Newton Defends Final Play Call Decision


On Sunday night, the Patriots put themselves in a position at the end of the 4th quarter to win the game. Down 35-23, with 4 minutes to go Cam Newton and the Pats offense marched down the field to get within a score off a Newton rushing touchdown, his second of the game.

Newton already had two rushing touchdowns off the power goal line formation, so when the Pats drove down the field only to be on the one yard line with 3 seconds to go, they tried what had already worked for them before. Newton came up short with a slew of Seattle defenders bringing him down. Cam watched the clip of the final play shortly after the game and had this to say about it;

"In that type of situation, it’s humbling to be able to have the respect of a team to have the ball in my hands. I just have to deliver. I saw a clip of it; I could’ve made it right by just bouncing it (outside). I was just trying to be patient. Just thinking too much, man. Or even just diving over the top.”


Newton went on to say: "Playing a fast defense like that, as soon as you guess, you’re wrong. I’ll definitely learn from this. The play was there. The play was there all game. Moving forward, we just go to scheme up things and being put in that situation again, hopefully we can have a better outcome.”


The argument I've been hearing the most since Sunday night was that "they were expecting the run." My response to that... who cares. Sorry to all the professional Monday morning quarterbacks on Twitter and Facebook. Maybe go run a different play on Madden or something.


So what if Seattle was expecting the run. They were expecting the run all game, including the other two goal line situations where on the exact same play, Newton scored twice. If something worked all game then you don't turn away from it when the game is on the line. That's exactly what the Seahawks did in Super Bowl 49 which now has them on the wrong end of one of the greatest moments in football history.


I think it was the right call in that situation, ride your playmaker until the end. Although I do believe Josh McDaniels made a couple questionable play calls on Sunday, I don't believe that was one of them. 


New England will look to bounce back from this last second loss next Sunday at home against the Las Vegas Raiders.





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