Hey, what an glorious Wild Card Weekend, am I proper? we’d not have seen good NFL soccer, or good officiating, and even good choice-making from gamers and coaches alike, however we did see an unimaginable deal of chaos. And, as all people is aware of, chaos is the place the true pleasing begins — besides your staff is the one fumbling round on the hours of darkness regardless of the merciless glare of the nationwide spotlight. however with apologies to Vikings, Dolphins, and Ravens followers, let’s try a quantity of of yesterday’s truly-horrible-however-als0-kinda-hysterical recreation-ending selections.
Gotta get the play in, Mike
We’ll start with the primary recreation of the day, Dolphins – funds. might Miami survive and advance with out Tua? Is Josh Allen the subsequent Patrick Mahomes? is that this lastly the 12 months the funds Mafia will get their remaining reward? effectively, presumably. And this one was pretty a bit nearer than it most probably ought to have been, due to three turnovers from Allen. however, America waited, breathless, on the sting of its seat… as Miami head coach Mike McDaniel inexplicably let a minute expire with out getting a play in. Look:
So what did McDaniel ought to say for himself afterwards? Reader, he mentioned this:
“There was some crowd noise that needed to do with mishearing some studying of digits of the wristband. There was some factors all through the huddles of communication and attending to the highway of scrimmage.
“And there’s the excuse that you merely don’t use, that will be an exact compounding variable, that there is a a quantity of quantity of diverse of us inside the huddle, the place talking — everytime you’re in a nice routine, or presumably there’s a gaggle of offensive linemen that are being communicated to by the identical particular person. everytime you presumably can have flux like that, it occurs, it shouldn’t happen as a lot as a end result of it did.
We had been deploying a gaggle of gamers for the primary-and-10 name. It was articulated that, no, it was fourth down. That miscommunication — that’s all of the stuff that you merely do on this enterprise. You by no means cease discovering the issues which you presumably can enhance on. And it was a piece of the rationale why had been unable to return out with a victory. however it absolutely positively wasn’t the one motive.”
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That’s actually extra of an outline of what occurred than a proof, however okay. The worst half was that McDaniel mentioned all of this whereas nonetheless sporting a very horrible Dolphins’ hat, which I get was imagined to look distressed and edgy, however simply wound up wanting like a quantity of of us had sweated in it a quantity of instances. Yarg.
Kirk Cousins: by no means not conservative
Up subsequent, now we have the Vikings and Giants, and kudos to our Jon Hoefling for calling this one precisely. The Vikings by no means regarded good (although Kirk Cousins truly performed pretty effectively), however at no level did they current the impression of being worse than on the remaining play:
So, there’s no means this was the exact play name, proper? This needed to be a look at down. And if you happen to’re going to look at down on a play that has the whole season driving on it, what do you even have Justin Jefferson for? appears as if the time to let one fly and hope Jefferson grabs it was inside the remaining seconds of a recreation with the postseason on the highway, no? Alas. It doesn’t even matter how effectively Cousins performed on Sunday — that is the one play anyone goes to bear in thoughts.
right here’s what Cousins needed to say:
“Yeah, it was solely a shell study there. I noticed single-extreme (safety) and tried to work Justin (Jefferson) and didn’t be proud of placing it as a lot as Justin. And after I went to progress, I simply felt like i used to be about to get sacked. I felt I needed to place the ball in play. I couldn’t go down with a sack.
So I simply kicked it out to T.J., and that i had thrown in want of the sticks on a quantity of occasions inside the sport and going again a quantity of weeks. I simply felt like throwing in want of the sticks isn’t the extreme of the world, and it was clearly tight safety. however I felt like i used to be going to go down and take a sack and put it out.”
understandable, I suppose, however you presumably can’t dance round submit-win shirtless in large chains after which take the protected various when it issues. Cousins has on a daily basis had a status for being too conservative by half (on and off the sphere), and Sunday’s choice isn’t going to fluctuate anyone’s thoughts.
lastly, we deliver ourselves to the remaining Sunday recreation, Ravens – Bengals. all of us knew Lamar Jackson was on the bench for this one, which was the supply of some disappointingly low-key beef amongst former gamers. nonetheless, even with out Jackson on the sphere, Baltimore had an alternative.
What the hell was John Harbaugh doing?
Head coach John Harbaugh was off to tough start in Ravens – Bengals, having been an whole jackaass to sideline reporter Melissa Stark earlier than halftime:
Harbaugh’s unhealthy day continued, collectively with his staff going into the huddle TWICE in the course of the remaining minute of the sport, trailing 24-17. Not solely that, Harbaugh left TWO time outs on the board till there have been solely eight seconds remaining inside the sport. after which Harbaugh took a trip with the clock already stopped. What inside the identify of all that’s holy…
Guess what occurred? THEY RAN OUT OF TIME. QB Tyler Huntley heaved one in direction of the heavens that Baltimore virtually acquired here down with. think about what they might have executed in the event that they’d truly, oh, I don’t know, used a trip to reset and name in a play? Have we not reached the function in American soccer the place youngsters spend years studying clock administration through Madden? Isn’t there anyone on Harbaugh’s staff underneath forty?
Anyway, right here’s what Harbaugh needed to say:
“We needed to save heaps of the timeouts for the crimson zone. The factor that killed us was the holding penalty. That knocked us again. the thought was, we needed to protect these timeouts to throw the ball. So, we tried to pop a run there, we had been gonna name a timeout after that, and we’d nonetheless have a run/go various. We needed to understand with out giving the ball again. we predict we’re going to get inside the crimson zone, we predict it’s going to be a sure quantity of performs, and we’re going to work proper all of the means down to the extreme of the sport. barely than rating with 30, 35 seconds left, you give them an alternative to go kick a area purpose on the extreme.
“So, i assume we performed it proper. Didn’t work out inside the sense that after that, we had incomplete passes. if you happen to finish the passes, you get the ball inside the crimson zone, you name the timeouts. So, i assume that at an elementary stage, you presumably can say, ‘Ah (expletive), they ought to have used the timeouts.’ however we had the timeouts labored proper.”
inside the enduring phrases of J. Peterman, that truly is an glorious deal of phrases. I don’t actually know what to say besides that nothing about that remaining minute “labored proper,” there’s no means Harbaugh goes to persuade anyone it did, and saving your timeouts for the crimson zone solely works if you happen to can truly get to the crimson zone.
I can’t wait to see what tonight brings.
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