NFL 2014 Season Thread

[Sava]

[conspiracy]That interception was more staged that Katy Perry's show. It's so obvious the ass catch wasn't supposed to happen, and Carroll had to do something to make a loss look believable at the last minute. Bellycheck even knew it was going to happen, so he didn't call a TO.[/conspiracy]

Anyway, I'm glad we can finally put the Super Bowl behind us and get back to Deflategate.

I would not be surprised one bit if NFL football turned out to be somewhat scripted. Not necessarily every play, but the overall narratives.

[Lorizael]

I would not be surprised one bit if NFL football turned out to be somewhat scripted. Not necessarily every play, but the overall narratives.

That makes the Redskins comic relief.

[Sava]

yup

the Bears too



btw, did anyone else see Brandon Marshall sitting with Roger Goodell? I could have sworn I saw them together in one of the luxury suites

edit: yup



weird

[-Jrabbit]

Lots of Pete Carroll bashing all over the Interwebs today, obviously. This is the one that made me LOL:

[SlowwHand]

Someone needs to be made an example. Be it the HC, the OC and/or the QB.

[Sava]

Lots of Pete Carroll bashing all over the Interwebs today, obviously. This is the one that made me LOL:

edit: the aspect ratio on that is such that facebook cuts off the text from the thumbnail

[Zopperoni]

Someone needs to be made an example. Be it the HC, the OC and/or the QB.

I don't think anyone from the Seahawks is to blame (and boo to OC Darrell Bevell for throwing Ricardo Lockette under the bus post-game).

Here's the freeze-frame from when Russell Wilson is throwing the football. Lockette is open, but Malcolm Butler makes a tremendous break on it with the concentration to hang on to the INT:

[Sava]

One of the reasons you don't throw in that situation is because of the risk of interception.

[Zopperoni]

One of the reasons you don't throw in that situation is because of the risk of interception.

And one of the reasons you don't run is the risk of a fumble or botched hand-off.

Actually, up to that point, none of the 108 pass attempts this season from the 1-yard line was intercepted. (66 of those attempts resulted in a TD.)

[Sava]

I mean, the results speak for themselves.

[SlowwHand]

A fade, maybe. Not to the middle in such compressed space.

[Donegeal]

Look at the pic Zopper posted. That should've been a TD. Based on that pic I'd bet 95% of the time that's a TD. Butler just made a great defensive play. I'd also say I agree with OC Bevell. The receiver should have been more aggressive to the ball.

[SlowwHand]

Read the paper. They knew that formation and the rookie made his break perfectly.

[-Jrabbit]

It was a coaching faceoff, and Belichick was ultimately better prepared. More importantly, he never flinched in the endgame. Pretty impressive.

The flaw in Carroll's reasoning was his focus on taking the lead with no time on the clock. Nice idea. But he let that get in the way of the basics -- the actual taking of the lead.

He gets a miracle to get to the 5. Marshawn gets him to the 1 with 1:06 left. So he lets 40 seconds run off the clock, playing chicken with Belichick over timeouts. Belichick doesn't bite. Suddenly Carroll was down to :26 and had gone from many options to just a couple. Could've worked. Maybe even should've worked. But you saw the result.

You'll note that Belichick's approach on offense was distinctly different. He didn't even go to the trouble of running the clock down to the 2-minute warning. Score now, take the lead, then worry about defending it.

Fun game to watch. Which is all I was hoping for.

[rah]

Yeah, nice to see that there was actually something to talk about in the final minute. Much better than it being over by halftime.