Offense in the Clutch: Playing ahead vs. Playing from behind or tied

[PATSYLICIOUS]

There's alot of stuff to read through since the past game and I apologize if I missed this observation if it's been made. But this is really interesting to me. We've seen how much the offense fails in the clutch when protecting leads. But what about these same clutch drives when playing from behind? Some of the opportunities in recent history:

-Twice yesterday, after the Jets took a 3 point lead and in OT (tied game obviously). Converted both drives.

-AFCC when Bmore took a 3 point lead in the 2nd half, TD drive.

-Pittsburgh game last year, down 13 late in the fourth quarter. TD drive.

-Giants (EDIT: regular season) game last year, down by 4 late. TD drive.

- Cowboys game last year, down by 4 late. TD drive.

These are all the 'clutch' drive attempts I can think of playing from behind/tied and having more than a minute or so to put together a scoring drive (for example in the SB last year, they only had a minute or so, not really a fair amount of time to ask them to mount a TD drive). The offense seems to have converted EVERY one that I can recall.

As we've seen, when playing ahead, it's a completely different story and they can't even string together a couple first downs. It's like there's a switch this offense needs to turn on when everything is on the line, and they can ONLY do it when they're behind or even. Are we too conservative with the lead? Is it just one big conicidence?

 

[Reckedtrek]

There's a big difference in playing to win and playing not to lose. When they're down (or tied) the Pats play to win, get sharp and are driven to succeed.

Playing with a 10 point lead, playing not to lose, they get conservative, and don't think about executing. They think about not screwing up, and that's when they do.

 

[letekro]

It is very easy to explain:

When we are ahead, the opposing defense takes chances and clamps down on the short stuff, which is all that we can complete.

When we are behind, the defense takes away the deep ball (which there is no risk of us completing) and gives the short stuff, which we are great at.