Originally posted by tjd808185:
Originally posted by NCommand:
Yeah, this is why stats can be so deceiving out of context.
Coleman had 75 yards on 11 carries for a 6.8 yard average BUT had the bulk of that on his first 3 runs of the game. After half time, he and Freeman were destroyed, both combing for a 2.1 and 1.75 average on 9 carries (20 total yards). And then Coleman went out with injury at the 9:00 mark and everything changed. We also have to remember that it wasn't just the Pats adjusting so well but also Alex Mack was badly injured and by 4Q he was REALLY struggling and getting worse and worse.
In short, their run game was non-existent with most of those runs going for zero or negative yards and now your pass protecting RB is out of the game.
What do you do? Run 3 times and risk missing a long FG and give the ball back to NE who already had the momentum and a shorter field or leave it in your MVP's hands and record breaking passing game?
Hard to argue that rationale...but then penalties and poor execution killed them there putting an already one-dimensional offense even further backed up and easier to defend.
I wouldn't call 42 yards minus whatever they pick up on those 3 plays a long field goal. They're in range now and you run the ball 3 times because that's the easiest path to a win. They just had a sack/ fumble on the drive before that put NE back in the game you can't take that risk. Overaggressive play calling and it bit him in the @ss.
Majority of the blame goes to the d but you can criticize him for that play. It was a bad choice. At least run the ball on 1st and 2nd and then on 3rd you can open it up if need be.
Up to that point, they were getting negative yards on their runs, their C could hardly walk and that would be predictable for the defense to tee off on (so catching them off guard is a Kyle M.O.).
I certainly understand the hindset perspective too though; just adding the context that lead up to that. If they get no yards there and miss, that's a very short field for Tom with 100% momentum at that point.
Obviously, to this day, we still hindsight on our own final 4 plays too. It sucks.