Just a complete douchebag no class move by belicheck. Absolutely no advantage or good reason to punt on third down except to be an asshole and rub it in. The game was out of hand they had no reason to be worried about punt return yardage or field position. At that point you do what every other team does and try to run the clock down and get out of there. So run the ball on third and ten, use up the rest of the play clock from the next play and punt it on fourth down like any other respectful coach would.
Hoping for some Karma next week, be nice to watch Brady get a career ending injury, possibly opening the doorway for him to be a future punter.
Von Miller is the douchebag for cheapshotting an offensive lineman and starting a rumble. This is supposed to be a pro league, not a kindergarten recess tit for tat fest. A meaningless punt in garbage time and you lose your cool? Give me a break. If this is such a BFD how come no Denver player mentioned it postgame? I am sure John Fox was horrified by what Miller did.
Von miller is a douchebag.. he cheapshotted sanchez too you can find a thread on it here. No denver players mentioned it in postgame because they just got their asses embarassed in a playoff game, they were in no place to. It wasn't a huge deal, just a douchebag move. That being said I wish the jets were in position to make such a move, not downplaying the pats success whether they win with class or not a wins still a win
You guys come up with the most silly arguments ive ever seen. They DO practice this play because it is a good strategic move for field position and Brady has done it 1 time before as well. It is not an insult, or running up the score, or whatever other bogus claims you can try to make. It was 3rd and long, they could have ran a run play up the middle for 4 yards and punted on 4th down, when the Broncos would be in a punt return formation... Or they could sacrifice that 1 down to get a punt off where there is no returner back to return it and they don't have their special teams personnel out on the field. The end result is a long punt that cannot be returned. Hilarious..., You can't recover a punt, the second a member of the kicking team touches the ball the play is ruled dead. There was no returner back to receive it, so this theory of yours is proven wrong from every angle. There is no one to return it, therefor there is no way the Patriots could recover the ball to get "yet another score to run it up even further." Haters are gonna hate, thats what this thread tells me.
so JarOfMayo51 its a silly argument to think a classless guy was doing a classless act. I can see why they punted they knew denver would return the 4th down kick had they punted normal then denver was going to get 4 straight onside kicks to win the game. Or more than likly had they run up middle then punted prob into end zone or at least into a fair catch. If patriots were at all worried about denver coming back as your strategy theory suggests then then would not of been running a hurry up no huddle hiking the ball with 20 seconds on play clock on that same drive. They were winning so they had the right to act like asses but some people get so caught up in them winning they dont even notice bad sportsmanship right in front of them.
I did not mean recover the punt as in an onside kick - I was thinking more of a situation where there is a scramble back to get the ball - someone from the receiving team touches it or tries to pick it up and muffs the thing - which seems very possible given it would have taken them by suprise. The sort of thing that might well happen if Cromartie was to get to the ball first for example. I do "hate" (in meaningless sports fandom terms) the Patriots and I just found it a really odd thing to do - the Pats were up so much at that point, why do something that smacks of taking the piss? Or if its a secret 'up your sleeve' move why do it then and not save it for a time when you might actually need it? More I just find it odd that BB kept the starters out all that time - why have back-up QBs and so on if you dont use them? He nearly got Hernandez crocked near the end by calling a run up the middle I believe and if he had he would have been heavily criticised for the move. edit: also given that most teams back to receive a punt either call a fair catch or get less than 10yds on the return unless Brady is some kind of NFL quality punter (if he is we could sign him to the Jets as we dont have one) I would doubt that doing this would actually get you better field position than just doing a normal punt (and probably there is a much greater risk of it screwing up).
These aren't things I worry about. If you don't want shit like that to happen don't give up 42 points. That said, try that with Ray "Killer" Lewis on the field this week. Please try it.
Something tells me that Ray Lewis isn't such a "killer" when he doesn't have a bladed weapon and a half dozen "friends" whom he can blame for his actions. If something happens on Sunday, I still think he ends up on the bottom of a pile of guys bigger than him, just like Von Miller. The Patriots O-line isn't afraid to show their mean streak.
I don't get the running up the score thing. If you don't want the opponent stylin' on you and scoring, stop them.
BB preaches to his players the importance of playing 60 minutes. He would lose them if he blantantly went against his own philosophy. That said the punt was perfectly timed to catch them off guard and pin them deep. Bet morale is high in Patriots locker room today.
I dunno, when you're a hated team nothing you really do will be supported by most people. They obviously weren't running the score up because Brady and that offense could have easily put a few more TDs up on that lowsy defense and set all sorts of records that wouldn't be broken for the next 100 years, but instead they ran the ball a lot and played a very conservative style of offense for almost the entire second half. They gave up a free down to run a positive yard play to give the Broncos the ball back. I just don't see it as an "in your face" play and you can even see DJ Williams go up to Brady and give him a "Nice... you bastard" tap on the chest with a fist bump. The Broncos were being butchered that entire game, im surprised someone didn't call PETA with what was happening on that field. A punt by Brady isn't really indicative of anything other than that Belichick loves to do things that are out of the box, or "off the hook" depending on what lingo you'd prefer. I was just hoping that Brady would go Tebowing at midfield after the game and thank Satan for his victory, but that didn't happen
At any rate, we probably won't be doing anything like that against the Ravens.. they're a pretty scary team and it should be a pretty intense AFCCG
This thread is pretty funny. I don't know how punting on 3rd down is "classless" but I guess no matter what the Patriots do there will always be people there to bitch about it. Has anyone maybe considered that Belichick might be trying to build up some confidence in his defensive players' minds? They had the game won, and the only TD the Broncos scored was after the Brady INT, and they started deep in NE territory (at the 24, I think). Making sure that the Broncos had a long field and trying to keep them off the scoreboard could just have been a way of trying to build up what's been a very mediocre defense throughout the season. I admit I'm just guessing there, but the best way to pin the Broncos in was the pooch punt. Sure they could have run it and punted on 4th down, but aside from burning a little more time off the clock, the result couldn't have been better.
