Belichick's Temporary Insanity....

[Bullaholic]

Can anybody please explain to me the following situation decision by arguably the best coach in the NFL?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1116/p02s01-usgn.html

[crzyjournalist03]

He talked to Barry Switzer about the play, and Barry told him to go for it.

[LE Dad]

LOL, I started watching something else cause the Pats were in control. Popped it back on and they were interviewing Manning :eek: :eek: Hit the rewind and :doh: . Put your defense in a position to close it out. :rolleyes: I think he outcoached himself :thinking:

[waterboy]

Yeah, I can't believe he actually went for it on 4th down from his own 30 with under 2:00 minutes to go. That didn't send the right message to his defense, in my opinion. This loss, without a doubt, goes to Coach Belichick. Not only did go for it, didn't he also have 2 timeouts left? When it was obvious that the Colts would score, he should've used them timeouts to save enough time on the clock for the Patriot offense to possibly move down and score a field goal to win. I guess if the offense would've made the first down, the point would've been moot.....but.....still that was not a good move, in my opinion.

[ziggy29]

If you looked at the flow of the 4th quarter, I don't think it's unreasonable to think that you have a better chance of picking up the first down than you have of stopping Manning with 2:00 left and 70 yards to go.

It was clearly a vote of no confidence in his defense, though he had justification for that vote. But even if he thought it the right percentage move, now you have your defense believing your coach has no confidence in you.

It also shows why coaches play it safe and follow the conventional wisdom even when the conventional wisdom may be wrong. No one ever got fired for buying IBM, so the old saying went, and no coach ever got excoriated for following the "conventional wisdom" even if it wasn't the best thing to do. When you ignore the conventional wisdom -- even if you think it the higher percentage play under the circumstances -- and it blows up on you, you're an idiot. Follow the conventional wisdom and punt, and even if the Colts score a TD people would be talking about Manning's brilliance instead of the Hoodie's insanity.

The "safe" choice isn't always the right choice, but for better or worse it keeps coaches and managers from being pilloried in the press.

[Bullaholic]

Perhaps this is an over-simplification, but here is how I see Belichick's decisions.

1. Make 2 yds. and you get the win.

2. Give one of the best last 2:00 QB's in history a 29yd. field or a 70yd. field to drive for the win if you don't make it. Duh....

[crzyjournalist03]

Originally posted by waterboy
Yeah, I can't believe he actually went for it on 4th down from his own 30 with under 2:00 minutes to go. That didn't send the right message to his defense, in my opinion. This loss, without a doubt, goes to Coach Belichick. Not only did go for it, didn't he also have 2 timeouts left? When it was obvious that the Colts would score, he should've used them timeouts to save enough time on the clock for the Patriot offense to possibly move down and score a field goal to win. I guess if the offense would've made the first down, the point would've been moot.....but.....still that was not a good move, in my opinion.

no, he wasted the timeouts before the 4th down play. They called one BEFORE first down after the kickoff, then they called another one before the 4th down play to discuss it before they ran it and failed.

[ziggy29]

Originally posted by crzyjournalist03
no, he wasted the timeouts before the 4th down play. They called one BEFORE first down after the kickoff, then they called another one before the 4th down play to discuss it before they ran it and failed.
To me the misuse of those two timeouts and the play calling in their last possession was more to blame than the decision to go for it.

And if you are going to go for it on 4th and 2, why are you passing (and stopping the clock on an incompletion) on 3rd and 2? That to me was a much worse decision than the decision to go for it on 4th.

[waterboy]

Originally posted by crzyjournalist03
no, he wasted the timeouts before the 4th down play. They called one BEFORE first down after the kickoff, then they called another one before the 4th down play to discuss it before they ran it and failed.
Oh.....I stand corrected. I didn't get to see the game, except for the 4th down play and the last 3 plays before the Colt TD, and was in and out with other things to prevent seeing everything that transpired. It was still a bad decision by Belichick either way, in my opinion. Like I say, though, had the Patriots made that first down we would not even be having this debate.

[kaorder1999]

Originally posted by waterboy
Like I say, though, had the Patriots made that first down we would not even be having this debate.


i still would have thought it was a stupid decision to go for it on their own 28 whether they made it or not!

[waterboy]

Originally posted by kaorder1999
i still would have thought it was a stupid decision to go for it on their own 28 whether they made it or not!
Ditto. It definitely sent the wrong message to his defense, too, in my opinion.:thinking: Hmmmm.......make a team drive 70 yards for a score in under 2 minutes, ........OR make a team drive 30 yards in that amount of time?:doh:

[GrTigers6]

I liked that decision better then the Jaguars decision to kneel at the one when Drew was going into the endzone behind by one. What if the kick was blocked or he just flat missed it.:thinking:

[wimbo_pro]

Saddest part about it is that Welker was wide open for the first down...he just didnt see him.

[ziggy29]

In a series of polls about the decision on ESPN, about 60% say there was no excuse for going for it on 4th down.

Also, 52% said they thought the Colts would win even if the Patriots punted.

So my question to at least 12% of the people out there would be: why do you think it was inexcusable NOT to punt if you thought punting would lead to a Colts victory anyway?

[Cowboy_Up]

I think having the stones to make a call like that is what separates great coaches from good ones. Yes, it backfired this time so all the Monday morning QBs can act like experts and say he was wrong, but I don't think BB cares what anyone else thinks. I also think he knew his D was gassed and he also has great confidence in his QB, so he rolled the dice. I’d be willing to bet that if you polled the Colt’s coaching staff as Brady approached the line, it’d be unanimous that they’d rather the Pats punt then go for it. This time it backfired, but you have to remember that the Colts may have scored either way. BB evaluated the risks and made the type of choice that he gets right more often than not.

John Wooden once had his team foul the opposition with little time left and a 1 point lead. Wooden knew the foul would send them to the line and he knew they might make both which would put UCLA behind by 1. In fact, that's what happened, only UCLA went down and scored to win the game. Afterwards he was asked why he would do such a thing and he said he didn't like the match-up his D faced, but he liked his chances of scoring and he wanted to be in control of what happened, pro-active vs. re-active.

Great coaches think differently and they are not afraid to make decisions.