In wake of the Patriots loss to the Packers on Sunday, it was considerably curious why Bill Belichick opted to punt on fourth-and-five from Green Bay’s 46-yard line after their first and solely possession of additional time.
The Packers had gone three-and-out on their opening OT drive and have been pressured to punt. Patriots rookie returner Marcus Jones superior the ball 20 yards on the punt return to set his workforce up in Packer territory with an opportunity to win the sport.
Damien Harris ripped off a five-yard run on first down and after two performs with no advance, Belichick had a choice to make.
Gamble and go for it, with rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe, or give the ball again to Aaron Rodgers.
Belichick opted to play it protected, reasonably than aggressively go after the primary down, and a doable win. In the tip, Belichick mentioned going for it actually wasn’t “heavily considered” in that circumstance.
Why?
During a video convention Monday morning, Belichick defined.
“We were able to put them on a long field . . . Look, the longer it is, the harder it is to make that decision,” Belichick mentioned with respect to the down and distance in that state of affairs. “I certainly wouldn’t want to come up short on fourth-and-five and hand them the ball a first down away from field goal range. There’s a tradeoff there.”
If the Patriots did not make the primary down, Rodgers would have had a brief discipline to function from to realize the profitable rating. Instead, Patriots punter Jake Bailey was in a position to pin the Packers again on their 10.
Rodgers wound up killing them anyway, driving the Packers into discipline aim vary earlier than Nelson Crosby drilled the 31-yard game-winner for the 27-24 additional time win.
Source: www.bostonherald.com