How about a Super Bowl 49 thread?

How often do you see a bootleg fail when the defense has nine in the box?

 

Tell me how many of those passes were hard slants over the middle and at the goal line, then maybe I can buy your premise.

I would bet most were either fades, throws to the back border of the end zone, or to running backs in the flat.

 

Ahem.

 

Ahem ...

If you think a game like that vindicates your midseason declaration that the NFC is so over ... OK we will have to agree to disagree.

 

Passing from the 1-yard line netted a touchdown a handful of percentage higher than running from the 1. The pass succeeded around 65 percent, the run around 59 percent.

In a vacuum, the pass was the better call. But that does not account for the number of catastrophic things that could happen (sack, INT, holding penalty) on a pass, whereas your only real worry on a run is the fumble.

 

Ya know, sometimes a guy just makes a great play. That's where I come down. If Carroll runs the ball three times from the 1 and Lynch gets stuffed three times, very few would've been critical of the move. And I hate it when coaches make decisions based on what will shield them from criticism. So credit to them for making a decision they thought was best, not what they thought would be blameless.

It seemed so stupid at the time, but I thought it was so stupid not to kick at the end of half and his ballsy call changed the whole outlook of that game. Hard to have it both ways.

I feel I little about this the same way I feel about Manning's pick in the Saints Super Bowl. Yeah, it was on Manning. But the guy made a great play. He recognized the formation (based on hours of film study) and jumped a route. Same thing here.

It's more fun to blame, blame, blame. And a lot of it's justified. But hell, a guy made a great play. Sometimes that happen If he plays like a terrified rookie, Lockette scores and it's likely over.

 

It's not just the risk of a play like that. It is going away from their strength, which is Lynch.

 

Do you think the public flips out over the play call in the way they have if Collinsworth didn't do so on the air first? I wonder how many people took his lead. I don't think it accounts for all of it, but I bet it helped amplify it.

I'm sure we've all been in this situation before where you cover a game, and what you take from it is different, once you leave the bubble, from something the world is raging about. And it's because of something that the broadcast team discussed or focused on at a pivotal moment.

 

Could be. But maybe not. I know i was screaming at the tv just about the moment the ball took flight. I never heard what Collinsworth said, and i'd imagine that was true at a lot of parties.

 

I was mostly just busting your chops. But I was right.

 

Burning two timeouts really fucked Seattle. With just one more timeout left, they could have (would have) run the ball.

 

Like Rusty, the moment he threw the ball I was shouting in disbelief. I think Collinsworth's reaction was representative of most people's reactions, not influential of them.