That long bomb with 6:00 to go in the 4th...

[lamafist]

Are you guys kidding?

The play resulted in two Ravens' defenders being devoted to Matthew Slater. That's actually great... except the part where Brady still threw it to him, rather than finding Welker or Gronk and taking advantage of the room cleared out underneath Slater's deep post.

 

[nashvillepatsfan]

I've got no problem with the play call. I like the idea of trying to take advantage of a team when they might still be pouting from the previous play. The problem I have is that once Brady sees the S back there, he's basically throwing it into double coverage. If its single coverage, let it rip. But double coverage to a WR who caught all of one pass all season is just a terrible decision.

He should have checked down to another receiver as soon as he saw that their safety didn't bite. That one is completely on Brady.

Personally, i would have run the ball, but i too, didnt mind the call. I put that int on Brady.

 

[PatriotSeven]

Personally, i would have run the ball, but i too, didnt mind the call. I put that int on Brady.

I don't put it on anybody. It was a good play call, a decent high risk pass and the outcome came out ok.

Play by play win probability:
Advanced NFL Stats Win Probability - Current Games

Patriots were 83% after Flacco's interception. They had an 83% chance of winning at that point. They still had a 61% chance of winning after the pick.

The changes of making a FG let alone get to the endzone are less than 50% at that point where they are on the field. The pass was probably a 15-20% chance of completion.

But a touchdown from there would have sealed the win. It would have taken it from an 83% to upwards 90's.

The question is if I came to you and said hey....you can make this pass which only has about a 20% chance of success but will give you a 97% chance of winning if complete right now, with 6 minutes left and at worst, still a 61% chance of winning, will you take it?

If Vegas did that, I'd move there.

 

[Joker]

no...I'll take the running play with a back who's averaging over 4.5 YPC and try to up that percentage by getting first downs as the clock winds down....effectively running out the clock...which I have seen the Patriots do numerous times in the past years...in fact, being AT the game, there was a pervasive feeling of relief when the Pats got that turnover, and a feeling that the game was finally in hand...only to be wrenched right out of our grasp by that ill conceived play...

 

[Fencer]

Nothing wrong with taking a shot if its there. It was so obviously covered that I can't believe Brady threw it.

This. Matthew Slater is not a deep receiver you rely on to secure the ball against double coverage.

 

[Sparetire]

Its not a typical brady to throw that one away, he got picked 3 times in 2 games. i hope he will work his ass off on prac for the SB cause we need him to be alot better. other than that pick he was actually good, that drive with the jumping to the end zone TD was awesome, i thought he broke his back or somthing.

 

[reflexblue]

no...I'll take the running play with a back who's averaging over 4.5 YPC and try to up that percentage by getting first downs as the clock winds down....effectively running out the clock...which I have seen the Patriots do numerous times in the past years...in fact, being AT the game, there was a pervasive feeling of relief when the Pats got that turnover, and a feeling that the game was finally in hand...only to be wrenched right out of our grasp by that ill conceived play...

That came across on tv, the ravens moving inexorably down the filed was like a slow tortuous death, when spikes got the pick it was such a relief followed by WTF we're going to start having our finger nails ripped out again.

It was a Very LOW percentage play when at point when we needed some high percentage plays to eat up the clock

 

[PatsDeb]

Are you guys kidding?

The play resulted in two Ravens' defenders being devoted to Matthew Slater. That's actually great... except the part where Brady still threw it to him, rather than finding Welker or Gronk and taking advantage of the room cleared out underneath Slater's deep post.

It's not that the call was bad; Brady shouldn't have thrown it once he saw the coverage. He had several throws like that during the game, including the 2 ints which were called back because they were across the line before the snap. It's like he got so frustrated he just threw it up several times.

 

[Wilfork#75]

It's not that the call was bad; Brady shouldn't have thrown it once he saw the coverage. He had several throws like that during the game, including the 2 ints which were called back because they were across the line before the snap. It's like he got so frustrated he just threw it up several times.

I have no problem with the decisions he made on the two picks that were called back. The first one Welker would have caught if he wasn't interfered with, and the second one Brady knew it was a free play so he tossed it up. I don't think he makes that 2nd throw if he didn't know it was a penalty. However, in general I agree with your point, Brady made some bad decisions and this team really won in spite of itself. The good news is they have a lot of areas to improve and a lot of motivation for the next game. I don't see Brady having two bad games in a row, so I'm pretty confident for the Super Bowl.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Brady made a bad decision to throw into double coverage.

That's my assessment. I'll play BB here and say that I'd like to look at the coaches tape before passing judgement but it's pretty self-explanatory that throwing into double coverage to a receiver who is your at best, 5th WR just didn't make a lot of sense to me.

I'm ok with passing the ball there. Just a bad choice by TB.

 

[SEA_Pat]

Well, if everyone seems to think Myra Kraft pushed the ball left, then I'm going to say it was Joe Paterno that caused BOB to have a brainfart like that as a bit of Zombie revenge on his successor.

 

[Dagg]

Worst play call ever, we were moving the ball all day even if we settled for 3's we could have easily chewed up 4 minutes and gotten another fg, horrid call, horrid decisions should have cost us the game.

 

[PushnPencils]

Brady's "floaters" were killing me all day too.

I can't recall the last time I've seen him float balls up like that.

Even Phil Simms noticed.

Ravens have a great D and we don't give them enough credit for Pats miscues, but Brady looked like he was desperate to make things happen.

When Brady is on...you can see him rapidly going through his progressions...

...not as much yesterday.

 

[crash75]

The play was inexplicable. If the Patriots had lost, I'd probably still be cursing him for that throw. Hopefully the team will use it as a lesson in the Super Bowl as how valuable each play and possession might be and that one mistake can potentially lose the game.

 

[bakes781]

The play call wasn't surprising as you see lots of teams try to catch the defense sleeping immediately following a turnover. My problem was with Brady deciding to go through with it once he saw double coverage. The law firm was gashing them in the 1st quarter. There was no need for empty backfield formations!

 

[PatsFan2]

Which points to us needing a real threat at WR...we are weak on the outsides and it shows against Very Good Defenses.

 

[Section103]

Which points to us needing a real threat at WR...we are weak on the outsides and it shows against Very Good Defenses.

The Randy Moss of 07 might have caught that... but to throw Slater out there in an obvious situation if Baltimore has watched ANY film on the Pats... Only throw it to him if he's WIDE open.. even then you might want to rethink it.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Well, the great majority seems to think that it was a bad play, so I guess I'm way in the dissent.

I thought it was terrible execution, and once he saw double coverage, he shouldn't have thrown it. But I don't necessarily disagree with taking a shot there or with throwing the ball if Brady thought he had it.

Everyone saying "we were controlling the ball and just needed a couple of first downs," think about it. We had that very situation a few minutes later with a chance to win the game and tried some dinking and dunking and didn't get the first down, almost leading to a loss. There's no one perfect way to play it. I'm guessing the coaches were reviewing photos and watching the plays and thought they saw something and took the shot. Sometimes it works. Sometimes the other guys make a play.

 

[patsfan6197]

Well, the great majority seems to think that it was a bad play, so I guess I'm way in the dissent.

I thought it was terrible execution, and once he saw double coverage, he shouldn't have thrown it. But I don't necessarily disagree with taking a shot there or with throwing the ball if Brady thought he had it.

Everyone saying "we were controlling the ball and just needed a couple of first downs," think about it. We had that very situation a few minutes later with a chance to win the game and tried some dinking and dunking and didn't get the first down, almost leading to a loss. There's no one perfect way to play it. I'm guessing the coaches were reviewing photos and watching the plays and thought they saw something and took the shot. Sometimes it works. Sometimes the other guys make a play.

In hindsight, the play might have saved us....if we go for the FG, Baltimore defitantly goes for it on 4th down and who knows what happens...


Ocho needs to come back to run this play

 

[Halifax_Pats_Fan]

Oh man...I was screeeaammmming at the tv after that call.

I don't care, total crap call. They must not have had any confidence in the middle of the field to be calling a play like that...in that situation.