Wild card weekend game discussion

[areacodes]

Just kick the extra point...

 

The numbers say that going for two is the better move. Go up by two scores. Worst case, you fail and they get a touchdown. They will just kick the extra point to tie (most times). Very little risk, with winning the game as the upside.

 

Two scores to me still means the TD and the 2 point conversion.

Worst case, NE beats you running one back and going for 2 if you leave it at 7, not 8.

The upside I'll agree with you... game over if Tenn goes up by 9.

 

That’s not what two scores means. Do you consider being up 7 as two scores as well since they need to convert the PAT?

 

Against most teams I’d be 100% okay with the move and I didn’t disagree with it yesterday... but the Patriots are one of the teams I’d consider kicking the PAT only because I could see Belichick being one of the coaches to go for 2 to win the game if they miraculously scored, even at home. And they would most likely make it.

 

I also loved that Vrable took the penalties and drained nearly 2 minutes off the clock before punting (though he probably should have gone for it even though it worked). Belichick seemed so salty about that even though he pulled it earlier in the year.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

BB is a sore loser baby. It still bugs me years ago when the Mangini Jets beat them, he did that brush-off handshake. In the playoffs (or maybe just the 2nd game, can't recall), the Pats won, and BB gave him this great big hug. And the media just gobbled it up and couldn't stop talking about how classy it was. He's the least classy person in sports.

[OldHeidelberg]

 

I also loved that Vrable took the penalties and drained nearly 2 minutes off the clock before punting (though he probably should have gone for it even though it worked). Belichick seemed so salty about that even though he pulled it earlier in the year.

 

It is an interesting loophole, if you were up by say 2 TD's with 10 minutes left with 4th down at the opponents 40 couldn't you run the clock all the way down to 5 minutes? At worse you force the opponent to burn a timeout. Yeah you give up field position but considering you are probably playing prevent D to make the other team burn clock why not burn it yourself when you have the ball? I guess the refs could just step in and call unsportsmanlike conduct and put an end to it after a couple of penalties. Always happy to see Belichick's shenanigans thrown back in his face.

[adambr2]

That’s not what two scores means. Do you consider being up 7 as two scores as well since they need to convert the PAT?

 

Against most teams I’d be 100% okay with the move and I didn’t disagree with it yesterday... but the Patriots are one of the teams I’d consider kicking the PAT only because I could see Belichick being one of the coaches to go for 2 to win the game if they miraculously scored, even at home. And they would most likely make it.

 

I also loved that Vrable took the penalties and drained nearly 2 minutes off the clock before punting (though he probably should have gone for it even though it worked). Belichick seemed so salty about that even though he pulled it earlier in the year.

 

I don't consider 8 points to be a 2 score game, but I don't consider it to be a 1 score game and I think people mislead themselves on strategy at times by considering 8 to be a 1 score game. 8 points is, at best, a 50% chance of being a 1 score game and a 50% chance of being a 2 score game.

[PinaMadness]

 

I also loved that Vrable took the penalties and drained nearly 2 minutes off the clock before punting (though he probably should have gone for it even though it worked). Belichick seemed so salty about that even though he pulled it earlier in the year.

 

It is an interesting loophole, if you were up by say 2 TD's with 10 minutes left with 4th down at the opponents 40 couldn't you run the clock all the way down to 5 minutes? At worse you force the opponent to burn a timeout. Yeah you give up field position but considering you are probably playing prevent D to make the other team burn clock why not burn it yourself when you have the ball? I guess the refs could just step in and call unsportsmanlike conduct and put an end to it after a couple of penalties. Always happy to see Belichick's shenanigans thrown back in his face.

I get a sense this will be addressed by the competition committee this spring.

[homer]

 

I also loved that Vrable took the penalties and drained nearly 2 minutes off the clock before punting (though he probably should have gone for it even though it worked). Belichick seemed so salty about that even though he pulled it earlier in the year.

 

It is an interesting loophole, if you were up by say 2 TD's with 10 minutes left with 4th down at the opponents 40 couldn't you run the clock all the way down to 5 minutes? At worse you force the opponent to burn a timeout. Yeah you give up field position but considering you are probably playing prevent D to make the other team burn clock why not burn it yourself when you have the ball? I guess the refs could just step in and call unsportsmanlike conduct and put an end to it after a couple of penalties. Always happy to see Belichick's shenanigans thrown back in his face.

I get a sense this will be addressed by the competition committee this spring.

 

I was thinking that at the time. I wonder how they'd address it though? Make it 10 min? 4th quarter?

[nodakfan17]

Over / Under on # of times announcers mention Taysom Hill was released by the Packers next week: 3.5. Over / Under on # of times BF.net posters mention Taysom Hill was released by the Packers next week: 33.5. I’m not looking forward to the Jared Cook comments either.

[RollieTime]

 

I also loved that Vrable took the penalties and drained nearly 2 minutes off the clock before punting (though he probably should have gone for it even though it worked). Belichick seemed so salty about that even though he pulled it earlier in the year.

 

It is an interesting loophole, if you were up by say 2 TD's with 10 minutes left with 4th down at the opponents 40 couldn't you run the clock all the way down to 5 minutes? At worse you force the opponent to burn a timeout. Yeah you give up field position but considering you are probably playing prevent D to make the other team burn clock why not burn it yourself when you have the ball? I guess the refs could just step in and call unsportsmanlike conduct and put an end to it after a couple of penalties. Always happy to see Belichick's shenanigans thrown back in his face.

 

I believe it’s an unsportsmanlike conduct if a team takes more than one delay of game penalty without running a play. Not sure if the play clock would continue after that penalty or not, but it would move them back 15 yards. If they didn’t care about field position and the clock would continue to run after the penalty, I could see a team doing that. But you would be moving back pretty quickly at 15 yards per clip. Would the coach get ejected then for multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties then if they did it a couple times? Interesting...

[Fear The Chorizo]

Over / Under on # of times announcers mention Taysom Hill was released by the Packers next week: 3.5. Over / Under on # of times BF.net posters mention Taysom Hill was released by the Packers next week: 33.5. I’m not looking forward to the Jared Cook comments either.

 

Since they could easily be playing the seahawks or eagles next week, I'll go with the under

[Fear The Chorizo]

 

I also loved that Vrable took the penalties and drained nearly 2 minutes off the clock before punting (though he probably should have gone for it even though it worked). Belichick seemed so salty about that even though he pulled it earlier in the year.

 

It is an interesting loophole, if you were up by say 2 TD's with 10 minutes left with 4th down at the opponents 40 couldn't you run the clock all the way down to 5 minutes? At worse you force the opponent to burn a timeout. Yeah you give up field position but considering you are probably playing prevent D to make the other team burn clock why not burn it yourself when you have the ball? I guess the refs could just step in and call unsportsmanlike conduct and put an end to it after a couple of penalties. Always happy to see Belichick's shenanigans thrown back in his face.

 

I believe it’s an unsportsmanlike conduct if a team takes more than one delay of game penalty without running a play. Not sure if the play clock would continue after that penalty or not, but it would move them back 15 yards. If they didn’t care about field position and the clock would continue to run after the penalty, I could see a team doing that. But you would be moving back pretty quickly at 15 yards per clip. Would the coach get ejected then for multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties then if they did it a couple times? Interesting...

 

It sure seems like one of those things where they will make up another rule to prevent it from happening. Like after it happens once the penalty winds up stopping the clock or the opposing team has the option of declining the penalty and stopping the clock.

[homer]

Vikings getting a good rush.

 

Also, Kirk Cousins has zero pocket awareness.

[areacodes]

 

It is an interesting loophole, if you were up by say 2 TD's with 10 minutes left with 4th down at the opponents 40 couldn't you run the clock all the way down to 5 minutes? At worse you force the opponent to burn a timeout. Yeah you give up field position but considering you are probably playing prevent D to make the other team burn clock why not burn it yourself when you have the ball? I guess the refs could just step in and call unsportsmanlike conduct and put an end to it after a couple of penalties. Always happy to see Belichick's shenanigans thrown back in his face.

 

I believe it’s an unsportsmanlike conduct if a team takes more than one delay of game penalty without running a play. Not sure if the play clock would continue after that penalty or not, but it would move them back 15 yards. If they didn’t care about field position and the clock would continue to run after the penalty, I could see a team doing that. But you would be moving back pretty quickly at 15 yards per clip. Would the coach get ejected then for multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties then if they did it a couple times? Interesting...

 

Couldn’t you just do what the Titans did and take a delay penalty and the have a false start and do that again? Maybe stay in the huddle and run another player out to join the huddle with like 6 seconds left on the play clock and get a 12 men in the huddle penalty?

 

What other pre-snap penalties are there?

[HarveysWBs]

Watching Taysom Hill play makes me sad. Every single time.

[PinaMadness]

Xavier Rhodes isn't the same player he was. Hope he stays in Minnesota for quite a while.

[PinaMadness]

 

It is an interesting loophole, if you were up by say 2 TD's with 10 minutes left with 4th down at the opponents 40 couldn't you run the clock all the way down to 5 minutes? At worse you force the opponent to burn a timeout. Yeah you give up field position but considering you are probably playing prevent D to make the other team burn clock why not burn it yourself when you have the ball? I guess the refs could just step in and call unsportsmanlike conduct and put an end to it after a couple of penalties. Always happy to see Belichick's shenanigans thrown back in his face.

 

I believe it’s an unsportsmanlike conduct if a team takes more than one delay of game penalty without running a play. Not sure if the play clock would continue after that penalty or not, but it would move them back 15 yards. If they didn’t care about field position and the clock would continue to run after the penalty, I could see a team doing that. But you would be moving back pretty quickly at 15 yards per clip. Would the coach get ejected then for multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties then if they did it a couple times? Interesting...

 

Couldn’t you just do what the Titans did and take a delay penalty and the have a false start and do that again? Maybe stay in the huddle and run another player out to join the huddle with like 6 seconds left on the play clock and get a 12 men in the huddle penalty?

 

What other pre-snap penalties are there?

I would just make an offensive penalty an automatic stoppage of the game clock no matter when in the game it happens. No need to complicate things.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Meh, I don't really bemoan Taysom Hill. Flex players like that who aren't great at any one thing are products of their system. He's a good athlete that Payton uses well but I doubt he'd be doing anything like this in Green Bay or a bunch of other places. He's good enough at a bunch of stuff to use creatively but I think he's much more of a right place, right time guy.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I'm conflicted watching this game...on the one hand I always enjoy watching the vikings lose, on the other hand watching this saints offense in their home, climate controlled dome struggle against the vikings makes me want the saints at lambeau if its below freezing next weekend.

 

Drew brees has zero arm strength, btw. That will look even worse in cold weather

[nodakfan17]

Meh, I don't really bemoan Taysom Hill. Flex players like that who aren't great at any one thing are products of their system. He's a good athlete that Payton uses well but I doubt he'd be doing anything like this in Green Bay or a bunch of other places. He's good enough at a bunch of stuff to use creatively but I think he's much more of a right place, right time guy.

At the very least, he saves you a roster spot or two because on gameday, he’s effectively QB3, RB3, and TE3.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Meh, I don't really bemoan Taysom Hill. Flex players like that who aren't great at any one thing are products of their system. He's a good athlete that Payton uses well but I doubt he'd be doing anything like this in Green Bay or a bunch of other places. He's good enough at a bunch of stuff to use creatively but I think he's much more of a right place, right time guy.

At the very least, he saves you a roster spot or two because on gameday, he’s effectively QB3, RB3, and TE3.

 

My guess is with the imagination the offense showed in Mike McCarthy's later years, you can eliminate RB3 and TE3 from Hill's job responsibilities

[HarveysWBs]

I'm conflicted watching this game...on the one hand I always enjoy watching the vikings lose, on the other hand watching this saints offense in their home, climate controlled dome struggle against the vikings makes me want the saints at lambeau if its below freezing next weekend.

 

Drew brees has zero arm strength, btw. That will look even worse in cold weather

 

These thoughts have crossed my mind, as well. But then again, matchups aren’t apples to apples like that. Maybe the Vikings just match up well against the Saints, or maybe the Saints are having one of their flat weeks out there. What we know is that the Packers have not been outmatched by the Vikings in our two meetings this year, and in fact have looked quite comfortable for most of those games. While I suspect the Packers could do well vs. the Saints in Green Bay, this is such a quirky sport that I’m not confident enough to necessarily prefer them over the alternatives. I guess what I’m saying is that nothing the Packers do against anyone (besides beating the Ravens in the Super Bowl) would shock me, so it’s hard for me to find strong rooting interests so far this postseason.

[PinaMadness]

There is no ideal situation for how the playoff run would play out for us. Seattle would probably have the best chance to knock off the Niners but then we would have to play the Saints next weekend. Or we could play the winner of Eagles/Seahawks instead but does anyone trust the Vikings to win in SF? I guess I would rather go with the former, but it's not in my control so just let the chips fall where they may.

[homer]

Saints look like junk.

[PinaMadness]

Saints fans are really sensitive and insecure, aren't they?

[OldSchoolSnapper]

There is no ideal situation for how the playoff run would play out for us. Seattle would probably have the best chance to knock off the Niners but then we would have to play the Saints next weekend. Or we could play the winner of Eagles/Seahawks instead but does anyone trust the Vikings to win in SF? I guess I would rather go with the former, but it's not in my control so just let the chips fall where they may.

 

I agree because any of these teams can beat us, Philly included. There is just not enough obvious separation between the Packers and anybody. It'd be one thing if one of the QBs suck, but all of them are pretty good.

 

The Vikings are a dangerous team. On their best day, one of the best. But they are so wildly inconsistent.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Saints look like junk.

 

 

Someone better check whether they practiced on new years day...