Mike Reiss: Garoppolo impresses Belichick with decision-making at the final seconds of first half

[Soul_Survivor88]

I know Jimmy G. had a rough start last night, but I think the one area where he stood out was his decision-making potential, as demonstrated by his decision to spike the ball in the final seconds of the first half. Mike Reiss breaks it down:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=13436189

What Bill Belichick liked about Jimmy Garoppolo's performance

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In his Friday day-after-game conference call, Bill Belichick took it to another level, dissecting his thoughts on the following situation: Ball on the Packers' 49-yard line, 53 seconds on the clock, final timeout burned due to injury on the second play of the drive.

As noted Thursday night, these are the types of situations that Belichick attempts to create daily in practice, but there is no substitute for having them come up in games, when players have to react quickly.

Belichick's thoughts on Garoppolo's work in that area Thursday night?

"All things considered, he did a pretty good job with it," he said.

Essentially, what Belichick liked is that Garoppolo made the best out of a situation that wasn't ideal. The less-than-ideal part was that Garoppolo took a sack on second-and-5 with 27 seconds remaining, so the clock was winding down.

At that point, Garoppolo's presence of mind to spike the ball was smart.

If he didn't, the clock likely would have wound down to end the half before another play could have been run, as the Patriots had no timeouts to stop it. And even if the Patriots were able to run a play with four seconds remaining, the odds of scoring or getting out of bounds to set up another play were unlikely.

"I think Jimmy did a good job to recognize that situation; whether he should or shouldn't have been in it, that's really not the point," Belichick said. "The point is that once it came up, I thought he handled it well. I thought that was a good, quick decision on his part. It gave us an opportunity to attempt a field goal at the end of the half and Steve [Gostkowski] came through on a 56-yard kick. ... He saved us three points on that."

Belichick talks all the time about "situational football" and this was a shining example of it in the preseason opener.

It was an area where Garoppolo impressed his coach.

 

[james87654]

BB knows that great things are in store for Jimmy G

He has that "it" factor

 

[Oswlek]

Ha! I thought that was an awful three play sequence, but I suppose once his odd lack of awareness forced him into the situation, it was a nice save.

There was another 4th down where I was upset that Jimmy didn't make a throw but the replay made it pretty clear the DB had such good position that he might have taken any throw to the house. I don't think I'd ever seen a play where taking a sack on 4th down was actually the right decision.

 

[scott99]

I liked what I saw from JG. He wasn't great, wasn't awful. I do think he is perfect for this offense. He just needs to get rid of the ball a little quicker. Played behind a terrible offensive line last night, though I was somewhat impressed by Jackson and Mason, I think they will be starters.

Overall, reminds me of the Bills game and the last preseason game last year when he played most of the game without any of the starters in there, struggled to move the offense. I think he'd play much better if he was throwing to Edelman, Gronk and Lafell, and also has the 1st string O linemen in there.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

Another positive take

Mike Petraglia --

"Belichick is going to evaluate Garoppolo just as much on his reaction to adversity as the results, especially in preseason. That's why Thursday night before halftime was a big moment for Garoppolo in Belichick's eyes. He took a seven-yard sack that might have knocked them out of field goal range. But the quarterback, realizing that he had no timeouts left, rushed to the line, spiked the ball, stopped the clock and salvaged the three points."