Coaches blew it with situational football

Todd Bradley said:

Throwing with 2 minutes and 30-someodd seconds instead of milking the clock to the 2-Minute Warning against a team with only 1 Timeout left was the most egregious mistake made.

Not only did it give Denver plenty of time, it cost us Gronk.

Unreal.

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The Gronk injury was a freak, that could have happened on many passing plays, and the run didn't accomplish **** all night. The run would have been stopped and little time would have been consumed.

50-yard-line said:

Egregious mistakes at the end - when they got the first down with under 3 to go, it's Run, Run, Run.

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Yes, the prevent offense, it always fails.

McDaniels really made an idiot call on those two (incomplete) pass attempts with 2:53 left on the clock. Aside from it being the play that killed Gronk...throwing twice gave Denver the ball back with 2:31. McDaniels could've run on the first play. Forced the final time out from Den. Run again to get it to the 2 min warning. 3rd down you can run it again to get it to around 1:10 or so before the punt.

I guarantee you that the Pats defense wouldn't have gotten beat deep twice if there was just 1:10 left on the clock for Denver's 4th Q drive to take the lead. That totally takes away the need to defend what's 10 yards or so underneath and won't put your CBs in tight coverage, thus allowing them to get beat like they did. That was awful. You hardly ever see a Belichick D get beat deep like that; in part due to the understanding of situational football. They didn't have that tonight; largely due to McDaniels bad playcalling.

neuronet said:

Plus not understanding the implications of that "free" time out or whatever at the end, for clock management. A very rare moment for Belichick. Luckily we got the FG anyway, but that was very unusual.

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Actually, the refs got that wrong. It was supposed to be a 5 yard penalty on the Defense and the clock is not supposed to start until the snap. The refs got it wrong on two counts.

I totally agree, OP. It made no sense for Harper to return the ball when it was not necessary. And the kid has barely fielded any punts during regular season games. And it's snowing like hell.

Put someone like Chung back there and call the fair catch. Even better let it bounce. Very frustrated with the coaching there.

I.M. Fletcher said:

Why we were passing with 2:40 to go with a fresh set of downs was one of the dumbest coaching moments I can think this staff making.

That cost us the game, and with gronk getting injured, maybe much much more.

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Yes this was the one that got me.

DaBruinz said:

Actually, the refs got that wrong. It was supposed to be a 5 yard penalty on the Defense and the clock is not supposed to start until the snap. The refs got it wrong on two counts.

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Nope refs got it right. What surprises me is that this was an issue last year in another game, even to the point of people writing articles about it in the popular press (see below). Even so, BB and company still seemed to not be aware of the actual rules. A very uncharacteristic lapse, both in terms of being unaware of the rules, and consequently leaving players unaware of them for such a key situation.

Relevant place in rulebook:

If there is an excess team timeout after the two-minute warning, the game clock is started as if the excess timeout had not occurred.

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After a team is out of three timeouts, they get the "fourth" (team) timeout when an injury occurs. But if they do it again, with another injury, only then is there a yardage penalty:

Penalty: For the second and each subsequent excess team timeout after the two-minute warning: Loss of five yards from the succeeding spot for delay of the game.

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There was an article about this rule last year:
NFL rules explanation of the fourth timeout for injuries

Snake Eyes said:

The Gronk injury was a freak, that could have happened on many passing plays, and the run didn't accomplish **** all night. The run would have been stopped and little time would have been consumed.

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The point wasn't to pick up yards, it was to waste the clock.

One run on 1st down dips the clock to the 2 minute warning. Second run on 2nd down gets them to take their final timeout. On third you have a short yardage situation and you either run it, which dips the clock to about a minute, or you throw it and end the game.

Simple as that.

Todd Bradley said:

The point wasn't to pick up yards, it was to waste the clock.

One run on 1st down dips the clock to the 2 minute warning. Second run on 2nd down gets them to take their final timeout. On third you have a short yardage situation and you either run it, which dips the clock to about a minute, or you throw it and end the game.

Simple as that.

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There's still plenty of time for the Broncos offense to score.

that pass to gronk was the worst play call in a long time. 2:53 left in the game...1st down on their own 40. Run it 3 times and punt. Leave about 1:10 for Brock to drive probably 80 yards with no time outs? No way. They would be playing prevent and would not have been beat over the top . Cost them the game....and Gronk as well..

Snake Eyes said:

There's still plenty of time for the Broncos offense to score.

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You're missing the point. No one is saying the Broncos couldn't have scored.

But having the ball with 2:30 left on the clock with the 2-minute warning, as opposed to getting it with a minute left and no timeouts is huge, especially when they'd have to go 80 yards to score a touchdown.

..and was Harper told not to take any chances whatsoever? If not......horrrible coaching.

McDaniels also reverted to his terrible play calling tonight.

Hoodie said:

McDaniels also reverted to his terrible play calling tonight.

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Especially in the 4th quarter. You won't hear him take responsibility for it though.

Hoodie said:

McDaniels also reverted to his terrible play calling tonight.

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He must have felt right at home, back in Denver.

Our defense gave up literally as soon as gronk went down. It was a gut check moment. We have to finish strong now if we want any hope of getting a bye.

I don't think play calling was that bad, run game was going nowhere. Go for the throat.

Weird how we ran the ball to end the half even after the first down and with all of our timeouts. Thought we could have at least tried to get in FG range. Instead we ran the time out.

Go for the kill.

I had no problem with the playcalls when Gronk got hurt - go for the kill.

neuronet said:

Nope refs got it right. What surprises me is that this was an issue last year in another game, even to the point of people writing articles about it in the popular press (see below). Even so, BB and company still seemed to not be aware of the actual rules. A very uncharacteristic lapse, both in terms of being unaware of the rules, and consequently leaving players unaware of them for such a key situation.

Relevant place in rulebook:


That is after a team is out of three timeouts, they get the "fourth" (team) timeout. But if they do it again, with another injury, only then is there a yardage penalty:


There was an article about this rule last year:
NFL rules explanation of the fourth timeout for injuries

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Went to the rulebook.. And Rule 4, Section 5, Article 4, does not discriminate offense vs. defense. So, I guess they did get it right.. smh..

This entire discussion ignores the fact the Pats came back and tied it. At that point it was a new ballgame. Everything that happened in the 4th qtr including the muffed punt reception was a mute point. Pats win coin toss and fail to move the ball. Brady gets sacked.

I hear Gronk may be ok so thank god for that. That's all I care about. Never cared about going undefeated. Pats are 10-1 and still have the 1st seed.

The main reason for the loss imo was the depleted offensive weapons. It's amazing the game was this tight. It is what it is, live to fight another day.