Armchair head coaches have wondered how Bill Belichick left the Baltimore Ravens an opportunity to score at the end of Saturday’s game.
The New England Patriots head coach’s decision to kneel the ball three times and punt seems to be grating at fans, despite their team’s 35-31 win and advancement to the AFC Championship Game.
Belichick thoroughly explained why the Patriots didn’t choose to run or pass the ball to end the half during a conference call Monday afternoon.
“It went pretty much exactly the way we thought it would,” Belichick said. “We knew they had one timeout. We expected to be punting the ball with about 15 seconds, which was pretty much what it was. We didn’t want to go through any handoffs or take any chance on any exchanges and the penetration, like the play they had on the goal-line, anything like that.
“We felt like we would be able to secure the ball, punt it back to them in the neighborhood of 15 seconds, and then that would leave them probably at the most two, possible one play, depending on what happened on the punt — whether the ball was returned or went out of bounds. We had to defend one play.
“In the end, we felt like defending the Hail Mary was better than taking any chances at all handing the ball, which I’m not sure how much time that would have run off the clock anyway — maybe a couple seconds, I don’t know. A first down, throwing the ball, wasn’t really part of our thinking at that point in that game.”
The Patriots started their drive with 1:39 left on the clock, and the Ravens took their final timeout with 14 seconds remaining. The Patriots’ punt took 10 seconds, and the Ravens attempted a Hail Mary with 4 seconds left. Patriots safety Devin McCourty batted the ball out of the end zone to finish the game.
Some Patriots fans have wondered why punter Ryan Allen didn’t run around the end zone to waste time then take a safety. That would have decreased the Patriots’Â lead to two points, making a field goal a winnable play for the Ravens.
Belichick might have given Patriots fans a last-second heart attack by leaving the Ravens time for one last play, but it all worked out in the end for New England.
Thumbnail photo via Elise Amendola/Associated Press
