Of course...that's why I have no problem with the thinking behind the fake punt call, because whether it's successful or not, the chances are very good that you will be putting the ball in the hands of your offense and its red-hot quarterback. Sooner or later.
No more ******* excuses.
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Of course...that's why I have no problem with the thinking behind the fake punt call, because whether it's successful or not, the chances are very good that you will be putting the ball in the hands of your offense and its red-hot quarterback. Sooner or later.
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I also thought that first foot touched out first. Alas, I don’t have any confidence in the review process anymore even if we did challenge. Have we won ANY challenges this year?
I didn’t see where I said it was rigged. When I invest my time in a team, I will ***** about the officiating when it’s called for. Tonight, it is deserved. I’m a fan, not a head coach.
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Exactly. Hell it almost worked with only leaving 1:25. With a long field there would have been no time left.
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You don't know that. You don't know if they score at all on a long field. I know giving them a short field didn't work. Yes there was time left. But if that TD pass was called short (like it almost was) then 40 more seconds run off and maybe more if they have to go for it on 4th down. People seem to think you can't drain the clock on a short field but you sure as hell can and they almost did.
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So if you don't think it is rigged then WTF were you talking about? You don't think they would call a fumble, a fumble for what reason? You really think that they would look at a fumble on a screen and not call it for what reason?
Since we are playing what if/fantasy world, what if the long field results in an INT...what if?
And I know the Steelers had the ball on the Saints' 35 with 35 seconds left. If JuJu doesn't fumble, they have a good chance to tie the game and go to overtime, or win it outright.
If ifs were fifths, we'd all be drunk.
What Ben and the offense did after the fake punt has no bearing on the decision. It was a stupid decision regardless of the outcome.
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Right. Which is why I know the fake punt was stupid. It didn't work. I knew it was coming when I saw the RB bail out. So going on what I saw rather than what could have been it was a clusterfuck. You don't use that type of play for a 4th down and 5. You pass the ball or go wide with a sweep. You don't bust up the middle of the defense like that.
Actually, Ben and the offense having an opportunity at the end of the game had everything to do with the decision...that would be the second of the two possible outcomes I mentioned in my first post.
I've already mentioned that I didn't particularly agree with the type of play, just that I understood the thinking behind it.
Just because you claim it, doesn’t make it true. If the last TD was spotted down at the 1, we may very well have gotten the ball back with less than 30 seconds. That is the dumbest reason I have ever heard for a fake punt on your own 40 yard line. No matter how you try to justify why it was a good decision, the score board and the ACTUAL results show otherwise.
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I just don't think there was enough thinking behind it. But either way JuJu's fumble makes it null anyway. I just don't like taking chances and possibly costing your team a win on one play. They've played their hearts out and I'm not going to screw them by putting the game on one single play.
And Tomlin does this type of crap. He gets ideas and just does them. Was it last year he was on his 2-point conversion kick? Everybody was saying he should go for it every time. But I don't hear anyone criticizing him for not doing it this year. Today he was on his fake punt idea. It just seems like he comes up with these things that other coaches do and thinks he's going to try that as well. But he doesn't know WTF he is doing so it always sucks.
It's not true or untrue. It's my opinion on Tomlin's rationale in that particular situation. Never said it was a good decision, I said I can understand his thought process. If the Steelers had the equivalent of the '85 Bears on defense, then yes, unequivocally, it would have been a "terrible, awful, atrocious, and profoundly stupid" decision. But that's not the case, is it?
Our defense did pretty damn good for most of the second half until Tomlin threw them to the wolves.
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Man we stopped them a few times in the game, including in the second half when we came back to take the lead. It is a huge stretch to just flat out assume they would have traveled the length of a long field to win it
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You very well might be right, Tomlin just did it on a whim, and I'm giving him way too much credit...entirely possible.
Again, most of the second half wasn't 4 down territory.
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There is no rhyme or reason to what he does other than he thinks it's a good thing to do. Most coaches look for tendencies in other teams. If they notice on film that the coverage is bailing too early, maybe the middle is leaving their assignments too soon, ETC.... With Tomlin it is just "Let's have a fake punt and run it with our FB up the middle". But coach it's over 5 yards to the first down marker and he's a FB.... might want to rethink that? No... ok let's do it!!
Well, the Saints moved the ball 46 yards in about 2:30 without using any of their three timeouts...you don't think they could have gained another 35 yards? With 4 chances to get 10 yards at a time? In hurry-up mode? Against this defense?
Guess we will never know, but I would rather give it a shot.
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I'd rather take my chances on a long field. If the guy catches the ball at the 1/2 yard line instead of a TD the time is all but gone anyway. If you are going to do the fake punt because you want them to score quickly then just let them score. Since Tomlin didn't do that he was trying to keep them from scoring at all. If that's the case then kick the ball and make them drive the field. It makes no sense.
Right. Like I said, I would have let them score no later than on the first-and-goal play.
Here's Tomlin's response (obviously), from behindthesteelcurtain.com:
When speaking to the press after the game, while Tomlin initially offered little explanation for the fake punt in his opening statement about the loss.
“Obviously, I chose to go for a fake punt. We were unsuccessful there. I take responsibility for that.”
The first question from the media unsurprisingly asked him to further explain his rationale for the call.
“I just wanted to be aggressive. I wanted to ensure that we had an opportunity to win the game. I thought. First of all I liked the play, the concept, I thought we had a chance to get it. But I thought where the game was and the time which was left in the game, I thought that if we did not stop them, that we would have an opportunity to have the ball last, and we did. But obviously, unsuccessful nonetheless.”
He liked the play. *sigh*
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Good grief... How the players can listen to this drivel anymore is beyond me. Like I thought. It was a spur of moment throw caution to the wind decision without any understanding of what the other team was doing or how best to attack in that situation.