Dan (Sheffield, UK)
Mike, I'd really like to hear your thoughts on the Pats' clock management at the end of the game. In your view, was BB not calling a timeout in the final minute a brilliant strategy, a bad oversight, or a 50-50 call? And thank you so much for your contribution to what was possibly my favorite season EVER!
Mike
(12:16 PM)
It was an unbelievable season, Dan. What a journey, and a great reminder of the power of the process. I felt like there was more external "noise" around the team this year than any I can remember. Because of that, I really feel like this team sort of did it on its own -- didn't really have too many in their corner. On the clock management, my sense of it is that BB sort of acknowledged that maybe he dodged a little bit of a bullet there. To me, one could possibly read between the lines in his remarks; he said that a timeout might have been a good thing. In the end, there is always going to be some unknown there (e.g sort of like fourth-and-13 in Super Bowl XLII; I'm still curious about that call) and it obviously worked out. But if you're asking me my sense, I'm not 100 percent convinced that he didn't use the timeout by design. Again, just a matter of what one chooses to believe. Let's not get too caught up in splitting hairs here. The end result is what counts.