kneel down sequence?

BB made the right choice. We fumbled the ball several times during the game. It's freezing cold. There's still a good amount of time left on the clock considering where we were at on the field. The odds of running 3 times and getting a first down on the Ravens D are not good. The kneel downs were the safest plays. He took all that information and weighed it against a punt return for a TD or a hail mary TD. I'm sure he's thought of this situation through before.

I'm still wondering how the Refs put 9 seconds back on the clock.

Patsfanin Philly said:

One of the players was quoted on twitter as saying that they were told they would be going back on the field when they came off at 1:39 with the int....

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Great job of catching this and pointing it out. I suspected that they knew the whole time, as well. I can't imagine that Belichick would make some kind of critical clock mgmt error with so much experience.

I'm confused as to what anyone would have rather seen happen? What would have been a better option? Obviously they weren't going to try and pick up a first down in that kind of scenario, so whether they hand off or kneel down makes no difference.

What are people complaining about? Was it b/c Brady snapped the ball with a second or two left each time? What am I missing?

Galeb said:

I'm still wondering how the Refs put 9 seconds back on the clock.

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Someone else posted the time remaining for each play, and :14 secs seems to be right where it should have been.

Fencer said:

No, because a FG would then have won it for the Ravens.

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They wouldn't have had enough time.

Joey007 said:

I am really glad that did not cost us. It would've been the biggest blundering of clock management in history.

We're they not taught to respect the clock?

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What are you saying they should have done?

Galeb said:

I'm still wondering how the Refs put 9 seconds back on the clock.

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Because the clock ran that long after Harbaugh had called the TO. You can see that Brady's knee touches the ground with around 15 seconds left.

cmasspatsfan said:

BB always plays the percentages, cant fumble on a kneel down so the only chance Baltimore has is to run back a punt or a long hail mary and Id guess BB felt good about defending it.

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I think it was the safe thing to do and probably right based on the percentages.

The odds of fumbling would be around 2% based on the Patriots run game this season. Punt return odds, well Jones didn't return a punt for a TD this season but he has in the past, and for his career you see 1.5% of the punt returns for TDs. Hail Mary plays are extremely rare but FWIW, Flacco's splits show a decent percentage of long passes completed. He was 2 of 11 on passes 41+ yards this season, 4 of 16 on similar passes last season, 2 of 16 the year before that.

Now those are actual plays when the defense might not be expecting them, unlike a Hail Mary situation when the D is lined up and ready for it, so it's not fair to use those figures. But it was enough to make me sweat this thing out to the very last second, and makes me wonder if we should have ran a few plays to kill the clock.

Jones also burned a lot of clock trying to put together a decent punt return which wasn't in his favour with the punt block on. With those 10 seconds, Flacco could have gotten a sideline shot to pick up a chunk and make the throw more manageable.

I'm not sure if it was the right thing or not. All I know is the Ravens played us tough and to the very last second.

AndyJohnson said:

What are you saying they should have done?

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Run the ball three straight plays and then they won't have that fifteen seconds at the end.

It's simple math of clock management, Andy.

Joey007 said:

Run the ball three straight plays and then they won't have that fifteen seconds at the end.

It's simple math of clock management, Andy.

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They aren't burning more much if any more time with a handoff than a kneel down.
I think the chance of losing because of a fumble was higher than the chance of losing the way they played it.

Joey007 said:

Run the ball three straight plays and then they won't have that fifteen seconds at the end.

It's simple math of clock management, Andy.

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Simple it isn't, because 3 running plays SHOULDN'T use up the 9 or so seconds needed (assuming that the other 6 are used by the eventual punt). But they probably would because referees tack a couple of seconds onto most plays due to slow whistles.

convertedpatsfan said:

I think it was the safe thing to do and probably right based on the percentages.

The odds of fumbling would be around 2% based on the Patriots run game this season. Punt return odds, well Jones didn't return a punt for a TD this season but he has in the past, and for his career you see 1.5% of the punt returns for TDs. Hail Mary plays are extremely rare but FWIW, Flacco's splits show a decent percentage of long passes completed. He was 2 of 11 on passes 41+ yards this season, 4 of 16 on similar passes last season, 2 of 16 the year before that.

Now those are actual plays when the defense might not be expecting them, unlike a Hail Mary situation when the D is lined up and ready for it, so it's not fair to use those figures. But it was enough to make me sweat this thing out to the very last second, and makes me wonder if we should have ran a few plays to kill the clock.

Jones also burned a lot of clock trying to put together a decent punt return which wasn't in his favour with the punt block on. With those 10 seconds, Flacco could have gotten a sideline shot to pick up a chunk and make the throw more manageable.

I'm not sure if it was the right thing or not. All I know is the Ravens played us tough and to the very last second.

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It was funny that jones ran out of bounds thinking he had to get out to stop the clock when it stops automatically on change of possession

Snap it to Brady and make him waste 3 or 4 seconds before kneeling. Ravens d seemed to think the game was over.

They kind of dodged a bullett.

AndyJohnson said:

They aren't burning more much if any more time with a handoff than a kneel down.
I think the chance of losing because of a fumble was higher than the chance of losing the way they played it.

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I just think that with Flacco's history of throwing his famous deep balls, you want to do anything you can to avoid giving him a chance to get one last throw in. Those few seconds taken off by running it might not run off the clock, but it would run out enough clock for them to not get an opportunity to get anymore than a chance to return a punt.

I just thought it wasn't the best job at making sure the clock is ran down to double zeroes. Everyone was acting as if the game was over and that Baltimore didn't have a time out left!

kennyb said:

Snap it to Brady and make him waste 3 or 4 seconds before kneeling. Ravens d seemed to think the game was over.

They kind of dodged a bullett.

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I think this would've been the perfect solution. Still playing it safe yet still running out those extra seconds on the clock.

Take some goddamned valiums Joey...

Patstopia said:

I thought they were going to have Allen run around in the end zone and take a safety. Then get the free kick with 5 or so seconds left, pinning them too deep for a Hail Mary.

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There is no such thing as too deep for a Hail Mary with Joe Flacco.. This is a guy who can throw the ball 70 yards in the air from his knees.. Furthermore, you give a free kick to Jacoby Jones, you are asking for trouble since he has the ability to take it back all the way..

We should all be thanking Jacoby Jones for his blunder of not calling for a fair catch and trying to run back the punt. In doing so, he knocked 10 precious seconds off the clock..

Seems like the only one that fumbled the clock management was the stupid TV broadcast and announcers acting like the game was over and basically running the credits. They *should* have picked up on it and let us know that the Pats wouldn't be able to run the clock all the way out with the Ravens still holding a TO.

Patstopia said:

I thought they were going to have Allen run around in the end zone and take a safety. Then get the free kick with 5 or so seconds left, pinning them too deep for a Hail Mary.

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I kept screaming SAFETY, SAFETY at the TV screen. One of the teams in the college playoff semifinals did that to seal their victory.

Uncle Rico said:

someone messed up. i thought Brady looked a bit confused coming off the field for the punt

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brady said...talk to coach when someone tried to ask him about the ending