Giving up in the First Half

[JayNM]

I get it. "They didn't trust the offense"

And it still the decision that pisses me off the most even one day later. I will explain why and yes, this is my form of venting BECAUSE IM PISSED

The Middle 8 is one the most important parts of the game and BB knows this ( The Middle Eight )

At that time in the game, we had scored 10 points consecutively. We had all the momentum and Dolphins just had a bad drive. At that time,statistically , we could've gone to halftime with A MUCH BETTER winning percentage based on having, potentially, at least 1 field made before half AND getting the ball back, PLUS we would be, mentally, in a MUCH better place to start the game.

Whatever message he wanted to send to the offense, IT WAS NOT WORTH NOT GOING FOR BEST POSSIBLE OUTCOME. You DONT take points for granted in the National Football League. It's DUMB. We were on the verge on being ahead probabilistically AND psychologically

If you think it was warranted, let me tell you that I disagree: There is no place on earth that AN OFFENSE lead by the GREATEST QUARTERBACK OF ALL TIME, no matter how badly he's playing at the moment, is SUCH A RISK, that you give up points.

But worse of all what aggravates the situation , to me, A LOT is the explanation made by BB. Because it was ********. BB understands enough of Game Theory (proven unquestionably after the Seahawks game) to say he decided to give up AFTER the first play was unsuccesfull.

He DECIDED to give up BEFORE the draw play. He let the Dolphins waste 40 seconds to punt, because HE HAD GIVEN UP. Maybe he could change his mind If he got the first down the first play.... BUT THEN YOU DONT ****ING CALL A DRAW THROUGH THE MIDDLE.

Vent OVER.

I understood the decision at the time, but i was weird. The more i think about it, the angrier i get.

A lot of people played poorly and deserved to be criticized. But this error is fundamentally different because it was an RATIONAL CONSTRUCTED MISTAKE, and not made in the spur of the moment of a play, which isn't as rational. And here is a fact about rational mistakes, it only happens if you have your facts WRONG

 

[FCB02062]

When Belichick didn't call timeout I thought, "ok, he wants to save them for offense because they're going to try to get in fg range." He's said before that timeouts are more valuable than the actual seconds on the clock in many cases. Then To see the team just give up was a kick in the jewels. Bill knows his quarterback, his offense, is cooked

 

[JayNM]

When Belichick didn't call timeout I thought, "ok, he wants to save them for offense because they're going to try to get in fg range." He's said before that timeouts are more valuable than the actual seconds on the clock in many cases. Then To see the team just give up was a kick in the jewels. Bill knows his quarterback, his offense, is cooked

I was still expecting him to THROW the ball, so they wouldn't be going for time outs too often, so 40 seconds is really a lot of time to just give up.

But then again, he wasn't just giving up on those 40 seconds, was he?

 

[jah]

None of this matters if Gilmore/our secondary actually show up.

 

[zipster9]

I have noticed that after 8 games, the Patriots did not seem to be as aggressive, offensively, anymore. Not sure what is going on.

Maybe it is a time for change (players, mgmt).

BTW - the impact of Niners/Patriots trading for Sanders/Sanu is lopsided.

 

[Triumph]

Folk would have missed.

Instead of damn, I cant believe Folk missed. Its, damn, I cant believe Folk made it.

 

[PatsDeb]

We played "not to lose" yesterday, which of course, leads to a loss.
Not going for a score at the end of the 1st half - inexcusable.
Playing way off of Miami's receivers - inexcusable.
Not putting Elandon Roberts in more at the beginning of the game - inexcusable.

WTF Patriots? Wimp out loss.

 

[luuked]

He DECIDED to give up BEFORE the draw play. He let the Dolphins waste 40 seconds to punt, because HE HAD GIVEN UP. Maybe he could change his mind If he got the first down the first play.... BUT THEN YOU DONT ****ING CALL A DRAW THROUGH THE MIDDLE.

No they didn't. What is this idiotic narrative ?

They had 3 TOs and about a minute to get at least into FG range. Please plot it out for me what the difference is between taking the TO there and taking it after a first successful play except for leaving next to no time for the other team on the clock ?

What about their passing attack gave you the impression they could be successful without giving the ball back to Miami with time on the clock and TOs in their hand ?

And if you say they should have run it then this is exactly what they did. This entire critique of that sequence exposes people that don't understand football so nicely I love that it happened.

 

[moosekill]

Last week they were crucified for going for it at the end of the 1st half and allowing the Bengals to score. This week they are crucified for not going for it at the end of the half.

Defense sucked, that was why we lost.

 

[luuked]

BTW - the impact of Niners/Patriots trading for Sanders/Sanu is lopsided.

And, yet, the 49ers and the Pats were in a bidding war for Sanu and Sanders was the consolation price for whoever lost that.

 

[blackglass3]

As I said, Pat Shurmur and Doug Marrone play like that. We aren't supposed to play like that. This was essentially 2015 giving the Jets the ball in OT all over again, same QB and everything. We played not to lose and we look like idiots for it.

I'd always rather go down fighting than just roll over and let a team do what it wants to us. But we turtled and took that L because of it. Nice choice, Bill.

 

[blackglass3]

@luuked you can defend it all you want and be confused until your heart is content. At home, with two time outs and 1:40 left you have your whole offense, especially after you just ran off 10 points. You try and score points there, you don't settle for a halftime tie with a division rival and a bye week on the line.

The worst case scenario happened anyway, so you might as well go down swinging. Belichick screwed up. Nothing you say will convince me other wise.

 

[luuked]

@luuked you can defend it all you want and be confused until your heart is content. At home, with two time outs and 1:40 left you have your whole offense, especially after you just ran off 10 points. You try and score points there, you don't settle for a halftime tie with a division rival and a bye week on the line.

The worst case scenario happened anyway, so you might as well go down swinging. Belichick screwed up. Nothing you say will convince me other wise.

The worst case scenario is giving the ball up and not going into half at even. You can disagree with the conservative approach thats fine but calling it idiotic or a ****up just shows your limited understanding of risk and how to evaluate your own team.

The offense did jack **** in the first half. They got one drive in an entire half of play based on a low percentage 50 yard play to Dorsett. The primary objective was to make sure the situation didn't get worse like it did against the Bills just a week ago.

If you were to actually stop being irrational and think the options through you'd see the logic in it but no we have to find some low hanging fruit to blame.

There is nothing bad about making sure you don't give another team a chance to score. It is the intelligent thing to do. Whether you call that coward or not doesn't matter. You always wanna play the right odds.

 

[Dr Pain]

Brady's arm is dead right now with that injury. The end of half decisions are all you needed to see that Bill knows that. Hindsight, should have sat Brady for Stidhan, lose and at least Brady had a week off before the game with the Titans. Win you have 2. It may have also had the rest of the team pumped up to cover for Brady being out vs as flat as they were.

I think this is the end of the era as both Brady and Edelman are too long in the teeth to continue with these physical beatings. Brady still has the best brain of all the QBs but the body is hurt. Edelman is looking like Welker now.

 

[BradytoMosstoGronk]

I envisioned the drive (and pre-drive buildup) more like this:

Run stopped, timeout around the 1:50 mark. (2 timeouts remaining, ball/punt to the 25ish).

Shotgun formation, draw to white, see if they can gain a chunk. If not, hurry up to the line and spread em, pick up a first. From there, you got a first and 2 timeouts to work with at the 35+, needing 25 yards for a field goal. Manageable, but based on the actual scenario bill was reasonably content with what we had. It was seriously disappointing, this team loves the double dip...

 

[borg]

BB didn’t trust Brady and the offense
...and BB didn’t trust his exposed defense.

No trust that the offense could get even a first down
......and feared Miami with time plus timeouts could get into scoring position

BB had no faith.... an incredibly revealing moment on par with going for it on 4th down from their own 28 vs Manning

 

[oldrover]

Not putting Elandon Roberts in more at the beginning of the game - inexcusable.

DING!

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

 

[varjao]

This is going on for a while, 2 or 3 seasons including this one, I don't know what they are thinking.

 

[The Brandon Five]

Second week in a row they mismanaged the end of the half. Not sure what's up with Bill, but that's not Patriot football.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Play calling aside, I thought they should have called the time out, saved the 30-40 seconds and ran their offense to try to score at the end of the half. Very disappointed that they did not even try.