Belichick on fake punt: ‘It was a bad mistake’
Upon early review, of all the frustrating developments and what-if moments from today’s 28-21 loss to the Jets, there is one disastrous play above all others that will aggravate Patriots fans deep into the offseason.
Facing fourth down and 4 on their own 38-yard line — and a 7-3 deficit — with 1:14 left in the first half, the Patriots called for the most surprising of plays given the score and the circumstances: a fake punt.
It was immediately a disaster. The snap went to upback Patrick Chung, who saw it deflect away. He picked it up and scrambled, but was tackled at the 37 and didn’t come close to converting the first down.
Four plays later, Mark Sanchez hit Braylon Edwards for the first of his three touchdown passes, and the Jets entered the second half with an 11-point lead and all the momentum.
Bizarrely, the call was apparently made by Chung, at least according to Patriots punter Zoltan Mesko.
“We trust the decision Patrick makes,” Mesko said, according to a report by NESN.com’s Jeff Howe. “It just didn’t work out in that particular occasion. That’s why the coaches trust him to run it, and that’s why they give him the green light, if he has it.”
Mesko said he thought the play would have worked had Chung been able to handle the snap cleanly.
“We had the numbers,” he told Howe. “Eight on six.”
Still, with so little time remaining on the clock and still 60 or so yards to go to the end zone even if Chung had picked up the first down, the play had a hint of desperation.
Not surprisingly, Bill Belichick was in no mood after the game to discuss what went wrong.
“We just made a bad mistake on the play. Just bad mistake,” he said when asked about his thought process.
He was then asked if it was a bad mistake in calling it or a bad mistake in execution?
“I’m not even going into it,” Belichick said.
It was a pretty important play, a reporter prodded.
“It was a bad mistake,” Belichick said. “I just said that.”
For his part, Chung was among a handful of Patriots players who departed without speaking to reporters, but is expected to talk during media availability today.
If he does, we’ll find out if he can explain a play that right now, at the beginning of the Patriots’ offseason, seems altogether inexplicable.
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