I get it, Bill Belichick. Going for it on fourth-and-2 from your own 28 is what you thought gave your team its best opportunity for victory.
You showed confidence in Tom Brady and the rest of your offense. The numbers might even back up your decision.
But what does the decision say about your confidence in your defense?
Frankly, Coach, a former member of that defense isn't too supportive of your call. Tedy Bruschi, now a contributor to ESPNBoston.com, was just one member of the media to disagree, and it's not because the offense didn't make the first down.
"As a former defender on that team," Bruschi wrote, "I would've cared less about the result of that fourth-down attempt. The decision to go for it would be enough to make my blood boil for weeks."
Yeesh. For those of you wondering if Bruschi still has the emotion and killer instinct to be a productive linebacker in the NFL, I guess you have your answer. Why so sensitive, Tedy?
"Bill Belichick sent a message to his defense," the three-time Super Bowl champ continued. "He felt that his chances were better to go for it on his own 28-yard line than to punt it away and make Peyton Manning have to drive the majority of the field to win the game."
That's the sticking point. Yes, Manning shredded the New England defense for much of the game. Whether it was the quick handoffs to Joseph Addai or hitting Reggie Wayne, Austin Collie or Pierre Garcon down the field, he was on his game — as he has been just about every weekend this season. And sure, if you punt it away, it's possible that Manning drives the Colts right down the field for the winning drive.
But as a coach, you still have to make the other team beat you. Make Manning show you he can drive those 70-plus yards. That's where Belichick's decision comes up short.
"I would look at this decision as a lack of confidence in our ability as a defensive unit to come up with a big play to win the game," Bruschi went on to say. "If I'm Jerod Mayo, Gary Guyton, Darius Butler, Jonathan Wilhite, Brandon Meriweather and Brandon McGowan — to name a few — I'm wondering why we weren't given the chance to do what we've been coached to do ever since the first day we practiced."
By going for it on fourth down — whether Kevin Faulk had full possession of the ball at the 30-yard line or not — you're showing confidence in your offense, yes. In fact, you're asking it to make a rather extraordinary play. One play after a poorly thrown out pass by Brady that was nearly picked off (and could have been returned for the game-winning score) but fell incomplete, you call a similar route that requires a similar toss. And you hope to pick up two yards on fourth down against a then-8-0 team in its stadium in front of its fans. OK, you thought your offense could do it. But at least admit that it's asking a lot.
By punting and forcing the Colts to drive for the winning touchdown, it seems like you're asking for a slightly more ordinary set of circumstances to play out. Yes, the Pats had already given up 28 points and plenty of yards, but they had also forced two interceptions and seven punts. Is it that extraordinary to imagine your defense standing its ground? If you can't imagine that scenario playing out, it seems like your confidence in your defense isn't quite where it should be.
But one current member of Belichick's defensive unit had a completely different reaction to his coach's decision.
"I was excited. I was ecstatic," safety Brandon Meriweather told WEEI on Monday. "To trust the defense so much to give Peyton Manning the ball on the 20-yard line, or better yet, go for it to win the game right there, you've got to be excited."
OK, so Belichick was so confident in his defense that he was willing to risk not getting the first down because he felt the defense could hold from inside the Patriots' own 30-yard line? I don't think that's what Belichick was thinking. But I'll let him tell the story.
"Basically it came down to if we had made that play, we would have been able to run out all or most of the clock," Belichick himself told The Big Show on Monday. "We didn't need very much [and] we felt good about the play. … [It] was just a couple of inches short."
Long story short, no, Belichick's decision wasn't made because he trusted the defense. It was made because he trusted his offense more.
Nonetheless, Brady, too, tried to support his coach's call.
"They're going to move the ball," he said of the Colts. "We punted them down to the 20-yard line and they go 80 yards in a minute and a half. So it's not like as a coach that you say, 'Let's punt it to them again and see if they can do that again.' He's thinking that he has his offense on the field, we have over 450 yards of offense at the time, we have a lot of great players on our offense, and they stopped us."
Yes, they did. And Belichick didn't give his defense a fair chance to prove its worth.
"He is going to have to rebuild the feeling of confidence in his defensive unit," Bruschi said of his longtime coach. "Right now, every member of the defense is wishing they had the chance to stop Manning and the Colts offense on Sunday night."
Lots of Patriots fans are wishing the same thing.
