Wow. I didn’t know Belichick played Madden online. How else do you explain going for it on 4th down on your own 29?
How many games have you seen a bullshit pass interference call plus the “bobble” rule affect a game?
That pass interference call was complete crap. The bobble, it sounds like they made the right ruling and when you blow two timeouts in a lame drive, you get what you deserve.
You know, I actually agree with the going for it on 4th down. It made sense because you know he would have scored anyway, so you might as well let them score and get the ball back. However, someone thought it would be better to tackle them at the 1.
At the end it’s a major bummer for Patriots fans, but hey, if they converted, it would have been awesome.
November 16th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I have a friend that does this type of silly stuff playing the video game Madden. Once he’s down, he’ll go for it no matter where he is on the field. Might explain why he has a lifetime record of something like 6-389. – Nick South, Bleacher Report
It was the kind of call that’s so bad that if it was made by your friend during a game of Madden, you’d say, “come on, play for real.” – Chris Chase, Yahoo Sports
Man, only time I’ve seen that was playing Madden. – Dwight Freeney, Indianapolis Colts
November 16th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
What those of you not watching last night missed was a coaching decision that rivaled that of a nine-year-old playing Madden ‘10 on an X-BOX 360 game console. – Neil Saft, Bleacher Report
November 17th, 2009 at 12:14 am
I was glad to see Belichick go for it. There are papers going back to the Seventies that have shown over and over again that an average offensive team (and I think we can take it that the Pats are above average) should always go for it on fourth down and 1 or 2. Even on your own 10 yard line the odds are in your favor by going for it. The only logical explanation for the way teams act is that coaches fear the (ignorant) public criticism that inevitably follows if you go for it on fourth down and fail.
When so much of the gameplan is based on tendencies and playing the percentages, it’s good to see a trend of more coaches going for it on fourth down. If you want the details I recommend this paper; the results are explained quite clearly even if you don’t follow the math:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/w328q53118624365/fulltext.pdf
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Not in the 4th quarter up by 6. Period.