A few things that could have turned the game

[DallasPatsFan]

I'm sure most of these have been posted already so if I duplicate forgive me, I'm still not in a good mood. Ok, where to begin, how about the bogus penalty of face guarding on Ellis Hobbs, there is no such penalty in the NFL as long as the defender doesn't touch the receiver, there used to be a long time ago, but not anymore. Caldwell's two drops, those were very, very catchable balls. The look on his eyes after the drops was not so much "man I should have had those, can't believe I dropped them", as "If I have a job after this game I'll be surprised". Time clock management, Bellichick dropped the ball on this one (no offense, Caldwell ), around the 2 minute warning and Indy having the ball, why didn't he use at least one of his 3 timeouts? You use your timeouts on defense at the end of a game, the offense can stop the clock on their own, defense can't. It could have possibly given Brady more time so not to have to hurry his throws. And last, but certainly not the only things that went wrong, 12 men in the huddle? The Pats don't make those kind of mistakes, maybe it just wasn't to be this year. Going to be a long off season.

 

[upstater1]

I'm sure most of these have been posted already so if I duplicate forgive me, I'm still not in a good mood. Ok, where to begin, how about the bogus penalty of face guarding on Ellis Hobbs, there is no such penalty in the NFL as long as the defender doesn't touch the receiver, there used to be a long time ago, but not anymore. Caldwell's two drops, those were very, very catchable balls. The look on his eyes after the drops was not so much "man I should have had those, can't believe I dropped them", as "If I have a job after this game I'll be surprised". Time clock management, Bellichick dropped the ball on this one (no offense, Caldwell ), around the 2 minute warning and Indy having the ball, why didn't he use at least one of his 3 timeouts? You use your timeouts on defense at the end of a game, the offense can stop the clock on their own, defense can't. It could have possibly given Brady more time so not to have to hurry his throws. And last, but certainly not the only things that went wrong, 12 men in the huddle? The Pats don't make those kind of mistakes, maybe it just wasn't to be this year. Going to be a long off season.

There's a reason you don't use a timeout there. It's a cat and mouse game. Basically, if you stop the clock there, the Colts get to run another running play. You're literally hoping that they'll go to the air, which will save you the use of your other timeouts. It's a gamble, and it didn't work.

Essentially, I'm saying you don't call a TO on first down. Then hopefully the Colts go to the air. With every incompletion, it's like a timeout. You end up reserving your time outs by not calling the first one.

 

[DallasPatsFan]

There's a reason you don't use a timeout there. It's a cat and mouse game. Basically, if you stop the clock there, the Colts get to run another running play. You're literally hoping that they'll go to the air, which will save you the use of your other timeouts. It's a gamble, and it didn't work.

Essentially, I'm saying you don't call a TO on first down. Then hopefully the Colts go to the air. With every incompletion, it's like a timeout. You end up reserving your time outs by not calling the first one.

You're basing your theory that Manning is going to throw an incompletion, he didn't do that much towards the end of the game. The Colts were using every second they could before running a play, our offense needed those seconds. Still say use the timeouts on defense, offense can stop it on their on.

 

[Oswlek]

I'm sure most of these have been posted already so if I duplicate forgive me, I'm still not in a good mood. Ok, where to begin, how about the bogus penalty of face guarding on Ellis Hobbs, there is no such penalty in the NFL as long as the defender doesn't touch the receiver, there used to be a long time ago, but not anymore. Caldwell's two drops, those were very, very catchable balls. The look on his eyes after the drops was not so much "man I should have had those, can't believe I dropped them", as "If I have a job after this game I'll be surprised". Time clock management, Bellichick dropped the ball on this one (no offense, Caldwell ), around the 2 minute warning and Indy having the ball, why didn't he use at least one of his 3 timeouts? You use your timeouts on defense at the end of a game, the offense can stop the clock on their own, defense can't. It could have possibly given Brady more time so not to have to hurry his throws. And last, but certainly not the only things that went wrong, 12 men in the huddle? The Pats don't make those kind of mistakes, maybe it just wasn't to be this year. Going to be a long off season.

There were two reasons that the TO was not used right away.

1) The Colts could get a first down without getting a TD, thus rendering your use of the TO moot.

more importantly, though

2) Having the TOs for the offense was more important than stopping the time for the D. A team will find it far more easy to score a TD on 80 yards with 1:00 and 2 TOs than 1:30 with none. It allows you to use the entire field and minimizes the advantages that the D already has.