BILL OF GOODS
FOXBOROUGH, MASS. — In this case, Bill Belichick was Bill Belitrick, not Bill Belicheat.
The natural reaction to those three deceptive, neverseenbefore plays the Patriots ran in the third quarter of their stirring 3531 comeback victory over the Ravens in the AFC divisional playoff Saturday at Gillette Stadium was to assume the controversial New England coach cheated.
Belichick, after all, is a convicted cheat — as evidenced by the $500,000 fine he received from the NFL in 2007 for having an assistant coach videotape the defensive signals of Jets coaches during a game.
So, just like it’s human nature to wonder if a convicted shoplifter steals every time he goes into a store, it was human nature to wonder whether Belichick was playing within the rules when he sent those plays out with players declaring themselves “ineligible receivers,’’ befuddling the Baltimore sideline.
In this case, though, Belichick coached within the rules from player reporting and formation standpoints, according to an NFL spokesman, who on Sunday said there was nothing illegal about what Belichick did.
You can be as certain as Belichick not opening his practices to the public that, when the NFL’s competition committee convenes at league owners meetings in the offseason, it will examine what the Patriots did and perhaps modify the language of the rule.
But for Saturday’s game, you should do nothing but admire the edge Belichick gave to his team by deploying this wrinkle. You might not like Belichick — and there are plenty who don’t — but he deserves credit for leaving no stone unturned.
Down 2814 to the Ravens in the third quarter and after having gone threeandout on their previous possession, the Patriots used three plays on which they sent a skill position player onto the field to report as ineligible to touch the ball in an offensive capacity. That left four offensive linemen on the field instead of the usual five, and it confused and angered the Ravens.
The plays resulted in Tom Brady completions of 16 yards (to tight end Michael Hoomanawanui), 11 yards (to Julian Edelman) and 14 yards (to Hoomanawanui). In addition, the unusual formations drew an unsports manlike conduct penalty from Ravens coach John Harbaugh for walking onto the field and confronting officials in an effort to clarify what was going on.
The penalty went for 5 yards — half the distance to the goal line — to the Baltimore 5yard line. Two plays later, Brady threw a TD pass to Rob Gronkowski to cut the Ravens’ lead to 2821, and you could feel the tidal wave of momentum surge toward the Patriots.
NFL rule 5.3.1 states that “an offensive player wearing the number of an eligible pass receiver is permitted to line up in the position of an ineligible pass receiver, provided that he immediately reports the change in his eligibility status to the Referee, who will inform the defensive team.”
The latter part of that rule is what riled Harbaugh, who after the game said the officials were totally confused by the receiverineligible formation and didn’t inform the Ravens in time about which player was ineligible because Brady was running a nohuddle offense and snapping the ball so quickly.
“It’s a play that we thought would work,” Belichick said.
It did, and it confused the Ravens as much as it left them ticked off after the game.
“They pulled out every trick play in the book,” Ravens defensive end Chris Canty said.
“They couldn’t just drive the ball down on us regular ... [so] they had to do something tricky,” Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb said.
“You’ve seen one gimmick, you’ve seen them all,” Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs said derisively.
The thing is, though, according to Harbaugh, it was a tactic “nobody has ever seen before.”
And it worked. Did it win the game? It sure helped.
When asked if he thought the tactic were “cheap or dirty,’’ Harbaugh said, “I’m not going to comment on that.’’
“The league will look at that type of thing, and I’m sure that they’ll make some adjustments.”
They probably will. But on Saturday, what Bill Belitrick did was legal.
In the past, we ripped and ridiculed him when he was caught cheating. Today he should be commended for helping his team get to the AFC Championship Game by being one step ahead of Harbaugh, not the law.