With the rain coming down, ample time remaining for Tom Brady and 56 yards away, Nick Folk attempted a go-ahead field goal Sunday night.
It was a curious call to many. It was a call that led to a missed Folk field goal and, ultimately, a New England Patriots loss.
Bill Belichick apparently didn't think too much about going for it, though.
"I mean, not really," Belichick told reporters after the Patriots' 19-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when asked if he thought about going for it ahead of the field-goal try.
A game overflowing with hype very much came down to fourth-and-3 from the Buccaneers' 37-yard line with 59 seconds to go and the Patriots trailing by two points.
A Folk make would've made it 20-19, but allowed Brady and his bunch a good amount of time to do what Brady does. The attempt was also not just from 56 yards out, but was in the rain at Foxborough.
"I thought I made it," Folk told reporters after the game, via the Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan.
But he didn't. It doinked off the left upright and into the night.
Had the Patriots gone for it on fourth-and-3, they would've had a 34.7% win probability, per Next Gen Stats. Attempting the field goal dropped that probability all the way to 24.3% and, in the end, dropped them to 1-3.
It was unlikely Belichick was going to second-guess himself to reporters following the loss, but it was at the very least a bit of a puzzling decision, as any 56-yard attempt in the rain would be with the game on the line.
"Just fell a little bit short," Belichick said in his opening remarks.
That very much summarized how things came to a close for the Patriots, however.
