Mike Gesicki’s desperation lateral to Cole Strange did not have the desired effect in Sunday night’s Patriots loss, but Bill Belichick appreciated the tight end’s effort.
Belichick said Gesicki made the “right decision” to flip the ball to Strange once he was stopped by a Dolphins defender on fourth-and-4. The left guard nearly pulled off a miraculous conversion, with officials initially awarding him the first down.
But it was overturned upon video review, allowing Miami to close out a 24-17 victory at Gillette Stadium with a series of kneeldowns.
“It was a very instinctive, heads-up play by Mike,” Belichick said Monday morning on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.” “He’s a smart player. We have a lot of guys like that, but he’s a smart player, and (that was) the right decision on his part probably in that situation to do something to try to get a first down.
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“Unfortunately, I guess we came up a couple inches short.”
Asked whether he believed Strange had the first down, the Patriots head coach replied: “It doesn’t matter what I think.”
Gesicki, a former Dolphin who signed with the Patriots this offseason, explained his thought process after the game.
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“It was obviously fourth-and-3, and I caught the ball,” the tight end said. “I felt like I came back to it, so I had a feeling I was short. I also was on their sideline and heard people cheering as if it was short. So right then and there, I was like, ‘I can’t go down with the ball.’
“I knew if I could toss it back to somebody — I saw one of the biggest people on the field in our offensive line, and it ended up being Cole. I thought we had it, but unfortunately we didn’t.”
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The loss dropped the Patriots to 0-2 on the season for the first time since 2001.
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“We’ve got a lot of football left,” Gesicki said. “Lot of football.”
Featured image via Paul Rutherford/USA TODAY Sports Images
