Three more belated observations
- When the Pats kicked off at 28-20, I would like to know what Dan Quinn was thinking in terms of his return strategy. There were 6 minutes on the clock and it was an 8 point game, and yet they played the kickoff like they were expecting a surprise onsides kick from the Pats. They only returned the kick to the 11. They ended up in FG range anyway on the drive, but if they started on their own 25, maybe things would have been different. Bad error by Quinn
- When the Pats kicked off at 28-28, they got to tack on the 5 yards from the offsides penalty from the two point conversion, meaning they kicked off from the 40 instead of the 35. In this situation, I would say that I have seen 99% of teams just boom the ball through the end zone. Instead, Ghost hits the kick waaaay in the air, lands it on the goal line, and the coverage is able to get down the field to make the stop inside the 20. Absolutely crucial yards at that point in the game given that there was under a minute and Atlanta had no timeouts. Extra bonus points for chewing up a few seconds on the return. This is BB at his finest. Absolutely fantastic strategy here. These two contrasting examples show the gap between Quinn and BB and why it matters so much in close games
- On the Edelman catch, I believe the first official to call it a catch - and he did so authoritatively - is the same official that Edelman had the mic'd up exchange with in the Texans game re: pushing off (along the lines of, "sorry, I get so defensive - my therapist tells me it's something I need to work on"). Just got a kick out of it being the same guy. Edelman also had an interaction with him in pre-game of the Super Bowl. Good to be on good terms with that official!