Bill Belichick gambles and loses on 4th & 2
Posted by Gayle Saunders on November 16, 2009 · 2 Comments
By Gayle Saunders
With the game on the line and up by 6 on the Patriots own 28 yard line and 2:08 seconds left on the clock., Bill Belichick gambled on the 4th down playcall and lost.
I was watching the game, and like most folks you say to yourself “I guess they gotta punt it away and put in the hands of their defense” Right? I mean 10 times out of 10, every head coach on every level of football Pee Wee to NFL, punts that ball away right?
Reasons I might have gone for it
A) If Peyton Manning had been on fire the ENTIRE game, you go for it.
B) If your down by 3 maybe you go for it, and thats IF Peyton and the colts offense is on extreme fire.
C) If your defense is playing piss poor all game, you go for it.
D) If you’re on the Colts side of the field, say the 40 you go for it.
E) If Belichick put millions down in Vegas on his team to lose, I WOULD GO FOR IT!
Real talk…When your up 6 on your own 28 and its under 2 mins you gotta go with the percentages.
This game right here, could have cost the Patriots home field advantage in the playoffs folks. The season isnt over, but this could come back to bite them in the A$$.
Patriots fans, I would love to know how you feel about this one?
Gayle, there is a clear line between ‘aggressive’ and ‘insane’. Belichick went beyond ‘aggressive’ in that situation. Even if they made the first down, anyone who knows football would likely ask themselves ‘what if that didn’t work?’. So many different variables can happen that can kill a play, so that even if you have a solid play drawn up for that situation, it’s successful completion is far from a guaranteed proposition. Nice work on this and the Bengals article, always enjoy reading both of your work.
Thanks for stopping by Rich always a pleasure to chop it up with you and talk some football. So yea i hear you, the fact that he is taking such a hard stance on it now…is funny. Its a bad call, own it. Face the firing range aka the media and move on. In the future you punt that ball. Case clsoed!
I would love to see the percentages of the succes rates of people going for it on 4th down from their own 30. Thing is, I dont think they have many stats on this matter cause nobody is that crazy enough to do it. lol!