Patriots’ Bill Belichick second-guessing himself for fourth-and-3 call

The New England Patriots managed to overcome a string of injuries to make it to the AFC Championship game. They weren’t able to get past the Denver Broncos and into the Super Bowl however, and there is one play in particular play that the Patriots regret.

Head coach Bill Belichick said he would’ve rather taken a 47-yard field goal instead of going for it on fourth-and-3 at the 29-yard line. The field goal in that situation would’ve narrowed the Broncos lead from 20-3 to 20-6.

“Those three points would have been good to have at the end of the game if we would have made the kick, which we would have had a good chance to,” Belichick said on WEEI, via Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com. “I felt like, at the time, we were down by 17 points, only had three points, and hadn’t got down there very much. I don’t think you’re going to beat Denver kicking field goals, but . . . if we would have had a field goal and then the two touchdowns we ended up getting later on, those would have been important points for us. I don’t know that was the right decision. It wasn’t, obviously, when we lost yardage on fourth down and gave the ball back without any points.”