Matthew Slater

Bill Belichick explains why he made call to kick off in OT

Published Dec. 27, 2015 4:35 p.m. ET

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James Parziale

UPDATE (Sunday, 9:50 p.m. ET): New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick confirmed receiver Matthew Slater’s earlier assertion that Belichick did indeed want to kick the ball should his team win the coin toss before overtime of Sunday’s bizarre loss to the Patriots.

"I thought it was the best thing to do," Belichick told the media after the 26-20 loss, a loss which prevented the Patriots from locking up the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC playoffs.

"There wasn't any confusion," the coach continued, alluding to whether the apparent confusion between Slater and referee Clete Blakeman was about whether the Patriots did indeed elect to kick. "There was no confusion."

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Original story

Well, apparently the New England Patriots knew exactly what they were doing at the start of overtime against the New York Jets on Sunday.

Matthew Slater, one of the Patriots special teams captains who went out for the coin toss, called heads, and elected to kick off. This, we have learned, was not an error by Slater.

The first team to score a touchdown wins in overtime, and that's what the Jets ended up doing on their first possession.

Here is the full text and video of the exchange:

Slater was trying to ask referee Clete Blakeman about choosing the direction they'd kick to get the wind, a strategical element and decision by the Patriots.

Said Slater: "Before we went out for the toss, (head) coach (Bill Belichick) told us if we won the toss, we wanted to kick off. Obviously, as a player, you ask three of four times just to double check because you want to make sure you get it right."

He clarified further, saying that "he only confusion was whether or not we got to choose which direction to kick the ball. Because we won the toss, we chose to kick off and they got to choose which way they wanted to receive the ball. That's the way it was explained to me and obviously we wanted to kick off."

Still, it may end up gifting the Jets a berth into the postseason.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report

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