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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady defended coach Bill Belichick's decision to kick off at the start of overtime in Sunday's 26-20 loss to the New York Jets. Although the move backfired on the team, Brady pointed out that the offense had not played well against the Jets.
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"I think when Coach makes decisions like that, he takes everything into consideration, everything that's happened over the course of the afternoon. He obviously did what he thought was best to help the team win," Brady said on "Dennis & Callahan" radio program on WEEI in Boston. "As far as an offense goes, I said after the game, it wasn't like we were really tracking the ball up and down the field. It's hard to inspire your coach when you don't do much offensively all day.
"Our defense was doing a lot of good things there in the fourth quarter. Hindsight's always 20/20. It just didn't work out our way this time. You've got to have confidence either that your defense can stop them, or that your offense can go down and score. Even if you kicked a field goal, they get a chance with the ball."
Belichick told reporters Monday that he stood by his decision.
"I clearly thought that was our best opportunity, so that's why we did it," Belichick said. "I didn't like the way it worked out, but to me, that was the right decision for our team at that time."
Belichick has made the same decision previously, including a 2013 game against the Denver Broncos.
"Look, the bottom line is field position -- good field position, you don't have to take it as far. You get a stop, need a field goal (to win)," Belichick said Monday. "So it was really more of a field-position consideration, similar to other overtime games we've been in, regardless of which way it went, whether it was the Denver game from a couple years ago or the Denver game from this year, where we had the ball, got stopped, gave it to them in good field position -- they ended up scoring a touchdown, but didn't have very far to go to get into field-goal range."
The Patriots finally had put together their best drive of the game late in the fourth quarter to pull even with the Jets. Brady hit running back James White for a 9-yard score with 1:55 to go, forcing OT.
"Well, it (the offense) was better, but again, there were two fourth-down conversions that we had to make that," Brady said. "I don't know if you're in overtime, I don't know if you're going for it on fourth down in that situation unless you're desperate, which if we hold them to a field goal then you do have to go for it on fourth down. We didn't do very well on third down all day. We didn't have great efficiency in the run game. It was a struggle to move the ball at times."
Brady was asked about Peyton Manning and the story alleging that the Broncos quarterback used HGH while recovering from neck surgery in 2011 with the Indianapolis Colts.
"I fully support Peyton," Brady said. "My friendship with him over the years, he's a guy that I can always count on, and has been someone that's always been so supportive of me. We'll have lifelong friendships. Truthfully I don't put much into anything. I have a lot of friends, I have a lot of support, and he is the same. I'm a big fan and supporter of his. That's how I really feel about everything."
