Yay! I am a pretty happy guy. For one, the Bengals won, and are the most physical Bengals team I can ever remember seeing, especially on defense.
Two: I’m still sober.
Yay!
Jesus H. Christ.
That might have been the best finish I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe the game actually lived up to the hype.
That was awesome, if only for the look on Belichick’s face when they didn’t get the first down. What a terrible, terrible choice to go for it. That’s a call you make when you don’t have 11 men to put on the field for defense. Bizarre.
It was close, but I honestly don’t think the WR had the forward progress for the first. I would have preferred a review, just for transparency, but they wasted all their timeouts.
Nitpick: it was scatback Kevin Faulk lined up out wide, not a wide receiver. I don’t think the replay would have made any difference anyway; the spot was based on where the referee believed Faulk “completed” the catch, since he bobbled it at first, but I think the only question was whether he was short by a few inches or a couple of feet.
I don’t get the call either, but Collinsworth (I think) suggested that Belichick knew his defense was gassed from all that marching up and down the field by the Colts’ no-huddle (which keeps the defense from substituting) and figured he had a better shot of picking up two yards with his high-powered offense than he did of stopping the Colts. So, in a sense, he might not have had 11 guys to send out. They were already down to one reserve linebacker and one defensive back, remember.
When you look at it that way, it doesn’t seem like that much of a gamble; the odds of that offense gaining two yards are surely higher than the odds of an exhausted defense stopping Manning when he has two minutes and a timeout and has found his rhythm.
I don’t mind the call to go for it right there. The Patriots as good as any team in the league at making short passing plays work, and Manning was ripping up their defense. Would another 30 or 40 yards from a punt have stopped him? On the other hand, if the Pats can complete a 3 yard pass, which they’re successful at the majority of the time, game over.
There’s always results oriented thinking when it comes to this. If Faulk gets another yard, they run out the clock and Bellichick is a genius. He falls a yard short and suddenly it’s the dumbest call ever.
Just got back from the Colts/Pats game it was quite an experience, let me tell you. It was a pretty quiet place in the second and third quarter; Brady, Moss, and Welker ate up that defense for lunch.
As a Colts fan, I was happy with the victory, but I’m not sure the Colts had any real business winning that game. They had two pass interference penalties on nearly uncatchable balls on drives that they scored on, and had two red zone turnovers (which give me a friggin heart attack - the Colts have to lead that stat every single season). The Pats owned time of possession as well.
As for the call, Belichick looks like a genius if it works out, and to be fair, the Pats had been moving the ball most of the game with relative ease. Still…giving Manning a 30 yard field for the win isn’t the smartest thing in history.
All that said, awesome game to go to.
If he went for it because his defense was gassed, that makes the call WORSE. If you don’t make it, you’re absolutely giving the game to the Colts in that situation, versus the situation where Manning, who had thrown two picks, had to march ~70 yards.
Personally, I think it had less to do with the status of the Pats defense and more to do with Belichick’s opinion of his offense. So a Muntzian “Ha-Ha” is definitely in order.
If he thinks the chances Manning will score with another possession are greater than the chances they fail to convert a 4th and 2, then it’s a good call. And given the circumstances, not all that unreasonable. The Colts were just cutting through them at will.
Probably a good 65-70% of the time New England converts it and go on to win, and few would be critical even though it was the same decision.
The 4th down call was fine because the Pats made it. The zebras just gave them a blatantly bad spot, them for reasons i don’t understand, would neither let the Pats challenge it or give it a booth review. It was clearly a 1st down, though, and a blown call by the officials which gave the game away.
I say this a a disinterested party with no particular rooting interest in either the Pats or the Colts (or the AFC in general).
I hate the Colts with every ounce and fiber of my being, and I’m not so sure it was a bad spot. Faulk juggled the ball, so he didn’t have possession at his farthest downfield. By the time he had the ball under control, he’d been pushed back at least a little bit. Not sure how much, but I don’t think he would have gotten the full extent of his downfield progress even on review.
As far as not allowing the reviews, that’s just tough shit. Once you’ve burned your time outs, you can’t challenge. It’s not like they made up that rule for this game - it’s been the same way for years.
By which logic, nobody can ever criticize any failed call ever. “Why, you’re only saying that because it didn’t work.”
Right or wrong, it is very clearly the unconventional call there. Obviously you can’t really call it “stupid” if it works, but I think very few people would fail to observe that “he took a big chance” or somesuch.
Ah…I missed that they were out of timeouts. That makes more sense then.
No, if you honestly thought it was a bad call as it was being made, before you saw the result, that’s fine. But most people don’t really do that - they see what happens and then retroactively decide what they think of the decision. This particular case - a football playcalling decision with the game on the line - that’s almost all results-oriented thinking.
I called it a stupid decision at the time. For exactly the articulated reasons. I would have called it a stupid decision that got a good result had they converted.
If you want to enjoy a “What were they thinking?” call from yesterday, check out this clip. Maybe watch it first without sound if you haven’t already seen it and tell me what you’d call on the play.
The Panthers seem to have a little life. It’s just a little, but with Miami (short week with Brown possibly out;) the Jets (missing Kris Jenkins) and Tampa coming up, they have a chance to climb back in to the WC race. Delhomme is playing better, Steve Smith got back involved and the running game is on track. They’ve also found a good looking rookie DB in Sherrod Martin (3 INTs in 3 games since Fox let him play…)
On the other hand… they lost their best O lineman, Jordan Gross, to a broken ankle and their last 4 games are @New England; Minnesota; @NY Giants; New Orleans.
I think it’ll take 9 wins to get in this year, so they have a rough road ahead, but at least they’re giving us a little hope.
Even if the Pats had converted, nobody would call Billicheck a genius for that call. They’d say he was a moron and extremely lucky. That was a stupid, arrogant call and got the results it deserved.
That was also not a first down. Refs had nothing to do with it.
It’s like driving drunk. I don’t wait to see if the guy makes it home safely to decide whether or not it was a bad decision. It’s a bad decision even if he does make it home safely. Smart people make decisions based on the risks involved, the likelihood that something terrible will happen, not blind optimism.
I didn’t think it was a first down either. Faulk was in the air when he was juggling the ball, and by the time he had possession of the ball was right about the time he was slammed to the ground, well behind the first down marker. That’s how I saw it anyway.
Any time the Hoodie loses, its a good thing, particularly if its of his own making.
Yes, and my interpretation of it ran parallel to yours. The first shot of them, while centered, wasn’t zoomed and the only reason they stood out was because they were so stilted in comparison to the rest of the crowd. I think for the camera to have chosen them it had to be part of a staged campaign.
This Pats/Colts match will be on the classic games highlight reels for a long time to come. If one wanted to indoctrinate a neophyte to American football, this would have been the game to do it.
drm, that would have been something.