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Poll: Was Bill Belichick wrong to leave Rob Gronkowski in for PAT? 11.19.12 at 4:04 pm ET
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Was Bill Belichick wrong to leave Rob Gronkowski in blowout?

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FOXBORO — Patriots coach Bill Belichick, in his weekly interview on WEEI’s The Big Show, defended having Rob Gronkowski on the field for the eighth and final extra point in Sunday’s 59-24 blowout win over the Colts at Gillette Stadium. Belichick said coaches have to be “careful” about making decisions about selective substitutions for players late in the game and hinted that he’s uncomfortable trying to protect some players from injury in the later stages of a game but leaving others on the field.

“I don’t think that’s really a good way to approach a team. I’ve never done that. I don’t think that would be a very successful approach to it,” said Belichick. “You only have so many players. You only dress so many players. Somebody’s got to play. I think you’ve got to be careful when you’re trying to run a team, to go up to one guy and say, ‘Michael, we’re going to leave you in the game because we care about you, but Glenn, we’re going to take you out because you’re really important. You other guys go in there because if something happens to you, we don’t really care.’

“Again, I think football players play football. I don’t know how, you tell me which guy is going to get hurt and I’ll get him out of there. I don’t know how you do that.”

Belichick discussed why Gronkowski was not on the field for the Patriots’ last scoring drive of the game but was part of the protection team while New England attempted its point after touchdown.

“I think in terms of Rob, the end of the game gave us an opportunity to play [Visanthe] Shiancoe, who didn’t play for half the season. He had an opportunity to get some more reps,” said Belichick. “Some guys that had less playing time, it was a good opportunity to get them in there. I didn’t see anything wrong with that.

“At the same time, I can just hear it now, if somebody else was in at wing [on the point after attempt] who wasn’t used to playing for the field goal team, a guy came around the edge and dove in there, somebody, the holder or kicker got torn up, it would have been, ‘Why was he in there? Why wouldn’t you go with the same guys doing it the whole game?’ We can play that game all day. As long as you know what the results are, then you always have the right argument,” he added. “But, like I said, players are prepared to play for 60 minutes. The game is 60 minutes long. If you can take a guy out or want to take a guy out for a reason, you can do that, but guys have got to play.”

Read More: Aaron Hernandez, Bill Belichick, Gronk, New England Patriots Print  |  Bark It Up!  |  Digg It
  • http://twitter.com/MikeMike2790 Mike Rose

    A very unintelligent decision coming from a seemingly itelligent person…

  • Bob Brown

    77% of the people who answered the poll disagree…does that make them “unintelligent” as well?

  • Bobg

    I am not a pro athlete, but I played several sports in high school.  I never wanted to come out of a game.  At the pro level I don’t think it is no different.  There is only so much playing time (game time).  16 hours of game time a year.  Divide that by 2 if both teams share equal amount of game time.  Down to 8 hours for an offense or defensive player and take out precious minutes for special teams.  You now have 7 hours of game time in the entire year.  7 hours for months of dedication.  I wouldn’t want to miss a precious moment.  knowing that the likelyhood of an injury could take several more hours out of my playing time on a chance is not factor for this athlete when I only have 7 hours to begin with. 

    Additionally from a coaching standpoint, I go back to the same point of view…think 8 hour of playing time a year.  You want players to have those precious extra minutes of playing experience to learn from and from a conditioning point of view and mental toughness it is more important.

    Injury can happen at any time…its part of the game.  It’s always easy to blame the coach.  Tom Brady got hurt in the first few minutes of a game.  Trust in the coach as he bases his decisions on what’s best for the team and the player at any given point in a game and for the future of games to come.  I see Bill B as a teaching coach and nothing is better for teaching than actual game time experience.

    To go back to my loss of playing time.  Every pro athlete strives for excellence and hopes to be condsidered one the best or a Hall of Famer.  In football, careers are not long, lose playing time because you winning big, hurts individual statistics for record keeping.  For we are about records as a means of deteriming success…whether it’s sacks, interceptions, yardage gained or passes caught…take away precious minutes when you only have hours of play per year, reduces the players ability for more opportunity, to raise their individual numbers for their legacy. Right of wrong, thats how we judge them and I believe that numbers should not be the guage of success, but unfortunately thats the way it is.

  • Bobg

    I am not a pro athlete, but I played several sports in high school.  I never wanted to come out of a game.  At the pro level I don’t think it is no different.  There is only so much playing time (game time).  16 hours of game time a year.  Divide that by 2 if both teams share equal amount of game time.  Down to 8 hours for an offense or defensive player and take out precious minutes for special teams.  You now have 7 hours of game time in the entire year.  7 hours for months of dedication.  I wouldn’t want to miss a precious moment.  knowing that the likelyhood of an injury could take several more hours out of my playing time on a chance is not factor for this athlete when I only have 7 hours to begin with. 

    Additionally from a coaching standpoint, I go back to the same point of view…think 8 hour of playing time a year.  You want players to have those precious extra minutes of playing experience to learn from and from a conditioning point of view and mental toughness it is more important.

    Injury can happen at any time…its part of the game.  It’s always easy to blame the coach.  Tom Brady got hurt in the first few minutes of a game.  Trust in the coach as he bases his decisions on what’s best for the team and the player at any given point in a game and for the future of games to come.  I see Bill B as a teaching coach and nothing is better for teaching than actual game time experience.

    To go back to my loss of playing time.  Every pro athlete strives for excellence and hopes to be condsidered one the best or a Hall of Famer.  In football, careers are not long, lose playing time because you winning big, hurts individual statistics for record keeping.  For we are about records as a means of deteriming success…whether it’s sacks, interceptions, yardage gained or passes caught…take away precious minutes when you only have hours of play per year, reduces the players ability for more opportunity, to raise their individual numbers for their legacy. Right of wrong, thats how we judge them and I believe that numbers should not be the guage of success, but unfortunately thats the way it is.

  • Bobg

    I am not a pro athlete, but I played several sports in high school.  I never wanted to come out of a game.  At the pro level I don’t think it is no different.  There is only so much playing time (game time).  16 hours of game time a year.  Divide that by 2 if both teams share equal amount of game time.  Down to 8 hours for an offense or defensive player and take out precious minutes for special teams.  You now have 7 hours of game time in the entire year.  7 hours for months of dedication.  I wouldn’t want to miss a precious moment.  knowing that the likelyhood of an injury could take several more hours out of my playing time on a chance is not factor for this athlete when I only have 7 hours to begin with. 

    Additionally from a coaching standpoint, I go back to the same point of view…think 8 hour of playing time a year.  You want players to have those precious extra minutes of playing experience to learn from and from a conditioning point of view and mental toughness it is more important.

    Injury can happen at any time…its part of the game.  It’s always easy to blame the coach.  Tom Brady got hurt in the first few minutes of a game.  Trust in the coach as he bases his decisions on what’s best for the team and the player at any given point in a game and for the future of games to come.  I see Bill B as a teaching coach and nothing is better for teaching than actual game time experience.

    To go back to my loss of playing time.  Every pro athlete strives for excellence and hopes to be condsidered one the best or a Hall of Famer.  In football, careers are not long, lose playing time because you winning big, hurts individual statistics for record keeping.  For we are about records as a means of deteriming success…whether it’s sacks, interceptions, yardage gained or passes caught…take away precious minutes when you only have hours of play per year, reduces the players ability for more opportunity, to raise their individual numbers for their legacy. Right of wrong, thats how we judge them and I believe that numbers should not be the guage of success, but unfortunately thats the way it is.

  • Nelsales

    The jets want to thank Bill for putting his second best player on special teams this year. Bill could you do the jets one more favor could you put Tom Brady in his place, maybe he will get hurt too!!!!!!!!!!!.

  • Newgiant6

    TheNew England Coach is not the guru everyone in this area thinks he is. It’s defense right, check your standings on defense the last 3-4 years. No team has won a super bowl being ranked like that, and New England will continue that trend.

    I think the quarterback is a good player but it seems like since the 2 super bowl losses, he has happy feet and only throws very short passes. Most of his 331 yards against Indy was yards after the catch. Anyone could throw 4-6 yard passes and be 70% completions.

    Gronk seems to be injury prone. At his age, he’ll never make it to age 30 on the field.

  • RI Pats Fan

    I’ve been a die-hard Pats fan since my youth; yes, even when they sucked!  That being said, I have been thoroughly enjoying the Belichick years here.  Anybody who is complaining about “starters being left in” or “running up the score” are morons! I know the team isn’t perfect, but really…who is?  As a fan I WANT to see them put as many points as possible. We don’t want the other team to lose; we want to see them Crushed!  Every time the Patriots run down the clock or put the backups in, we know the excitement just died down.  Hardly worth watching the rest of the game.   I hate the kneeling “Victory Formation” especially when when they are in the Red Zone and could score more points!

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