NFC Championship: Vikes at Saints

[Sedale Threatt]

WTF were they even playing for a field goal for in the first place? Plenty of time left, and they were satisfied with a long field goal. Absolutely gutless.

I almost never, ever blame coaching for a defeat.

But why am I not surprised that a Brad Childress coached team would settle like that, or incur a high school penalty at arguably the most critical juncture of the season?

[daddyfivestar]

I forgot about the time-out before the penalty. Holy cow. Now I'm pissed all over again.

And people at my work are "Favre this and that" I'm telling them - no penalty means no pass play. And Longwell was 10 of 11 this year from 40-55 yards, with a long of 52. Indoors, at 48 yarder is money.

Changed my profile back to Fire Childress! Promote Frazier!

[Worm Guts]

I've got my own criticism of Frazier, what was with the 3rd and 10 safety blitz in OT. We always get smoked on blitzes, especially when they come from the secondary.

[Sedale Threatt]

I forgot about the time-out before the penalty. Holy cow. Now I'm pissed all over again.

And people at my work are "Favre this and that" I'm telling them - no penalty means no pass play. And Longwell was 10 of 11 this year from 40-55 yards, with a long of 52. Indoors, at 48 yarder is money.

Changed my profile back to Fire Childress! Promote Frazier!

Longwell's great, no question. But if Gary Anderson can miss a chip shot in 1998, he can miss a 50-yarder with a Super Bowl berth on the line.

I guess my whole beef is, why settle? Call a couple of high percentage passes, something that has almost no chance of resulting in a turnover, to at least see if you can get another 10 yards or so.

Granted, there's no such thing as a risk-free pass. See Texas in the Rose Bowl with that shovel pass just before half time.

It's just...F, how many times have you seen Childress tighten up with the game on the line? How many times have you seen his team make stupid little mistakes?

Playing for a 50-yard field goal with plenty of time and timeouts? Too many men in the huddle coming out of a timeout? Six fumbles in a championship game?

Are you freaking kidding me?

[daddyfivestar]

I would've taken chances on a 48-50 yd FG. Time would've expired and it's OT at worst.
see: Vinatieri, how many times?
At least Minny would've taken a shot at the victory.
People will remember the interception but the freakin 5 yd penalty will go down unsung as the dream killer.

That's 5 NFC Championship loses in a row I remember vividly... 3 in heartbreaking fashion.

[hermes]

i believe that before the penalty the fg would have been 51 yards, 56 with the penalty

i would have been ok with a running play after the penalty for no yards and give longwell a shot at 56
at least we would have had a chance to win it

[daddyfivestar]

Herm,
The official play-by-play says 33 yd line at the timeout. I've always been told add 17 (I guess some add 18). A dive up the middle for 1 or 2 is what I was referring to get it closer. Still 10/11 from under 53 this year for Longwell.

[Worm Guts]

It was a 50-51 yard field goal before the penalty, 55-56 after the penalty.

[Worm Guts]

i believe that before the penalty the fg would have been 51 yards, 56 with the penalty

i would have been ok with a running play after the penalty for no yards and give longwell a shot at 56
at least we would have had a chance to win it

That only makes sense in hindsight. Obviously I'd rather have a field goal attempt than an interception, but Favre had only thrown 7 picks all year. An extra 10 yards would have been huge in that situation, you can't settle for a 55 yard field goal.

[Sedale Threatt]

I would've taken chances on a 48-50 yd FG. Time would've expired and it's OT at worst.
see: Vinatieri, how many times?
At least Minny would've taken a shot at the victory.
People will remember the interception but the freakin 5 yd penalty will go down unsung as the dream killer.

That's 5 NFC Championship loses in a row I remember vividly... 3 in heartbreaking fashion.

Of course you take a FG, if that's your only option. And I totally agree about the penalty -- I haven't seen a single 12-men penalty all year, and we commit it on one of the biggest downs of the year, with a Super Bowl berth on the line.

What I'm talking about, why were they so content to settle for the kick? I'm not going to go back and look at the details, but they had a first down off a long pass, with plenty of time and at least a couple of timeouts left. Try to get another 10 or 15 years. But on the first two downs it looked like they were just running for position, not even trying to pick up yards.

If it's 40 yards, then fine. But 50? With that type of pressure? All bets are off. (Remember the Niners game?) I just though it was a gutless decision to settle, and totally in character for a Childress team.

[links]

NFL admitted it should have called a personal foul on the play where Favre threw the INT to Vilma. Where the Saints player went low and another went high, and Favre hurt his ankle. Not sure why they admit this, because it doesn't change a thing now.