The New England Patriots lost to the New York Jets in overtime Sunday at MetLife Stadium, 26-20, thanks to a head-scratching decision to kick off, rather than receive, the opening kickoff in the extra period.
Here’s a video clip of kicker Matthew Slater, who was acting as team captain on the 50-yard line when the Patriots won the coin toss, telling the referee he wanted to kick the ball, rather than receive it.
Here’s the video. Slater clearly says he wants to kick off.https://t.co/1Aom1yKw69
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) December 27, 2015
NFL rules state that a touchdown wins the game. Period. Therefore it was widely assumed that Slater had made a huge mistake telling them which direction they wanted to go in and that the intent was to receive the ball.
That wasn’t the case, however.
Bill Belichick’s coaching staff told Slater to tell them they wanted to kick off.
Matthew Slater says coach instructed Patriots to kick off at start of overtime. The only confusion was which direction they were kicking.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) December 27, 2015
With the gift of first possession in hand, Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick promptly drove his offense down the field and connected with receiver Eric Decker for the game-winning touchdown.
After the game Belichick defended his decision but didn’t exactly clear things up.
“There was no confusion,” Belichick said, per NFL.com. “We were looking at field position. … I thought it was the best thing to do.”
It makes absolutely zero sense, but I’ll defer to the four-time Super Bowl champ, who has showed a bit of eccentricity over the years.