Midway by Thursday night time’s loss to Buffalo, the Patriots began their closing first-half drive at their 42-yard line with 1:20 remaining.
Three performs into the possession, they had been stuffed on a second-and-1 run in Bills territory and allowed 10 seconds to run off earlier than calling a timeout from the sideline because the offense hurried to snap the ball on third down. It was initially unclear whether or not the Patriots had moved the chains. Then, after the timeout, they ran a profitable quarterback sneak on third-and-1 and burned their closing timeout with 32 seconds left.
The sneak marked the third run name in 4 performs in opposition to the Bills, who had been allowed to sit down again in deep, mushy protection for the rest of the possession to stop a landing. With 33 yards and 32 seconds to achieve the tip zone, the Pats gained simply 4 yards and tried a area objective. That kick, a 48-yarder, hit the crossbar with 0:10 left and the Patriots trailed 17-7 heading into the break.
On Friday morning, Bill Belichick mentioned he accredited of the timeout utilization and play-calling that led to a disjointed end to that crucial drive.
“Yeah, just making sure we had the situation there. Initially, it looked like we had a first down and then we didn’t,” Belichick mentioned of the timeout earlier than third down. “So, (we) should’ve identified it quicker.”
Belichick denied the offense was taking part in for a area objective at that second.
“No,” Belichick mentioned, “the thinking was to get a first down and try to score.”
The Patriots had been then held scoreless till Folk drilled a meaningless 39-yard area objective with 1:57 left within the sport, by which level Buffalo led by 17.
Source: www.bostonherald.com