I'd just like to take a moment to thank Bruce Arians

[Popeyejones]

He also tried to get cute and go hurry up after the Johnson run in OT that may have been a touchdown. By hurrying up the officials never had a chance to review it and that led to the eventual missed FG in OT by Catanzaro.

I'm guessing they went into that sequence with two plays called in case they didn't score on the first one, which strategically is pretty smart, IMO.

Hard to blame him for the refs potentially blowing a call and then not stop play to potentially review the potentially blown call (in the NFL everyone has to sit and wait around while the refs spot the ball and get back into position -- the refs control the game in the NFL to have time to double check if they want to).

(NOTE: Not claiming that Johnson got in or anything, just saying that I disagree that Arians is at fault if the refs got that wrong and alse erred in not double checking it).

Also worth saying that as fun as it is to play MMQB, at the time I thought the 4 and 1 call was the right one.

TBF though I also think Arians makes a pretty piss poor villain. IMO (largely from the Amazon series) he seems to really strike that delicate balance between being a "player's coach" most of the time while also never letting anyone get confused about who is in charge (which is just insanely hard to pull off).

 

[Hawkpower]

He also tried to get cute and go hurry up after the Johnson run in OT that may have been a touchdown. By hurrying up the officials never had a chance to review it and that led to the eventual missed FG in OT by Catanzaro.

I'm guessing they went into that sequence with two plays called in case they didn't score on the first one, which strategically is pretty smart, IMO.

Hard to blame him for the refs potentially blowing a call and then not stop play to potentially review the potentially blown call (in the NFL everyone has to sit and wait around while the refs spot the ball and get back into position -- the refs control the game in the NFL to have time to double check if they want to).

(NOTE: Not claiming that Johnson got in or anything, just saying that I disagree that Arians is at fault if the refs got that wrong and alse erred in not double checking it).

Also worth saying that as fun as it is to play MMQB, at the time I thought the 4 and 1 call was the right one.

TBF though I also think Arians makes a pretty piss poor villain. IMO (largely from the Amazon series) he seems to really strike that delicate balance between being a "player's coach" most of the time while also never letting anyone get confused about who is in charge (which is just insanely hard to pull off).

In that game, where scoring was at an absolute premium, going for it was not the right call at all.

He didnt need a TD there to win, a FG would have done it. He got arrogant, he hates Seattle, wanted to shove it down our throat, and it backfired.

As for the players coach balance thing, I not so sure you are correct there. Listening to sports radio here in the valley on a daily basis, you don't hear many complimentary things from the players about BA in that regard. When you combine the comments coming from the guys about how hard is he on them, and then you hear him constantly throw his own guys under the bus when they fail, its not hard to determine that he employs the douchebag my way or the highway model of coaching.

Which can be effective......but only up to a certain degree.

 

[Popeyejones]

He didnt need a TD there to win, a FG would have done it.

With the benefit of hindsight sure, but people don't get to make decisions with the benefit of hindsight.

As I saw it at the time he had already had a field goal blocked and had a struggling kicker. On top of that if he kicks the field goal it's still a one score game (he still loses on a TD), and if the Hawks get a field goal he still has overtime to win it (which he did, but a kick got blocked again).

On top of all those things, if I'm coaching against the Hawks I'm going to want to be up by two scores if I have the chance to roll the dice on that on a 4th and 1, as they seem to really have a habit these past few years of starting to fire on all offensive cylinders in the final frame even after they've stinked it up until that point. That's definitely going to be in the back of my mind as a coach, and even as someone watching the game it was in the back of my mind at the time when thinking about the decision.

In any case, in that situation I ABSOLUTELY don't see that decision as irrationally trying to shove something down another team's throat as you claim (that would be going for it on 4 and 1 when you're up by 20, not up by 3). I just see it as strategic coaching that didn't go his way.

We'll have to agree to disagree on his ability as a coach and all his players disliking him too. :2thumbs:

 

[Lords of Scythia]

Arians is a good coach, but like Harbaugh his salty negative jackass personality burns everyone out around him. So I fully expect the Cards to implode this year or next under that weight.

You can be stern and demanding (Belicheat), without being condescending and negative.

Supposedly the players love him.