Patriots coach Bill Belichick has no doubts about himself after failing twice in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, which the Patriots ended up losing 25-20, when he went within the field goal range in the fourth quarter.
If the Patriots had scored two field goals, they could have won 26-25. But on the first time, fourth and third games at the 17-yard line, with 9:32 left in the fourth quarter, Belichick decided to give it a try and Mac Jones’ pass failed. That left Belichick with no choice but to try again at the 20-yard line on games four and eleven, with 27 seconds remaining. This conversion attempt also failed.
Belichick defended that attempting fourth and third sets was the right decision for the team at that point in the game.
“We made the best decision we could have made back then. I didn’t know we were going to be down there multiple times,” Belichick said. “If we had kicked, I’m sure you’d be wondering why we didn’t try.”
It’s a valid point from Belichick that coaches’ decisions will be questioned when they don’t work out, even if they were the right decision at the time. And the analytical models would say that Belichick clearly made the right decision at the time. There are things to doubt about the Patriots in light of Sunday’s loss, but this fourth-round decision wasn’t one of them.