ESPN’s Mina Kimes delivers spot-on assessment of Bill Belichick’s biggest mistake vs. Cowboys

The New England Patriots made a controversial decision during overtime of their 35-29 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6. At midfield, the Patriots elected to punt away the football to quarterback Dak Prescott and the impressive Cowboys offense.

There was not a consensus in the analytics community, with multiple services suggesting Belichick and the Patriots should have gone for the fourth-down conversion. And then there were others that suggested he had a better chance of winning by doing what he did: punt.

But the logic seems somewhat simple. The Patriots got a great game from quarterback Mac Jones, who made one hugely costly mistake: a pick-six. Otherwise, he was stellar, and arguably one of the best QBs of the week. New England needed to trust their quarterback to pick up a fourth-and-3 — particularly because the alternative was punting to Dak Prescott to drive against an exhausted Patriots defense.

ESPN’s Mina Kimes spelled it out perfectly.

Makes sense right? What do you think? Do you think punting was the right decision? Or do you think that they should have gone for the fourth-down conversion? Reply in the comments.

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What went wrong for the Patriots in their loss to the Cowboys in Week 6