I used to think it was ok to pass because they didn't have time left on the clock.
But on 1st down Lynch went down at the half yard line with a minute left. They had plenty of time to get 3 plays off, even with a run first.
They purposefully ran the clock down to 24 seconds before snapping the ball. They were too afraid of Brady coming back after they scored. Counted their chickens before they had hatched.
With only 24 seconds, yeah, I say pass first to make sure you will have time left for your 3 cracks at the end zone.
They cut it too close, too afraid of Brady, leaving themselves too little time to just run it and have enough time to line up again and still get two plays.
With a 2nd down run for a td, the extra point, and the kickoff, at most Brady is left with 45 seconds if you got the play off immediately. But NE was letting them run down the clock anyway, and they didn't need a full minute to run 3 plays, even starting with a run.
Could have run the clock just down to 40, minimizing the time for Brady, but still leaving you time for 3 plays, even starting with a run.
If you make a td on 2nd down, Brady gets the ball back with under 30 seconds.
If not, you still have plenty of time to run a 3rd down pass play, then run or pass on 4th down.
Bad clock management.
But I'd still argue that the play called was the biggest problem. I'll trust Russell Wilson to roll out and run for the TD, pass, or throw the ball away as a high percentage play all day long.
Instead, they went for a bang bang pass between the numbers in the most crowded field a QB ever faces. They took the judgment and evaluation out of Wilson's hands, and put everything on play design. Just a very bad call.
