Bill Belichick's Timeouts, Declined Penalty Leave Mark In Loss To Wake Forest

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Bill Belichick stepped on the field inside Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium with 27 seconds left in the fourth quarter Saturday night after using his final timeout of the game.

Belichick elected to stop the clock with Wake Forest at North Carolina’s two-yard line, and his defense still on the field. But Belichick’s timeout didn’t occur on a crucial final play, or with the game in the balance in any way.

The Tar Heels trailed by nine points when their head coach decided to stop the game, allowing the Demon Deacons to call one last play on fourth down to close the game out. Robby Ashford delivered, diving toward the endzone on a read option play and making contact with the pylon to tack on an extra touchdown for Wake Forest in its 28-12 defeat of UNC.

Belichick, standing in the interview room with hands in both pockets for his five-minute availability, was asked about his decision to prolong the end of Saturday’s game, and his explanation was a perplexing one.

“​​Just trying to keep the game alive,” a monotoned Belichick said with a quiet voice. “I didn’t know what they were going to do. Block a field goal, make a stop. I mean, we keep competing.”

The game clock was well ahead of the play clock when UNC made a stop against Demond Claiborne on the play before Ashford’s touchdown, meaning that both teams could have allowed the clock to run and the game to end. But no, Belichick instead opted to put his defense back out on the field in hopes of some sort of miracle in a game that was already out of reach.

“I just said, we were trying to stop them,” he said when asked a follow-up question about the timeout. “I didn’t know what they’re going to do.”

A few of Belichick’s direct coaching decisions led to calamity for UNC on Saturday, either resulting in points for Wake Forest or missed scoring opportunities for the Tar Heels.

Wake Forest was flagged for an illegal shift in the second quarter on a one-yard gain for Ashford at UNC’s 12-yard line. Rather than accepting the penalty to bring the Demon Deacons back five yards, forcing them to repeat the down, Belichick declined the penalty and allowed them to stay in place. The following play, Claiborne took a handoff 12-yards to the endzone to put Wake Forest ahead 14-3 near the end of the half.

Though there’s not a guarantee that UNC could have kept Wake out of the endzone on that drive, the Tar Heels had a chance to bring the offense further away from the goal line and decided not to.

“Second and eight or first and 15, it’s about the same,” Belichick stated bluntly. “It’s about the same, whichever one you do. I don’t think there’s a huge advantage one way or the other. So we took the down, but it’s the end of the half, I thought we’d make a stop to give a little more time to get the ball back, which we didn’t do.”

Belichick had another questionable timeout choice in the second half, this one coming at the end of the third quarter. After Gio Lopez was sacked at Wake Forest’s 27-yard line, instead of rolling into the fourth quarter, Belichick called a timeout with just five seconds remaining in the third for Rece Verhoff to attempt a 45-yard field goal. Verhoff’s field goal was blocked, keeping the score at 21-9.

His explanation for that call, though not totally without merit, didn’t justify the absurdity of the decision.

“I thought the wind was definitely a little bit of a factor,” Belihick said. “So kicking it with the wind. I thought I had the timeout with about eight seconds. They didn’t give it to us until five, so that could have helped us on the kickoff, too. Although I don’t know if Rece really needed that, but it was trying to get that field goal with the wind at the end of the third quarter, and trying to get the kickoff behind it, which we didn’t get.”

Verhoff made a career-long 57-yard field goal on the side of the field that he would have kicked that 45-yarder at the top of the fourth. Again, no guarantee that the outcome would have been different, but burning the timeout there was neither necessary nor advantageous.

A few other debatable choices popped up throughout the game. A second-quarter play call on second and 11 for Jordan Shipp to throw a pass to a contested Jake Johnson came up incomplete, and the drive ended in a blocked Verhoff field goal. Trailing by 12 in Wake Forest’s territory with 11:03 left in the game, UNC settled for a field goal instead of going for a touchdown to further cut into the lead and make it a one-possession game.

Even with the questionable decisions, North Carolina was outplayed by Wake Forest throughout Saturday’s game. UNC was outgained 414-257 in offensive yardage, and the Tar Heels never made it to the endzone. North Carolina enters the final two games of the season with a 4-6 record, needing to win its games against Duke and N.C. State to make a bowl game.

While UNC’s overall play wasn’t sufficient enough to win on Saturday, a select few key coaching decisions didn’t help the team’s chances.