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- Jun 12, 2006
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Yates, is right out point with his description of the poor clock management at the end of the half.
Brady, McDaniels and BB were dreadful, those 3 points could have come in handy.
Picked-up pieces after first-half review - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston
"10. It's already been a hot topic of conversation, and likely will continue to be in the coming days, so here's one scribe's assessment of the Patriots' clock management to close the first half. The Patriots began the drive at the 24-yard line with two timeouts and 40 seconds on the clock and opened it up with a pass to Wes Welker that took them to the 8-yard line. At that point, with 35 seconds remaining, they should have called a timeout. It would have afforded the team a goal-to-go situation with ample time to run up to four plays, and it would have been able to stop the clock at least once more if they decided to run the ball on one of those plays. Instead, the offense shuffled to the line and eventually called a timeout with 17 seconds to play. That squashed the window down to three plays to run, while unnecessarily running off 18 seconds of game clock. As for the decision to go for the touchdown with six seconds remaining, I have no issue with the decision. The previous play, the Patriots took six seconds off the game clock on a play in which Brady stood tall in the pocket for several seconds. Point is, six seconds is more than enough time to run one play. The Patriots had enough time to take a quick-fire throw at the end zone, with two caveats for Brady to follow: no interception and no mental breakdown. Brady's intentional grounding penalty qualified as the latter, and the Patriots entered nearly worst-case-scenario zone. That being said, from this view, the call by Belichick to go for it was not incorrect."
Brady, McDaniels and BB were dreadful, those 3 points could have come in handy.
Picked-up pieces after first-half review - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston
"10. It's already been a hot topic of conversation, and likely will continue to be in the coming days, so here's one scribe's assessment of the Patriots' clock management to close the first half. The Patriots began the drive at the 24-yard line with two timeouts and 40 seconds on the clock and opened it up with a pass to Wes Welker that took them to the 8-yard line. At that point, with 35 seconds remaining, they should have called a timeout. It would have afforded the team a goal-to-go situation with ample time to run up to four plays, and it would have been able to stop the clock at least once more if they decided to run the ball on one of those plays. Instead, the offense shuffled to the line and eventually called a timeout with 17 seconds to play. That squashed the window down to three plays to run, while unnecessarily running off 18 seconds of game clock. As for the decision to go for the touchdown with six seconds remaining, I have no issue with the decision. The previous play, the Patriots took six seconds off the game clock on a play in which Brady stood tall in the pocket for several seconds. Point is, six seconds is more than enough time to run one play. The Patriots had enough time to take a quick-fire throw at the end zone, with two caveats for Brady to follow: no interception and no mental breakdown. Brady's intentional grounding penalty qualified as the latter, and the Patriots entered nearly worst-case-scenario zone. That being said, from this view, the call by Belichick to go for it was not incorrect."