WHY TURN DOWN THE FIELD GOAL ??

[Bretsky]

There are key plays to every game. I'll never forget the helmet catch; maybe the greatest Super Bowl play I'll ever remember.

But the one that still has me confused was why New England went for it on 4th and 13 at the 32 yard line instead of taking the field goal.

Their kicker has a very strong leg. The Giants D was playing very well then.
They needed the 3; they lost by those points.

That call turned out to be tragic for the the Patriots; terrible terrible call by their fearless leader

[MJZiggy]

He did it to drive you nuts.

[billy_oliver880]

Re: WHY TURN DOWN THE FIELD GOAL ??

There are key plays to every game. I'll never forget the helmet catch; maybe the greatest Super Bowl play I'll ever remember.

But the one that still has me confused was why New England went for it on 4th and 13 at the 32 yard line instead of taking the field goal.

Their kicker has a very strong leg. The Giants D was playing very well then.
They needed the 3; they lost by those points.

That call turned out to be tragic for the the Patriots; terrible terrible call by their fearless leader

Arrogance, I think, is the factor in that one. Of course you have the most prolific offense in nfl history you are going to believe that anything could work.

[Bretsky]

He did it to drive you nuts.

I called him out in the game thread; the genius lost all his common sense on that one.

[4and12to12and4]

Re: WHY TURN DOWN THE FIELD GOAL ??

There are key plays to every game. I'll never forget the helmet catch; maybe the greatest Super Bowl play I'll ever remember.

But the one that still has me confused was why New England went for it on 4th and 13 at the 32 yard line instead of taking the field goal.

Their kicker has a very strong leg. The Giants D was playing very well then.
They needed the 3; they lost by those points.

That call turned out to be tragic for the the Patriots; terrible terrible call by their fearless leader

The startling thing was the down and distance, well, the distance. I think BB thought that even if they didn't get it, NY would still have to go quite a ways themselves to get a score, and he thought by getting it, his team would get a HUGE momentum swing. He could tell that the Giants had a real confidence about them, I think he figured if they converted it could've been a game changing play, by not converting, so what, NY still has to put a drive together. So, it wasn't that big a gamble. I don't think that play made the difference. Give NY the credit, Brady got the game winning drive if Manning and his team doesn't do the impossible. But ... they did.

[BallHawk]

I think it was simply Belichick not having confidence in Gostowski. Maybe if it's a regular season game he kicks the FG, but I think Bill was thinking "I'm not going to send a 2nd-year kicker out to try a 50-yarder in the Super Bowl.

Stupid decision, but I can see why he did it.

[RashanGary]

Bellichick has played aggressive all year. It's worked well for them. McCarthy is acctually very aggressive as well. There were times where he called time outs at the end of halfs when it was borderline whether he should or not. He always wants a chance to score so he does it. One time it really blew up. He called TO's and the other team ended up having more time and scored a FG I believe. I don't remember the details, but the aggressiveness backfired.


I like the aggressivenes though. It's the same attitude that won them 18 straight (an NFL single season record). Hindsight is always 20/20. Pressure typically turns coaches into cowards. I laud NE for staying aggressive in the biggest game.

I think NY playing with ntohing to lose helped them too. They never let up. Never played safe. They had to lay it all out and were never afforded the false confidence to play it safe. Aggressiveness beat aggressiveness. It was a great SB. A rare game where both teams played to win, not played not to lose.

[RashanGary]

another thing I loved about the Giants this game was it was the first time this whole playoffs that they made a bunch of PA passes on 1st down. Teams load up on the run with NY, so them passing on first has been very effective from what I've seen. They did it to NE on that opening dirve and throughout the game. It worked well early until NE caught on, but there was a little more unpredictablity to their game. Not that that has anything to do with the FG, but I thought it was aggressive and good. If it didn't work you could easily say WhyTF didn't they run. They ran all year, ect. . .

[HarveyWallbangers]

JH,

I'd agree if it were 4th and less than 10. However, even NE probably had less than a 20% chance of converting a 4th and 13.

[4and12to12and4]

JH,

I'd agree if it were 4th and less than 10. However, even NE probably had less than a 20% chance of converting a 4th and 13.

It'd be interesting to see if they even tried 4th and 13 once during the year, as aggressive as they were, even with a huge lead, I remember many 4th and go's, but not a 4th and 13.

[RashanGary]

I hear ya Harv. If they take it and score everyone calls him a genius like they have all year and call the Pats an unstoppable force.

You never would have known how that coin flip FG would have gone. They have a 50% chance at 3 points. If they get a first there (20% chance), they probably end up with 7. He certainly played to his teams strengths (the passing game) and he played aggressive. It didn't work.

I see the logic in the FG, but at the same time I honestly thought NE was going to convert that thing.

[Jimx29]

Bellacheat wasn't the first one....(2004?)

[packinpatland]

Belichick's arrogance got in the way, his total 'we're better than a frigg'n fieldgoal' attitude, did him in..

There was only going to be 6 yard difference if they missed the darn thing. No confidence in his defense or kicker.
If I were the kicker............I'd ask to be traded.

[Freak Out]

He threw the game.

The majority of HC's in the NFL take the points. The odds have to be with it and it would seem the most logical choice.

[The Leaper]

Let's not let Brady off the hook. He took a sack on 3rd down when his team was in FG range...and basically took them out of field goal range, at least in their minds.