It’s a playoff game and the guys you’re having Matt Hasselbeck throw to are dropping balls all over the place.
You have Jerry Rice. You have Jerry Rice in the game most of the time. You have Jerry Rice - any pass he drops couldn’t have been caught by anyone. You have Jerry Rice, who had returned most of the way to his normal form in the last few weeks of the season.
You don’t even attempt a pass anywhere near him. Not one. All game. It’s not as if he’s not open. It’s not as if he hasn’t showed that he can catch a pass even when covered well. He wasn’t even looked at. You used Jerry Rice as a decoy for Darrell Jackson.
Use the fast guy who couldn’t catch a cold if he were injected with one as the decoy. Throw the ball to the man who has more highlight reel catches than you have game tapes.
I cannot believe that a coach with the opportunity to exploit the greatest mismatch ever made - Jerry Rice versus a green nickel cornerback - didn’t even attempt to do so. You had Steve Young crying up there in the booth with your gameplan.
You had one last chance to redeem yourself on the last play of the game. It’s fourth and four from the four. If there is any time you need an absolutely surehanded, fast-cutting reciever, it is here. You have one. He just happens to be the best receiver to ever play this game. So what if he’s not a deep threat anymore? With four yards to go you’re not talking about separation - you’re talking about a demon move and grab-a-greased-pig hands.
And now you’ve lost. I guess you’ve gotten your just deserts.
Holmgren’s first two plays of the last bit of the game were ridiculous. First down, Hasselbeck sacked, setting up 2nd and 16. Fuckin dumb. At least try a play action. Second down, an ill-advised shot at the end zone. Bad pass into double coverage by Hasselbeck. Third down, a nice possession-type pass over the middle. Shoulda done that on second down. Putz.
Could Hasselbeck have made it in on fourth down do ya think?
Speaking of stupidity, who was that idiot for the Jets who almost cost his team the game with a colosally dumabass blow to the head against Drew Brees that gave the Bolts a new first and goal when the game should have been over?
Eric Barton. The team loves that guy and he was properly contrite afterwards, so it’s not a big deal.
Besides, it doesn’t matter. Of course it doesn’t matter in the sense that the Jets won, but even if they lost it wouldn’t matter who did it because it would have been just another in a loooooong series of the Jets finding new ways to snatch defeat from the Jaws of victory and crush their fans. I’m convinced they send new players to a class or something to learn how to do it. And no, hiring the guy who picked up The Fumble against the Giants isn’t enough to undo things.
The main thing you should be pitting is giving the NFL’s second leading rusher just 15 carries. I know he was injured at one point, but he wasn’t exactly getting a lot of touches before that.
Well, yeah, that too, but Holmgren had two great offensive mismatches - Alexander vs. the Rams run defense and Rice vs a nickel cornerback and he didn’t do a damn thing with the second one. At least Alexander was given the ball.
Jerry would have made that catch, but Hasselbeck did the right thing by throwing. If he tried to rush for the end zone, the St. Louis defenders would have snagged him, IMHO.
I think if Alexander had been healthy the whole game, the Seahawks probably would have won. But instead they have a league record tying 6 straight playoff losses!
And for this rant, we turn to San Diego. Marty, there’s a reason people from Cleveland, Kansas City and now San Diego can all hold hands and curse your name over this abomination called “Martyball”. You have a rookie kicker. You’re QB has executed a top-notch drive down the field. So it’s first down, and your kicker is looking at a 40 yarder. That’s not a chip shot. So what do you do? You run up the middle twice, and slightly to the right once. You have a RB that caught 101 passes last year! Your TE is the best in the league! Make an EFFORT you dumbshit!