2016 NFL predicition thread

[Kenny Camaro]

Originally Posted by SSmoothie

I agree, bad play calling by Shanahan.

Were the calls perfect, or was the execution poor? Probably not perfect, but definitely poorly executed.

[SSmoothie]

Originally Posted by Kenny Camaro

Were the calls perfect, or was the execution poor? Probably not perfect, but definitely poorly executed.

I'm not the only one, copied from CBS sports,

Then the real bonehead plays came a bit after that. On the next series, the Falcons moved to a first down at the New England 22 on a great catch by Julio Jones for 27 yards. On first down, the Falcons ran Devonta Freeman for a yard.

That set up a second-and-9 from the 21. Run it twice, kick your field goal, and you are world champions.

Instead offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan got greedy. He called a pass play and Trey Flowers dumped Ryan for a 12-yard loss. On the next play, Matthews was called for holding, which wiped a 9-yard completion to Mohamed Sanu. After an incomplete pass, the Falcons punted.

Passing is the way in the NFL, and it certainly was the thing that got Atlanta to this game, but sometimes you have to be smart. Shanahan got too arrogant in the fourth quarter.

Asked if Shanahan was too aggressive, Ryan shrugged that notion aside.

"Too aggressive? No," Ryan said. "I thought Kyle did a good job. I thought we played the way we play. We always play aggressive and play to win."

Three knees and they kick a 40-yard field goal and win the game. A first down and a short field goal and they win the game. The only thing that kills them is a sack and then a holding penalty.

Bad thinking.

Center Alex Mack said the pressure on the sack came inside the A-gap with a stunt by Flowers. He blamed himself.

He should have blamed Shanahan, who is on his way to be the head coach of the 49ers. I think Shanahan is brilliant. He will be a good head coach. But sometimes these guys in this league outsmart themselves.

Kyle Shanahan's aggressive play-calling might have cost the Falcons a championship. USATSI

"You don't think just run the ball and make your guy kick a 50-yard field goal," Shanahan said. "You try your hardest to give him a great chance to for sure make it, but we ended up getting a sack and it's not really an option after that."

Uh, it would have been a 40-yard field goal if they don't gain an inch. Shouldn't the offensive coordinator know that? Falcons kicker Matt Bryant has made 51 of 63 field goals from 40-49 yards in his Falcons career. He probably wasn't missing.

"I wouldn't second-guess throwing the ball there," Mack said. "We just need to be able to block it."

It was tough for the Falcons offense to get any real continuity. They ran only 46 plays to 93 for the Patriots. New England had 42 plays in the first half alone. Atlanta was 1 for 8 on third down in the game, which isn't close to being good enough for an offense that led the NFL in points and scored 80 points in two playoff games.

That forced the defense to get worn down. End Vic Beasley said that didn't happen, but defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said it could have been a possibility.
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So did the Falcons choke?

"I think it was more we took it," Patriots defensive end Chris Long said.

I beg to differ. I think this might be the biggest collapse in sports history and it certainly is the biggest on this stage.

As Ryan slowly walked out of the locker room, the hurt on his face was easy to see as he trudged out to see his family.

On the other side of the locker room door, bodies were strewn about, waiting for the coroner to come.

Choking is a cruel way to die. One minute you're chewing on the best piece of filet mignon, and the next minute you're dead. One minute you're sizing up your finger for a ring, and the next you're in a body bag, one of many strewn about a locker-room morgue.

Say it after me one more time: The Atlanta Falcons flat out choked away a Super Bowl.

Pete Prisco has covered the NFL for three decades, including working as a beat reporter in Jacksonville for the Jaguars. When he's not watching game tape, you can find Pete on Twitter or dreaming of an... Full Bio

[Joe M 2012 2SS]

Originally Posted by Kenny Camaro

You are fixated on your perspective of what happened, which is fine. Now do you seriously think that men who are paid millions of dollars to design successful NFL offensive plays have come up with plays that just don't work and are incompetent by design? If the plays that were "ridiculous pass play call" would have been complete, as I'm sure it was designed to be, yardage would be gained, the clock would have run, scoring attempts would have happened and possibly been succsessful and Atlanta would have won the game. But under your scenario, playing against the clock was the main objective. More times than not when this happens, teams lose there edge, lose their EXECUTION, and lose the game. They lost the game because the didn't make plays on offense or defense the last 17 minutes of the game, not because of the plays called on offense. If they execute the plays called, they win. The object of the game is to score more points than the other team, not to 'manage' the clock.

Obviously you refuse to see the fact that NE could not have won if ATL had just run the ball.

They lost the game because they didn't manage the clock properly after going up 25.

As for not making plays on offense, Julio Jones made an unbelievable catch to put his team in position to kick a field goal and make the game a 2 score game.

Passing the ball after this was idiotic. Run it three times. Kick the FG. Put your team up by 11 with 3 minutes left.

Even better, run the ball every possession once your up 25. Passing is not needed. Burn the clock. NE needs four scores to tie the game. Impossible to do without having the time to do it in.

You do not understand clock or game management in football, so discussing this further is a waste of time.

The 100% fact is...............

WORST PLAY CALLING EVER

[SSmoothie]

Originally Posted by CFD

Bad play calling because they lost, if they had won ,you'd all be calling it genius.

I often call Seahawks for bad play calling even when they will.

[Kenny Camaro]

All of that happened, that's a fact. All the things you wanted to happen, run the ball, kick a field goal,etc. is unknown. After the Jones catch, the could have run and fumbled, or run and lost seven or ten yards, or run and had a holding call, or a personal foul, 15 yards, or run for five yards. Then run again and fumbled, holding, personal foul. Then try a kick, blocked and run back for a touchdown, you just don't know. What we do know is for five consecutive possessions the Falcons defense let the Patriots score and win the game. Why not obsess over five straight scores against the defense? Really that's what lost the game. The offense could have did everything they did exactly the same, with exactly the same results, if only the defense could have stoped that fourth down play, or made a turnover. So obsess over the poorly executed offense with four minutes to go rather than a twenty minute defensive collapse. Blame the coach for the players lack of execution, maybe you'll sleep better tonight than you did last night. In the end it's all just a side story of Tom Brady winning his fifth Super Bowl and becoming the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, according to Troy Aikman and Terry Bradshaw, who know something about playing quarterback in the NFL.

[SSmoothie]

Originally Posted by Kenny Camaro

The object of the game is to score more points than the other team, not to 'manage' the clock.

So are you saying Pat's never use this strategy to win a game, and Brady has never taken knees during the last 2 mins to win a game?

[Kenny Camaro]

[QUOTE=Joe M 2012 2SS;9545130]

You do not understand clock or game management in football, so discussing this further is a waste of time

I understand this, keep blaming two pass plays instead of the five consecutive scoreing drives the defense gave up. Hold on to your fantasy of a run that didn't happen being the reason the Falcons lost. Fantasy or reality? Which one do you choose to live in? Hang on to that fantasy, put it on a t-shirt if you want. During the five straight scoring drives there was lots more opportunities to stop the collapse than the runs you are despritely wishing happened.

[Kenny Camaro]

Originally Posted by SSmoothie

So are you saying Pat's never use this strategy to win a game, and Brady has never taken knees during the last 2 mins to win a game?

Did he have the lead? maybe Ryan should have taken a knee with ten minutes to go.

[SSmoothie]

Originally Posted by Kenny Camaro

Did he have the lead? maybe Ryan should have taken a knee with ten minutes to go.

You didn't answer my question, do the Pat's use clock management to win games?

If the answer is yes, then if they didn't use it right they could lose a game.

Falcons in this game did not use it at the right time, as by Shanahann not calling the right plays.

And yes the Pats capitalize on that, but it wasn't all Brady, it was team effort and he gets to much credit for team effort.

[Royal Tiger]

SSmoothie has a point. Play calling is a key aspect of the game. He did watch his Seahawks choke away a Super Bowl due to it.

[Dmpsix]

Originally Posted by SSmoothie

It just wasn't Brady, he couldn't do S**** in the first 2 1/2 quarters with the rush and sacks. So if it wasn't for his front line steppin up or the Falcons Defense not making plays Brady would not of been able to throw as well.

So lets give credit to the Pat's front line for not allowing the rush and lets give credit to the Pat's receivers for some amazing catches.

Obviously it was not just Brady, like holy f*** that's a given, both offense and defense made plays. But Tom Brady being Tom Brady made extremely clutch throws when it mattered, I'm guessing you missed the entire 4th quarter ? He was lights out in the 4th quarter when it mattered, every 3rd and long he converted flawlessly.

Chris Hogan? Julian Edelman? Martellus Bennett? WHO!?

Chris Hogan went undrafted and cut from 4 different teams before ending up with the Patriots.

Julian Edelman is a 7th rd draft pick from the Patriots

Martellus Bennett is a former Cowboys 3rd string Tight End

(Also some rookie who converted a 3rd and 10 that Brady threw to, that I can't even remember his name)

Tom Brady made all of that happen, they made the easy catches they were supposed to. But don't forget who was throwing them the ball... besides, Tom Brady couldn't do sh** like you mentioned because he was sacked and under pressure the entire first half. Kind of hard to get a completion when you have less than 2 seconds to drop back, go through your reads and find an open target.

I get it, you're trying to say it wasn't all Tom Brady and no one was, but you say that Tom Brady gets no props from you? The guy quite easily put on the performance of a lifetime in the 4th Quarter AND overtime.... Who else at QB under those circumstances would've orchestrated that kind of comeback? You can sit here and argue all day, plug QB's into the conversation, but Tom Brady is known for doing this, year in and year out.

You can try your best to take away from his greatness, but quite simply... Tom Brady is the greatest QB to ever play the game, and this game quite easily cements that.

Quote from Troy Aikman himself.

"I thought coming into the game, regardless of what the outcome was, that Tom Brady should be regarded as the greatest of all-time," said the three-time Super Bowl winner. "I know he was tied with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw with four Super Bowl wins, but when you consider his body of work and the playoff wins and the 11 AFC Championship games, I didn't think tonight's game was really going to be much of a factor. But considering how he was able to win tonight, the first over time game to come back from that kind of deficit, to be the only quarterback to have own five Lombardi trophies.

"I think unequivocally, at least in my mind, Tom Brady is the greatest. And I'm proud to be able to say that, and I know that most everyone will agree with that."

http://dal.247sports.com/Bolt/Troy-A...-time-51135496

So if there is anyone qualified like oh say... a 3 time Superbowl Champion, Hall of Fame, Top 10 QB of all time sheds light on who the greatest QB to ever play the game, then I think Troy Aikman is a candidate to say so.

[SSmoothie]

Originally Posted by Royal Tiger

SSmoothie has a point. Play calling is a key aspect of the game. He did watch his Seahawks choke away a Super Bowl due to it.

And as we watch the Pats choke when the Seahawks beat them at home this year.

[SSmoothie]

Originally Posted by Dmpsix

You can try your best to take away from his greatness, but quite simply... Tom Brady is the greatest QB to ever play the game, and this game quite easily cements that.

Quote from Troy Aikman himself.



http://dal.247sports.com/Bolt/Troy-A...-time-51135496

So if there is anyone qualified like oh say... a 3 time Superbowl Champion, Hall of Fame, Top 10 QB of all time sheds light on who the greatest QB to ever play the game, then I think Troy Aikman is a candidate to say so.

He may have looked like a Champion in the 4th quarter but he looked like a rookie in the first 3 quarters. Doesn't even out for me.

[Kenny Camaro]

Originally Posted by SSmoothie

He may have looked like a Champion in the 4th quarter but he looked like a rookie in the first 3 quarters. Doesn't even out for me.

Ryan couldn't complete a pass to win the game in money time, he looked like a rookie when it counted the most , and Brady looked like the GOAT when it counted the most.