Yeah, sure, NOW everybody says Bill Belichick should have punted on fourth-and-less-than-two with two minutes to go, but I think it was a reasonable call, especially considering that the Patriots very nearly made it work. (It looked to me like they had the first down.)
I like the call. The Patriots defense was shot, and, frankly, they don't have a great defense to begin with. If Manning has the ball on his own 30 with two minutes to go, the odds favor Manning. All punting does is save Belichick the inevitable carping about making a daring decision.
Where Belichick made a mistake was in not giving the Colts the touchdown right away. Frankly, once the Colts had the ball, the defense should have laid down on the first play from scrimmage and let the Colts score right away. Then, they'd have had 1:50 to get the ball back and get within field goal range to win the game.
I agree. The Colts had to be favored to win this game and big surprise, they did. Great game.
Posted by: Hypatia | November 16, 2009 at 02:38 PM