NFL 2014

[Megrim]

I had a whole bunch of memes saved to shitpost after NE won, but eh. Honestly, it was a very good game.

[WayAbvPar]

Seattle was outcoached. Just like I laughed and cheered when McCarthy kicked on 4th and 1 twice, I lamented when Pete Carroll did it in the 3rd quarter. It is not like this is debatable. it is fucking solved mathematically. Between that and the utterly indefensible slant call on the 1 yard line, they just got outcoached. The coaches  let their personnel down.


If Darrel Bevell isn''t coaching in Jacksonville next season (or selling shoes somewhere like his talent level deserves), I will shelve my vintage Walter Jones jersey for all time. I would burn it, but big Walt doesn't deserve that.

[HaemishM]

To talk about the officiating for a bit... it was horrible. However, it wasn't horrible in the sense that there were a ton of bad calls so much as it was not in the slightest fucking way reffed like ANY OTHER GODDAMN GAME THIS SEASON. This was just about the pinnacle of "just let them play" officiating. It was the perfect cap to a shitty shit shit shit season that was full of yellow flags flying like a flag factory blew up, because it was absolutely the opposite of the way they repeatedly said they'd be calling the game all season long. The NFL didn't want to show the part of America that only watches the Super Bowl just how ticky tack and shitty they've made their game this season, so they "let them play." It was a good game, but I couldn't get very excited about it at all, despite the fact that it was a well-played close game.

[Cyrrex]

WHY.  I mean WHY.

I sorta get that you call a pass play of some time, even if I wouldn't have myself...clock is winding down, defense on its heels and apparently they have their run-stop personnel in.  Maybe you catch them.  And if not you stop the clock.  But good God almighty, not with a quick slant.  Do some play-action and get a back out into the flat or something.  Or a fade in the corner where only your guy can catch it.  Not a goddamn quick-slant to a guy who is in the box against a defense that has like 10 men in the box as well.  A pass that, once the ball is snapped, you pretty much have to throw.

If I were trying to find an explanation, I can't help but wonder:  it is the last meaningful play of the Superbowl, and you are totally going to win, I mean you only need one stupid yard.  You either put the ball in Lynch's hands, or you put it in Wilson's (throw or pass).  You give it to Lynch, he runs it and he is MVP (100 plus yards, two TDs, that's almost a lock).  If Wilson runs it in, Wilson is probably the MVP.  If he THROWS it in, he is a lock for MVP, because that would have given him 3 TDs and no picks.  So who do you pick, the guy that might be on his way out of town, or the guy you are banking your future on?  The cynical part of me thinks that somebody made the call with this in mind. 

But more likely, the blame lies with Bevell, who is too stupid to be given another year as offensive coordinator.

[Evildrider]

You left out something.

[WayAbvPar]

WHY.  I mean WHY.


But more likely, the blame lies with Bevell, who is too stupid to be given another year as offensive coordinator.

 

[Ghambit]

He's s been horrible all year long actually, in most every game I've watched the Seahawks play.  Coupled with the fact they dumped Tate and Harvin, and it's amazing they even made it to the Superbowl really.  He is definitely not a top-tier coach.

[Cyrrex]

Agreed.  They won all year in spite of Bevell, not because of.  I also felt that early in the fourth quarter, they could have put the game away with some appropriately timed read/option, but instead they had to get cute.  Ninkovich did a decent job on the right side keeping contain, but the left side was ripe for the picking.  The middle of the field was also open a few times when they did a four man rush and dropped LBs in coverage.  I get that they want RW to be a pass-first on his scrambles, but that only works when there is a threat of a run.  I don't think he had a single designed run, did he?  If you want to get cute on 2 & 1 with the Superbowl on the line when everyone is expecting Lynch, that would have been a fine time to run the option.  A play that has failed for them roughly never ever.

[WayAbvPar]

If Pete Carroll can do basic fucking math and goes for the 4th and 1 instead of kicking a FG, they are tied and driving for a game winning FG or TD instead of whatever the fuck that abortion was in the one yard line. Coaching staff utterly shit their pants. Just fucking give the world championship away, why don't you. Fucking clownshoes. Pretty sure I will stop being angry about this one a decade or two after the heat death of the universe. I can't stop replaying it my head. Maybe I will sleep tomorrow.

 

[Falconeer]

Staying up until 4am to watch the stupidest call I've ever seen in a football match that matters? Fuck this shit. I hate everything. I still can't believe that just happened.

[Paelos]

That team is one of the most unlikeable in the league.

I feel bad for Way. Otherwise, fuck them. I hope they implode having to play Russell Wilson his undeserved money.

EDIT: Nevermind, saw that Sherman did speak. The fights and everything still made me think of them as just petty at the end.

[Megrim]

Staying up until 4am to watch the stupidest call I've ever seen in a football match that matters? Fuck this shit. I hate everything. I still can't believe that just happened.

You were doing it wrong brah. I was at a pub with my team, and everyone had a great time, despite the - literal - presence of people in Seattle #12 FAN jerseys.

[Chimpy]

That team is one of the most unlikeable in the league.

Which team?

You could easily say that about either team without irony.

[Yegolev]

I don't know a lot about football.  Help me out here:

1. Pete forgot he was on the 1.
2. Wilson forgot how to play football.
3. Seahawks owners did not want Lynch to run in the Superbowl-winning TD so they could force him to tow the line.

Is there a #4?

[Falconeer]

Staying up until 4am to watch the stupidest call I've ever seen in a football match that matters? Fuck this shit. I hate everything. I still can't believe that just happened.

You were doing it wrong brah. I was at a pub with my team, and everyone had a great time, despite the - literal - presence of people in Seattle #12 FAN jerseys.

Heh. Had to be up at 8am, so I decided to watch it with my son as close as I could to my bed. I'm actually glad I wasn't in a pub. The combination of that demented last play and the Patriots fans celebrating would have pushed me over the edge and granted me a padded room in a nearby facility.

[Paelos]

That team is one of the most unlikeable in the league.

Which team?

You could easily say that about either team without irony.

Seattle. People hate the Pats because of Belichick, which is fine, but I can't argue with the results. Or his QB who is in the same conversation as Joe Montana.

The Seahawks won a Super Bowl, then immediately started talking dynasty and how their team was disrespected. Their used car salesman coach got outplayed by the best in the league.

[MediumHigh]

You know that moment in league of legends when your ADC decides to split push top for no reason after you just got baron? Yeah.... now I have a word for that "The Pete Carroll"

[Falconeer]

There's just so much RNG in American Football. That last play, like the second to last (4 ricochets catch) is like rolling a triple-20 in an RPG. The game, like Blood Bowl, is all about reducing the chances for Nuffle to fuck with you, and this is where Carrol failed in that last play. Regardless, it all goes down to so few inches and so few milliseconds, that there isn't much play or outplay there. If anything, Butler outplayed Lockette. But again, at that point it's a matter of fucking divine and counter-divine interventions. Like the damn helmet catch.

If you meant instead that Bellichick outplayed Carrol over the whole 60 minutes, oh yeah of course I agree. But if that stupid pass just happened to be an incomplete (or even a complete) suddently things would look so different. Fucking dice rolls.

[Malakili]

I mean, I guess you can call in RNG if you want, but it's actual human beings out there making decisions and plays.

[Paelos]

That play wasn't RNG. The backstory is that Belichick pointed out the exact scenario to the defender earlier in a practice where he got beat, and made sure he understood that he had to be agressive if he ever saw it again.

That's coaching. That's prep. That's not luck or bounces. The catch? Sure that's a bit of luck with the ball not hitting the ground, going off a knee, and connecting. But that final play? And the series of plays that lead to it? Belichick flat outcoached Carroll.

[Shannow]

Didn't quite understand all the hate for the Seahawks..then I heard their radio announcer refer to the fans as the 'twelves' ....

I give a lot of credit to the Pats o-line as well. Brady only sacked once in the game, 37 of 50 passing. They couldn't get pressure like the Giants did.

[Cyrrex]

That play wasn't RNG. The backstory is that Belichick pointed out the exact scenario to the defender earlier in a practice where he got beat, and made sure he understood that he had to be agressive if he ever saw it again.

That's coaching. That's prep. That's not luck or bounces. The catch? Sure that's a bit of luck with the ball not hitting the ground, going off a knee, and connecting. But that final play? And the series of plays that lead to it? Belichick flat outcoached Carroll.

Which totally ignores the fact that Belichick made the second most boneheaded call in NFL history just seconds prior to this.  The only saving grace for him was that his unforgivable error was followed immediately but the number one most boneheaded.

But I can't really argue the point otherwise.  He's a great coach.

[shiznitz]

I don't know a lot about football.  Help me out here:

1. Pete forgot he was on the 1.
2. Wilson forgot how to play football.
3. Seahawks owners did not want Lynch to run in the Superbowl-winning TD so they could force him to tow the line.

Is there a #4?

There is actually several good reasons for not going with Lynch.

1) Pats were openly, clearly defening for that.
2) The secondary was filled with 3rd stringers. One does not expect an interception like that from 3rd stringers.
3) An incomplete pass leaves time on the clock while a failed run would have required the last timeout.

Butler was basically flipping burgers for the last few years and he makes that read.  Seattle coaches could not have predicted that.  I think the fault is more with Wilson, but I am sure he was told about the "weak" secondary so he figured he could thread the needle.

Seattle should not have even been there anyway.  They got to the Superbowl on miracle plays and they got to the endzone on another one. It was great TV but the Pats deserve the win as much as I want to defecate and puke at the same time for writing that.

[Paelos]

1 - Who cares? You can sell out defensively against the run and still not get there late in a game when the D is worn down by a 100+ yard rusher.
2 - Supposedly of the 66 throws from the 1 this year, exactly two went in the middle. The rest were fades or bootlegs. Because you don't throw into a teeth of a defense and make 3rd stringers look great. You beat them over the top.
3 - Again who cares? You had the TO to burn, and a FG did nothing. You didn't have to set up for anything. The idea of maybe it's incomplete is when you put it in a place the defender can't possibly get it, like out of the end zone, or in the corner.

You can't call that play. You just can't. Until that drive, Wilson hadn't completed a pass in the 4th quarter, and he'd been sacked once in two 3-and-outs. He was fucking it up royally. Yet in that drive after essentially a miracle grab, and Lynch getting them on the doorstep, they throw? The entire 4th quarter for Seattle was an offensive clusterfuck that makes the Green Bay game look almost competent.

[Ingmar]

I don't think the play called was so bad because it was a pass in general - there are reasons you could call a pass there, and probably decent pass plays you could call -  it's that it was a pass that was so obviously going to BE a pass. No attempt at misdirection at all, no play-fake, no nothing.

[Nebu]

I think I may have heard the best Pete Carroll meme on the radio this morning.  I'll see if I can capture the 

Hey Pete Carroll... want to go to Disney World???

Pete Carroll: No thanks, I'll pass!

[Paelos]

 

[HaemishM]

[HaemishM]

[Goumindong]

I don't think the play called was so bad because it was a pass in general - there are reasons you could call a pass there, and probably decent pass plays you could call -  it's that it was a pass that was so obviously going to BE a pass. No attempt at misdirection at all, no play-fake, no nothing.

No, its not that. Its that NE is looking to defend the lynch run. They have to dedicate their secondary up the middle to reinforce the line. So if you're going to run a pass play, which is fine given that they expect you to run it, it can't be a quick slant over the middle. Its where their defense is

[Nevermore]

It's second down.  You are a run-first team that has gotten to the Super Bowl by running over defenses that have made it a point to stop the run.  Lynch has more yards against defenses that stack that box than any other running back this year.  You need one yard.  Run the fucking ball.

[HaemishM]

What he said.

If you run the ball and don't make it, you still have a timeout, which leaves you time on the clock to try a pass on 3rd down. This isn't Peyton Manning and the Broncos, this is Beast Mode. Even when you stack the box, he can run motherfuckers over. Plus, if you are going to pass, that's not the pass to pull in that situation. Outside fade, play-action pass to the flat, anything other than what they did. It was just a dumbass playcall.

[Shannow]

 Saw the stat that this season there were 108 passes from the 1 yard line with exactly one  interception.

[WayAbvPar]

In other news, Warren Sapp slapped around a prostitute in his hotel room last night and has already been fired by the NFL Network. By all accounts he is a grade A shitheel, so good riddance.

[HaemishM]

Good riddance is right. I have had a hate-on for him since he blindsided Chad Clifton on an INT against Green Bay.

EDIT: To refresh your memory.