Bill Belichick eschewed field goal tries twice while trailing by eight points in the New England Patriots' 20-18 loss to the Denver Broncos.
The coach reiterated Monday morning that the score and situation dictated his decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the 16-yard line with 6:03 left in the contest.
"The number of possessions you have left and what you need to do," said of his reasoning. "The number of opportunities we had to do that, not very many."
Trailing by eight, even with a field goal the Patriots would have still needed a touchdown to take the lead. New England would get two more possessions following that failure.
Belichick noted that there are always calls he'd like to have back after a loss, but despite falling by two points, the coach doesn't second-guess the decision.
"At that time, there is no hesitation in doing that," he said of going for it on fourth down.
It's easy to point to the two fourth-down failures and the final score to say Belichick blew a chance to win by not taking the points. However, those decisions had a domino effect on field position and in-game strategy that would have changed completely.
As for the second fourth-down failure, Belichick pointed to the clock as the determining factor.
"There was like two and a half minutes to go in the game, down by eight, fourth and five, or whatever it was," he said. "Yeah, we felt like the best thing to do was go for it at that point."
There were plenty of decisions that will be questioned by Belichick and his staff during the offseason. It doesn't sound like the ones to go for it will garner much introspection.
