Whereas the Maurice Jones-Drew decision to kneel at the 1 was questionable, there’s no debate about the Patriots’ decision to try for a first down on 4th and 2 and their 29 with two minutes left. It was simply a horrendous, stupid call. The end result for the game explains every reason why it was a brutal call. I can’t imagine anyone having watched that game not wondering what the bleep the Pats were thinking when they decided to go for it in that situation. The bad decisions, as glaring as that one was, doesn’t even end with that call.
Despite rolling up 31 points on Indy and being up by just 10 with under eight minutes left, the Pats went conservative and decided it was time to switch up the gameplan and start running it out. They got a blessing in an interception at the 31 of the Colts and instead of going for the jugular, they played it conservatively and settled for the field goal to go up 34-21 with 4 minutes left. I’m still wondering why they didn’t try for a touchdown especially given the way they had moved the ball all game. Lastly, when Joseph Addai broke loose on a run with 1:20 left, they should have done what the Jets did and let him walk into the end zone. The guy who thought he was making a “game saving” tackle wound up making a win-preventing stop. You telling me Brady couldn’t have set the team up for a field goal with 1:15 on the clock? I would have taken my odds with that compared the Colts chances of scoring from a yard out with four tries.
Awful, awful, awful decision by Belichick. I cannot believe how a guy can be that smart so much of the time can make such a poor choice at such a critical moment. Unbelievable.
