Re: Belichick is too clever for his own good
Were y'all watching the game? The offense was grossly ineffective and that was crystal clear. The passing game was hitting on less than 50% and averaging about 5 yards an attempt. And outside of the very first series where they scored a TD, the offense put 3 points on the board for the ENTIRE game (the other FG was a pure gimme). So again were you watching the game?? There was time for 1 play that was more likely than not to be incomplete, possibly a negative play, almost certainly not going to be a TD (based on the inability to hit anything over 10 yards after the first series. Points were am absolute, critical premium for the Patriots. Every single point! The Patriots took their one remaining play to place the ball in the best spot possible (middle of the hashes) to assure the best shot at a successful FG. While you can argue "take a shot at the endzone, what the hell", if you watched this game you cannot ding the coach for trying to guarantee the 3 points as much as possible. The only complaint on this play should be pointed at Gost's putrid kick. But that kind of putrid outcome of a play had a lot of company.
If you want to ding BB/JM, ding them for not trying to force the run game. The pass game was ineffective, period. 3 and out was happening too much and there wasn't, apparently, anything that could be done about it. Why not slow the game down, run as much clock time as possible, give the D extra rest, and let Ridley do some shifty running while giving Blount some staright ahead pounding run chances. That is my issue with BB/JM considering how ineffective the passing game was (big exception for Edelman).
