PAC @ WAS:
Every account I've seen says PAC won the toss and chose to receive. So we chose to go with the wind on the kickoff. That had us against it in 2nd quarter.
We had first choice to start the second half. We could have chosen the wind but doing so would have had us kicking off again.
SJ - Do you think we should have chosen to go against the wind in the 3rd quarter knowing this would have meant us kicking off to start both halves? Just asking.
DE - Now I know what game you are talking about with regard to Belichick. It was overtime. The Pats won the toss. Apparently, under Belichick's orders, Slater said "We want to kick, that way." This was a brain fart. He said "We want to kick" before he said "that way." That was the key.
Slater on Sunday told reporters that the confusion revolved around whether the Patriots could choose the direction of their kick. He said he confirmed multiple times with Patriots coaches that they wanted to kick off if they won the toss.
"Before we went out for the toss, Coach told us that if we won the toss, we wanted to kick off," Slater said. "So obviously, as a player, you ask three or four times to double check because you want to make sure you get it right. ... The only confusion was whether or not we got to choose which direction we got to kick the ball."
Blakeman (the ref), with his microphone off, replied, "You elected to kick." Had Slater said he wanted to defend a specific end first, his choice would have been granted, but because he said "kick" first, he wasn't allowed to pick which end to defend.
Naturally, if he had said "We want this direction" then the Jets would have elected to receive. Live and learn, I guess.