If you read yesterday's entry you know how ticked I was by the teams and their coaches yesterday. So far so good today nearing the conclusion of the Seahawks/Bears game.
Mad props to Mike Holmgren. No question at all that he did the right thing at the 2-minute warning of a tie game on the road. Seattle had all 3 timeouts remaining and the ball was barely in Chicago territory. The bad news is they went super creative (ha-ha) and ran Shaun Alexander straight up the middle into the claws of the league's best defense and they came up short. Didn't help that Matt Hasselbeck bobbled the snap, but anyway.
Chicago needed about 20 yards to try a game-winning field goal - they got zero. And they took only 21 seconds off the clock. Seattle did get the ball back with 1:38 to go and 3 timeouts.
Then Lovie Smith calls timeout on 4th and 16 with :02 seconds left after he watched 14 seconds tick off, so Seattle can throw a hail mary. ????? Hey Lovie, why don't you call timeout with 16 seconds left to force the punt and get Devin Hester on the field. That's a real head scratcher.
Bears win on a Robbie Gould FG in OT. Man, Hasselbeck sure does have troubles with playoff OT. Twice his team has won the toss, twice his team has taken the ball first and lost.
Be back during or after Pats/Chargers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- As promised, one half of football left before the conference title games next week. Typical Patriots/Brady at the end of the first half. Brady and the Patriots did literally nothing for an entire half, but on the final drive of the half he goes 5-7 for 57 yards (after starting 4-12 for 36 yds) and throws a TD pass with 8 seconds 'til intermission. 14-10 is whole lot different than 14-3 not to mention momentum.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's over. The Patriots did it again. Tom Brady is now 12-1 in his postseason career and the Pats won despite his 3 interceptions. The bottom line is New England made plays and the Chargers didn't. That's not entirely true, the Chargers did make plays and nearly all of them were bad.
- Eric Parker muffs a pount that extends a Pats drive. Same drive they stuff 'em on 3rd dn and could've forced a 50 yd fg attempt, but a personal foul gives the Pats a first down - led to a FG. A personal foul after an extra point, Marlon McCree intercepts Tom Brady but then fumbles trying to make the return, Schottenheimer compounded the mistake by challenging the play unsuccessfully. There went a timeout he sure could've used.
- And here's what I initially thought ticked off LT after the game. On the first play after the Pats tied the game LT ran for 5 yards, giving him 123 for the day. There was still 4 minutes on the clock, but SD threw the ball on the next 2 plays. That makes no sense. Rivers completed less than half his passes in the game - and that's not counting the 2 spikes on the last drive. Why would you take your best player out of the game plan at the most important time of the game. I'd say the odds were pretty good that LT could get 5 yards on the next 2 plays or worst case is you have 4th and short and punt. SD would still have taken another minute off the clock.
-How about the timeout they called on the 3rd down play?? The clock was already stopped, there's another timeout that they sure could've used.
If you ask me it does not look good for Marty. Here's the San Diego Union Trib's take on Sunday's meltdown.
---- WEX
No comments:
Post a Comment