This is what bothers me about sports reporting and commentary these days. It's one thing IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT, posting on a fan message board, to say, "This is Belichick's fault - why didn't he just tell them to go down?" (on that crazy last play)
But for a national columnist to say that long after the press conferences where both Rhamondre Stevenson and Jacobi Meyers said that the coaches, in fact, told them to do exactly that, and took 100% of the blame on themselves, is utterly inexcusable.
To wit:
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-week-15-winners-and-losers-plus-weekly-grades-for-every-team-and-rams-packers-mnf-picks/
"
Loser: Bill Belichick. The award for most boneheaded play of the day goes to the Patriots, who lost in the most shocking way possible to the
Raiders when
Chandler Jones stole a lateral out of the air and then returned it 48 yards for a touchdown on the final play that gave Las Vegas a 30-24 win. Why were the Patriots lateraling the ball on the final play of a tie game? No one has any idea. Although it's easy to blame
Rhamondre Stevenson or
Jakobi Meyers here for lateraling the ball, the
ultimate blame falls on Belichick. If he didn't want his players lateraling, he should have made that crystal clear before the final play was called. This was an epic failure on the part of the Patriots caused by horrible decision-making that you don't usually see from Belichick-coached teams."
I mean, he DID make it crystal clear, as both Stevenson and Meyers attested to in their press conferences after the game. For this guy John Breech, writing this THIS AFTERNOON, long after the game, long after they both said this in their press conferences, displays a lack of professionalism that really bothers me.
Again, it's one thing for us fans, in the moments following the play, to say this stuff. We didn't know any better. But for a national columnist, the next day, to say this, after the players said, uh, yeah, Belichick told us exactly that, is just journalistic malpractice.