Josh McDaniels admitted regret over goal-line play-calls
The Patriots' offensive coordinator said the goal-line sequence was "probably one of the ones that I wish I could do differently."
Though the Patriots emerged with a 27-24 victory on Sunday, one aspect of the game stuck in Josh McDaniels’s mind.
New England went 1 for 6 on passes thrown inside the six-yard line even though the Chargers have struggled to stop the run so far in the 2021 season.
A specific play-call on fourth and goal at the one-yard line in the second quarter left McDaniels with particular regret. Mac Jones’s attempted fade pass to Jakobi Meyers fell incomplete, resulting in a turnover on downs.
“I look back on that sequence, and it’s probably one of the ones that I wish I could do differently,” McDaniels told Patriots reporters on Tuesday.
“If it works out on third-and-goal,” McDaniels continued, “and you end up with the play-pass and it works, it’s great, and everybody thinks it was a great call.”
Reflecting on a successful rushing touchdown from Damien Harris earlier in the game from one-yard line, McDaniels reasoned that he was concerned about the team’s ability to replicate it.
“We had already been down there once and run one of our goal-line runs down in there and were fortunate to get it in on that one,” he noted. “[Fullback Jakob Johnson] made a great block. We had some other things — there was some penetration on the play. Damien kind of pounded it through there and ended up scoring. But we only have a handful of things you do down there inside that yard line, and so I chose, obviously at that point, incorrectly.”
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