The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion

[Kitty Galore]

Thanks Chas, all of that is true. I am a new fan of football. I started about 3 Seahawk games in last year. Wanted to share it with Dreaming, so I put effort into learning the game. I know I was extremely lucky that I chose a year my team goes to the SB and wins. Now, I know the agony of defeat as well. LOL

[Tonus]

That's not so bad, I've been a Seahawks fan since 1983. I was less disappointed by the SB loss in 2005 than I was by the struggles that followed. This team might still contend for a few more years, but winning one makes it sting a lot less if they begin to fade again.

[Angrboda]

I think all this complaining about the call is over-wrought. Football is about taking risks. You don't put together winning seasons without taking risks. If Carroll hadn't risked going for the endzone at the end of the first half, they might not have even been in that position at the end. The defender got a good jump on the ball and picked it. It happens. If he hadn't, that likely would have been a Seattle touchdown and nobody would be whining about Carroll's play calling now. They got lucky with that Kearse reception. And then fate turned around and dished them dirt. That's life. And football.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I hate that I have to live in a world where the Patriots are defending champions again. I really thought we were done with that shit.

Maybe Harding and Gilooly are looking for work?

[Kitty Galore]

I see what you are saying Rasetsu. I will see it that way one day, I am sure. It was a horrible call. They had one yard. To intentionally have the ball leave the player's hand was idiotic. IMO. But I know I am simplifying it. That is just how I see it. Even if they were successful, I would have still thought that play was idiotic, and they were extremely fortunate it worked out.

[Tonus]

A pass wasn't a bad call, in and of itself. And Carroll's thought-pattern is understandable: 25 seconds left, one time-out, three downs to try and score, you pass on second down and run on third down if the pass falls incomplete. If the run fails to get in you call your last time-out and you have one shot at all the marbles without worrying that the clock runs out. I don't see any real problem with that approach.

A pass in the middle of the field against a stacked defense is very dangerous. The chances of a deflection leading to an interception are relatively high versus a fade thrown towards a corner or a short flat pass towards the sideline. Sure, if Lockette makes the catch, the world would be wondering why Belichick left a rookie CB in there when he had Arrington on the bench, and patting Carroll on the back for a "gutsy call." But I think there are calls with much lower risk of a turnover in that scenario.

[Jackalope]

Thanks Chas, all of that is true. I am a new fan of football. I started about 3 Seahawk games in last year. Wanted to share it with Dreaming, so I put effort into learning the game. I know I was extremely lucky that I chose a year my team goes to the SB and wins. Now, I know the agony of defeat as well. LOL

No, the agony of defeat is an extended stretch of losing seasons - like we're used to having. Losing in the last 20 seconds of the Super Bowl? That's a *highlight*. :p

That's not so bad, I've been a Seahawks fan since 1983. I was less disappointed by the SB loss in 2005 than I was by the struggles that followed. This team might still contend for a few more years, but winning one makes it sting a lot less if they begin to fade again.

Fan since 1977. Agreed, seeing the team disintegrate after the SB loss to the Steelers was far more painful than the loss was. But you know - for most of my time as a fan (and yours too), we had never made it to the big game. All we really had was *that one year* when we made it to the AFC championship game after the 1983 season and lost to the damn Raiders, and then a drought of mediocre to bad seasons. Now, in the last little over a decade, we've got three NFC Championships, and one league championship.

This has been a good decade+ for Seahawks football, that's for sure.

Depending on what happens in the off season, next year could be painful.

[Faith No More]

I think all this complaining about the call is over-wrought. Football is about taking risks. You don't put together winning seasons without taking risks. If Carroll hadn't risked going for the endzone at the end of the first half, they might not have even been in that position at the end. The defender got a good jump on the ball and picked it. It happens. If he hadn't, that likely would have been a Seattle touchdown and nobody would be whining about Carroll's play calling now. They got lucky with that Kearse reception. And then fate turned around and dished them dirt. That's life. And football.

The risk was completely unnecessary at that point, though, which is what people are complaining about. I think what happened was the Seahawks were trying to be unpredictable, but when there's twenty seconds left and you're one yard away from winning the Super Bowl, you're supposed to go with reliable, not unpredictable. You also have to decide whose hands you are going to put the game in, and choosing Wilson over Lynch just does not seem like the smart move.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I think all this complaining about the call is over-wrought. Football is about taking risks. You don't put together winning seasons without taking risks. If Carroll hadn't risked going for the endzone at the end of the first half, they might not have even been in that position at the end. The defender got a good jump on the ball and picked it. It happens. If he hadn't, that likely would have been a Seattle touchdown and nobody would be whining about Carroll's play calling now. They got lucky with that Kearse reception. And then fate turned around and dished them dirt. That's life. And football.

The call itself was flawed. When the field is that constricted and short, the middle is going to be crowded; the defense has to guard against a QB sneak, or Lynch up the gut, and that means putting bodies in the box. Throwing into traffic is not a good thing to do. If you throw over the middle near the goal line, you throw to the back of the endzone, where either your guy gets it or it goes out of bounds.

Yes, it was sixty minutes of ball, and there are several play calls that could be questioned. But the rubber meets the road at four points down, 20 seconds left, and you have to make that call right right then.

There's nothing wrong with taking risks -- it's part of good playcalling. However, risks should not be heedless or unnecessary. Calculation and cost/benefits analysis are required on the gridiron, too. I could think of three or four plays keeping the ball at low risk, with a better chance of getting one yard and winning the game. This is a call I would have criticized even had it not resulted in the game-ending interception.

[Jackalope]

A pass in the middle of the field against a stacked defense is very dangerous.

This. It's way too easy for a deflection or a missed catch to get picked with 8 defenders in the box.

Passing is OK here, just not in the middle. Pass it outside in the flat where no defender can get to it (or, as PT said, over the middle to the back of the endzone) and if that doesn't work, then punch it in on 3rd down if you can. You don't throw it to someone who's AT the goal line.

Meh, I'm over it.