FOXBORO -- When Stephen Gostkowski booted a 56-yard field goal to end the first half of the preseason opener between the Patriots and Packers on Thursday night, it seemed as though he may have bailed out quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. But that wasn't the full picture of how Patriots coach Bill Belichick saw things play out.
In discussing the situation during a conference call on Friday, Belichick explained that Garoppolo played a significant role in helping the team add to the scoreboard with the clock winding down, even though the second-year signal caller took a sack only moments before the long kick.
"He saved us three points on that," Belichick said of Garoppolo.
With 53 seconds remaining, Garoppolo and the Patriots took possession on the Green Bay 49-yard line. The team's one remaining timeout was burned after two plays when running back James White went down with an injury that brought trainers to the field.
Garoppolo completed two of his next three passes and was then sacked for a seven-yard loss with about 20 seconds remaining. Garoppolo thought about running another play in order to try to either score a touchdown or improve the team's field position from the Packers 38-yard line. But judging that it may be difficult for a receiver to get out of bounds after a completion, Garoppolo looked to the Patriots sideline and quickly moved to spike the ball. That stopped the clock and gave Gostkowski the long kick opportunity.
The seven-yard loss made the scenario far from ideal, but Belichick lauded Garoppolo for doing the right thing and not making a bad situation worse.
New England Patriots
"I thought all things considered, he did a pretty good job with it," Belichick said. " . . . Given the fact we were out of timeouts with 20-some seconds -- I forget what it was, like 25 seconds or something like that when he got sacked -- we were trying to run a third-down play, which we would have needed to get out of bounds on because we were out of timeouts. And then when the clock wound down and it was apparent that if we had snapped the ball and run a normal play, we probably would have run out of time, so we would’ve had to score a touchdown on the play or the half would have been over.
"I think Jimmy did a good job to recognize that situation. Whether we should or shouldn’t have been in it, that’s really not the point. The point is once it came up, I thought he handled it well. I thought it was [a] good, quick decision on his part to give us an opportunity to attempt a field goal at the end of the half. Steve came through on a 56-yard kick, but the other alternative would have been to snap the ball, run a play, and then the half would’ve been over."
For a team that focuses heavily on handling a variety of situations throughout the course of a given season, the end of the half against Green Bay provided Garoppolo a live look at a challenging clock-management scenario.
While Garoppolo's handling of it may not have been perfect, from Belichick's perspective, he passed.