Monday, November 16, 2009
'Belichick Made the Right Business Decision'
Here's another way to look at Belichick's decision:
Update -- From Reader No. 1:
Here's another way to look at Belichick's decision:
He may be blamed for months for the crushing loss, but what he really did was rational risk management. He had the option of two gambits: Watch Manning pick apart his defense with two minutes remaining or control his team’s own destiny by gaining two yards. He chose the latter. Many CEOs would have made the same decision.He's referring to non-Wall Street CEOs, by the way, the types who don't get bailouts after they fail.
Update -- From Reader No. 1:
Well, Ron Borges is finally happy. For believers in team dynamics, Teddy Bruschi's ESPN column makes a fine point.
The bitter pill for Teddy, and the rest of us, is that Manning has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to march his Colts through Patriot defenses in the clutch - the last shutdown AFC ChampionshipGame in Foxboro was five years ago. You can blame the defensive erosion on Coach Bill, and you can criticize the specifics of the play call (why are so many NFL 4th-and-X yards plays executed so close to the down marker within literally less than an inch of margin in the event of a bad spot?). But don't whack the coach for innovation - punt the ball away 40 yards and this was still an eminently losable game.
