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, .
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.
