Livinginthepast

NFL coaches time and again, are either stupid or indecisive when it really matters. Football is definitely the sport where in game coaching is the most important and yet tonight was a perfect example of two teams whose coaches blew it over and over again with their strategies. McVey has to feel lucky that Kupp and Stafford bailed him out because he coached that game poorly. Cinci blew it both on offense and defense at the most crucial time dud to bad coaching moves.

To be fair it was holding but a very marginal piece of holding on the call against the Bengals in the Red zone. But this game should have been over for the Bengals already by that stage. The Bengals didnt play with any urgency when they had the lead and their Defense collapsed on that last drive. And even with all of that they had a chance not just to tie but I think a legit chance to win the game on that last drive until 3 terrible play calls in a row. I would be sick right now if I was a Bengals fan over that 2nd half performance after the TD. They choked away a victory.

McVey was so close to another shttng the bed in the SB. Stafford bailed him out.

WTF were the Bengals thinking!!!???

NFL praying it doesnt go to OT so once again their stupid OT rules cant ruin the game!

Had him wide open!

Cinci defense picked a bad time to lose focus!

Its been a really weird vibe that I have felt all night. Its like everybody is a bit stoned!

Not much sense of urgency in this game for either team.

Which knee did Burrow rip up last year?

Its killing me thinking that the Bills could have been here and faced LA. They are so overhyped. The Bills would have definitely been able to handle the Rams.

Its been a snoozer so far. Cincinatti missed a huge opportunity to kill it after that Stafford pick and only getting a FG.

I would still love to know what happened in that situation and this just makes things more murky. If Farwell didnt listen to McD and kicked it deep then he should have been fired. If McD made that decision then why is Farwell going? Or is his exit due to mediocrity in the punting and punt coverage?

To be fair to Marrone in that game. The refs allowed the Pats back it in it with a bogus PI call which was crucial. The Jags players got gut punched and couldnt recover and Brady did most of the rest. The Jags played over their heads in that game and against anybody else would have won it. But against the Pats they were up against a great team and massively bias officiating!

Its an interesting thing to discuss but it would never happen for a number of reasons. 1. Frazier wasnt hired (so there is no opening, 2. The current racial controversy over Flores makes firing Frazier and his racial background a loaded decision, 3. It would take huge cojones to fire Frazier after a Number 1 defensive rating (no matter how suspect it was 4. Schwartz has a different defensive style than what is here, just to name a few. Its also a good question to ask if Schwartz is much of an upgrade and if we are seeing that defense (in St.Doug's time) as better than it was. In addition another angle that I always thought was interesting with Schwartz is how beloved he was with his defense (to the point where they hilariously carried him on their shoulders after the Detroit game) and how that dynamic made things awkward with Marrone who was probably not popular with many of his players. I cannot see McD being cool enough to allow a Coach under his wing to get that kind of attention. Is Schwartz better than Frazier, I think he is, but that just isnt happening here right now.

The sad part is the Bills could have easily won the SB with Frazier this year had he only been even slightly competent in those last 13 secs vs KC. I think going forward it will still be the offense that gets us there and we can win despite Frazier and not because of him.

You mean Brian Flores didnt get it? I thought for sure Stephen Ross would put a good word in for him!

Fart? I would say it was more like a shart. A fart you might be able escape unscathed from responsibility but that 13 seconds debacle was a shart for sure. Much more visible and a nasty situation hard to escape!

The Raptors fired Dwayne Casey as head coach the same season as he got Coach of the year. Happens elsewhere but perhaps not in the conservative bone head NFL. The funny thing is that firing him was the beginning of their championship run.

Western NY has so many great pizza places. Even the mediocre ma and pa restaurant ones are better than some of the chains. My absolute favorite is the Hacienda in the Falls. OMG its awesome!

Dont you mean a "commander" performance? 😆

Interesting article. Some decent names on that list as well as some people who were in the never was category. A lot of people seem to think that Brady would have been an obvious early round pic but that simply wasnt the scouting on him at all. Add to this that a lot of NFL GMs even today are inept at their jobs (and much worse back then) and you have an explanation of why Brady gets to the 6th round. Its not much of a stretch that he might not have been drafted at all. Brady's best quality above all else was his quick thinking and understanding of the game that was near impossible to assess accurately back then or now.

My point is that this is a no win situation either way for Flores. The NFL proved with Colin Kapernick that they can erase you if they want. Doesnt matter if you are right or wrong.

Sad part is that even if Flores is RIGHT, his career is over. The good ole boys in the NFL wont tolerate any of this "fairness" stuff. That's just for show !

Why does Bill Simmons think the Cincy squib has anything to do with Buffalo? or a FU to Buffalo? TBH I thought at the time it was strange for them to do it but I guess the strategy was to avoid a big return and stop the bleeding. It seemed to work for that. The only thing I noted at the time in the game thread is that they squibed it to the 4 yard line with 1:05 left and managed to kill 4 seconds off the clock. KC started on their 19. So the only relevance to Buffalo is comparing what happened there to the bone headed decision by the Bills to kick it through the endzone with 13 seconds left. Had the Bills done anything similar KC gets it on the 19 with 9 seconds left or worse their return man screws up as he tries to field the bouncing ball and fumbles or burns even more time on the clock. Kicking it through the endzone and trusting your exhausted D who had just been turbo shredded by the Chiefs on the previous drive with soft prevent defense strategy , will go down as one of the dumbest decisions in NFL playoff coaching history!