Scottemojo":390uapun said:
Burnett has gotten a ton of criticism for not running that final pick back and going to the ground instead. Look at Peppers, telling him to go to ground. That was a coaching decision, IMO. Poor guy has been getting pasted for a good play and doing what he was told.
Totally. Burnett made the right call. How many times have we seen a DB or LB or DL return a pick or fumble recovery, only to get stripped and give the ball right back to the offense? IIRC, I believe this happened in the Carolina divisional playoff game, in our favor, when one of their LBs, a rookie I think, had a pick or fumble recovery, and then fumbled it back to us.
Burnett made the smart play. The Packers didn't really need more points. They needed to burn clock. The Packers didn't burn clock, and wisely, the Seahawks used a couple timeouts to save some time for the offense. The failure was with the Packer offense (and credit to the Seattle defense and coaching).
If anything, blame Peppers, who instead of blocking for Burnett, pointed for him to get down. By my count, the only Seahawks who had a shot to stop Burnett returning to his left were probably J.R. Sweezy and Russell Wilson. All the fast Seahawks were out of the play downfield or on the other side of the field. Possibly, by some miracle, Bailey or Unger could have gotten in the way and slowed down the return long enough for a WR to get back in the play and catch Burnett from behind. (Lockette maybe, if he was even in, or Kearse?) So the key player on this play is PEPPERS, not Burnett, by Peppers telling him to get down instead of blocking for him. Even so, hard to fault Peppers for that. But then Peppers' choice isn't really that much different than Seahawks defenders running at Malcolm Smith in the NFCCG after "The Tip" telling him to get down, to not try to return it out of the end zone.
The Packer Nation ripping on Burnett is just one more example of them throwing their players under the bus. God knows they threw their backup TE that muffed the onside kick, threw him under the bus, massively. Seattle doesn't throw players under the bus. Nobody on the Seattle sideline, especially not Russell Wilson, was tossing Kearse or Baldwin under the bus, even after they'd sucked and screwed up for 3-3/4 quarters of the game.
