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Did New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick make one of the biggest gaffes of his Hall of Fame career? Or was his final decision in Super Bowl XLIX the result of careful consideration and a predictive near certainty on the Seattle Seahawks' climactic play call?

The trailer for a new NFL Films documentary on the Patriots' 2014 season clearly implies the latter, suggesting Belichick identified the Seahawks' plan, knew the Patriots were prepared for it, and thus eschewed a timeout that would have given his offense time to recover if the Seahawks had taken a late lead.

"I thought about the timeout," Belichick said in the trailer, "and when I looked over there, I don't know, something just didn't look right. [Defensive coordinator Matt Patricia] said, 'Do you want the timeout?' … I said, 'No, just play goal line.'"

The sequence in question began with about a minute remaining in the fourth quarter after the Patriots tackled Seahawks tailback Marshawn Lynch while protecting a four-point lead. Conventional wisdom suggested a timeout at that moment, which would have preserved maximum time for the Patriots to get in position for a game-tying field goal if the Seahawks scored what was a highly probable touchdown from the 1-yard line.

In the trailer, Patricia said that Belichick initially did not reply to his question and instead was "just staring across the field."

Ultimately, Belichick allowed the clock to run. The Seahawks did not snap the ball until 26 seconds remained. If they had scored on that play or on any of two more available attempts, Belichick's decision would have stood out much more than it did.

The Seattle Seahawks were 62 percent likely to win the Super Bowl before Malcolm Butler's interception. Rob Carr/Getty Images

Instead, as the world knows, Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler stepped in front of QB Russell Wilson's pass attempt for an interception that sealed the victory. In the NFL Films trailer, Patriots coaches made clear that Butler had practiced defending that exact play -- even providing practice footage to show it. Meanwhile, rarely quoted Patriots research director Ernie Adams says, "We do try to make sure we're ready for anything that is going to come up on a Sunday."

The trailer doesn't explain what exactly Belichick saw on the Seahawks' sideline that "didn't look right." Perhaps it will be part of the full presentation, set to debut Sept. 9 on the NFL Network.

It seems to me that stopping the clock was a decision independent of knowing what play the Seahawks would run, and should have been unaffected by the confidence level in stopping it. The Patriots were obviously well-prepared for the play, and their goal-line arrangement would have covered them if the Seahawks audibled to a run. A timeout, however, would have covered the Patriots if something went wrong -- if Butler fell, if one of their players jumped offside, or if the pass was merely incomplete instead of an interception.

Instead, Belichick took a big leap of faith on a statistically unlikely turn of events. It worked. The Patriots won the Super Bowl, but I'm not sure this decision -- whether it was calculated or just a brain freeze -- will get mentioned when Belichick one day takes his rightful place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.