Beating the dead horse

The New England Super Bowl was on last night. I happened to turn it on right before the last drive. In the interest of healing I decided to man up and watch it.

A few things from that game.

1. Not only did Malcom Butler make a fantastic play to end it but he balled out all game and generally gave us hell.
2. Leaving Burley inactive was moronic. I thought it at the beginning of the game when it was announced. I said to myself this might come back to bite us (Especially with all of the injuries to our secondary going into the game). People rip on Therold Simon but he was just not built to cover Edelman. We needed that little quick guy.
3. Bevell makes a great call at the start of the last drive where they split Marshawn out wide and he runs a great route for a big gain.
4. THEY WASTED TWO TIMEOUTS DURING THAT LAST DRIVE!!!! One of the justifications for passing on second down was because if they didn't make it the clock stops. Don't wast those time outs and it's not an issue.
5. Finally The Call. It's still a terrible call. If you want to pass at the very least you have to run play action and have Russell roll out with the option to throw to a tight end or most likely walk into the endzone. But I guarantee you Marshawn finds a way to get the ball across. Throwing into traffic on the goal line was just a huge mistake, even it if isn't straight picked like it was there are to many chances for it to get knock up in the air with all of those bodies in that compressed space most likely it gets picked.
6. Bevel should have been fired immediately. Even if you don't think it's his fault, someone had to be held accountable. These guys were playing there hearts out, many with major injuries,for them to stay engaged and bought in Bevels head needed to roll. Otherwise people check out, and that's exactly what happened.

Wasting timeouts feels like a weakness of Pete's. Not sure if he actually does so more than most coaches, but it sticks out when he does.

adeltaY":jrijqzjr said:

Wasting timeouts feels like a weakness of Pete's. Not sure if he actually does so more than most coaches, but it sticks out when he does.

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I agree. Clock management is not Pete's strong suit.

Again what is often forgotten is that Belicheck didn't call a time out to stop the clock before "the play". It was just plain stupid not to call a time our there. Either way one of the head coaches would be looked at as making one of the worst calls in NFL history or non call after that down. Unfortunately it was our coach.

20 seconds was too much time, actually. We wanted to have the clock even lower. Our defense was out of players and getting shredded by Brady.

In an alternate universe we run the ball and score, then Brady goes down the field and scores in 3 plays and is given the Green Lantern ring.

But there's nothing in this thread we haven't read so many times before. Not sure why it's even here after all this time - I think we've all had plenty of time to express our feelings about it. Unless the OP is one of our former players who just couldn't let it go.

The past is what it is and can't be changed. All we can do is move on from it and focus on making the future a better place.

Sweet Jesus, enough already :34853_doh:

SoulfishHawk":3sb87zcy said:

Sweet Jesus, enough already :34853_doh:

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Easy sport!! I'm watching next week.....who else is up for this? :twisted: :mrgreen:

:irishdrinkers:

Unless you acknowledge your failures and then identify the REASONS for those failures you will not learn from them. Which means you are likely to repeat them.

It took Pete 3 years to figure out he was being an idiot by keeping his OC.

There were other lessons in that game as well. I cannot tell you how pissed off I was about us not activating Burley. WE HAD ALREADY LOST THE FIRST SB WE EVER PLAYED IN BECAUSE WE GOT A DB INJURED and we were playing freaking Tom Brady - you go in with as many DBs as you can. Additionally that guy was tremendous in the slot (I think we got him from Indy) and it was otherwise a weakness of ours (as you likely remember teams ripping us with slot guys until we got Burley).

Then again, it does not matter how much we revisit this. The coaches have to.

It was their mistakes that lost this. (Though to be fair, without Pete we don't reach the SB.)

Still, leaving Burley off the roster was one of the bigger screwups in Pete's career. Which opened the door to the 1st and Wrong play. Which led to one of the other worst screwups in Pete's career, keeping Bevell.

We don't have the dominating defense we did and for all the great things Pete brings to the table, one of his biggest weaknesses is that he does not learn from his mistakes. Much less the mistakes of others. (One of the reasons I laughed when people were complaining about Pete's HC ranking slot in another thread and trying to say he was #2 in the league. Nope. He is a coach with tremendous strengths but tremendous weaknesses. You get both over time.)

Firing Bevell should have happened sooner, but it was a difficult and politically fraught decision. The franchise QB, who had yet to be extended, loved him like a brother or father figure, as did some of the WRs, like Doug Baldwin. The team was coming off its first championship the year before and back-to-back Super Bowl appearances. Traditional wisdom would say firing your OC in that situation would kill momentum. Unfortunately, it turned out the exact opposite was true. Bevell lacked common sense & a sense for offensive flow. He acted like an albatross against the team’s future success. Many players resented him. Even as Russell balled out, the running game lost its bearings and the offense became increasingly finesse, Bevell’s signature. The one offensive bullwork against this tendency toward finesse was Tom Cable, but his lines were becoming increasingly sloppy and his influence with the players waned after the departure of Marshawn Lynch. I’m just happy we have a fresh start now.

seabowl":36de4jp5 said:

Again what is often forgotten is that Belicheck didn't call a time out to stop the clock before "the play". It was just plain stupid not to call a time our there. Either way one of the head coaches would be looked at as making one of the worst calls in NFL history or non call after that down. Unfortunately it was our coach.

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1) If he liked the personnel that came out on the field from Seattle then it would be fine

2) Year before Seattle did the same. I can't remember the game. Lots of people here said it was strategy. Make the defense know that it is all on them. Make them think it ends right here if they don't get the stop. Our opponent failed to score the TD, game over, Seattle wins - yet horrible clock management was stated as being coaching strategy.........

TwistedHusky":1m1i3kcp said:

Unless you acknowledge your failures and then identify the REASONS for those failures you will not learn from them. Which means you are likely to repeat them.

It took Pete 3 years to figure out he was being an idiot by keeping his OC.

There were other lessons in that game as well. I cannot tell you how pissed off I was about us not activating Burley. WE HAD ALREADY LOST THE FIRST SB WE EVER PLAYED IN BECAUSE WE GOT A DB INJURED and we were playing freaking Tom Brady - you go in with as many DBs as you can. Additionally that guy was tremendous in the slot (I think we got him from Indy) and it was otherwise a weakness of ours (as you likely remember teams ripping us with slot guys until we got Burley).

Then again, it does not matter how much we revisit this. The coaches have to.

It was their mistakes that lost this. (Though to be fair, without Pete we don't reach the SB.)

Still, leaving Burley off the roster was one of the bigger screwups in Pete's career. Which opened the door to the 1st and Wrong play. Which led to one of the other worst screwups in Pete's career, keeping Bevell.

We don't have the dominating defense we did and for all the great things Pete brings to the table, one of his biggest weaknesses is that he does not learn from his mistakes. Much less the mistakes of others. (One of the reasons I laughed when people were complaining about Pete's HC ranking slot in another thread and trying to say he was #2 in the league. Nope. He is a coach with tremendous strengths but tremendous weaknesses. You get both over time.)

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The present coaching staff could care less about a play that happened several years ago. What's done is done!
It will not affect play calling on goal line stands this year.....at all. Some fans may never forgive the coaching staff for that call...so be it.

Bruh

seabowl":1xsy44ji said:

Again what is often forgotten is that Belicheck didn't call a time out to stop the clock before "the play". It was just plain stupid not to call a time our there. Either way one of the head coaches would be looked at as making one of the worst calls in NFL history or non call after that down. Unfortunately it was our coach.

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Yeah, Belicheck gambled big time. Kind of reminded me of the onside kick to start the second half in the Saints Super Bowl. He was trying to bait us into making a rash decision. Unfortunately for us it worked. Billy B. knew his enemy, and exploited us big time. The Seahawks were playing checkers, he was playing Chess. His gambit worked.

Really ballsy move right there, it is the kind of move that makes you the scape goat, or makes you the hero.