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NFL: Super Bowl, offseason and quarterback musical chairs


DanteGabriel

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I like Bill Simmons' theory that Andy Reid passed his curse onto Kyle Shanahan It Follows style yesterday. Andy Reid now gets to go onto the HoF being remembered as the stellar offensive mind he is and a winner instead of the modern day Marty Schottenheimer. The guy seems to be universally beloved and I'm happy for him. 

But poor Kyle. I thought his role in blowing the 28-3 lead was totally overblown. I like when an OC keeps his foot on the pedal even with a big lead. Too many turtle and blow the lead that way. He just got caught in the path of the whirlwind that night. But now with another double digit lead blown in the 4th quarter of a Super Bowl, it's hard to say it's not a thing.

My take is it's more small sample size and going against 2 of the greatest QBs ever than any play Kyle did or did not call. I mean if Jimmy G hits on that deep ball to a streaking, open WR with 1:30 left, 49ers take the lead right back. He's not a worse coach because Jimmy G overthrew it. But I guarantee this is now front and center on his and everyone's mind the next time he coaches a team to the SB. It's something he's going to need to exorcise, just like Andy Reid did. Hope we see it. 

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12 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Arguably the best play ever, The Beastquake , ended exactly this way, and it was glorious.

 Also, JLO is an independent actor. The NFL has no control over her.

And he was fined $20,000 for doing it.

And anyone paid by the NFL is subject to their rules and standards. That goes for any independent contractor hired by any company.

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15 hours ago, Jaime L said:

I like Bill Simmons' theory that Andy Reid passed his curse onto Kyle Shanahan It Follows style yesterday. Andy Reid now gets to go onto the HoF being remembered as the stellar offensive mind he is and a winner instead of the modern day Marty Schottenheimer. The guy seems to be universally beloved and I'm happy for him. 

But poor Kyle. I thought his role in blowing the 28-3 lead was totally overblown. I like when an OC keeps his foot on the pedal even with a big lead. Too many turtle and blow the lead that way. He just got caught in the path of the whirlwind that night. But now with another double digit lead blown in the 4th quarter of a Super Bowl, it's hard to say it's not a thing.

My take is it's more small sample size and going against 2 of the greatest QBs ever than any play Kyle did or did not call. I mean if Jimmy G hits on that deep ball to a streaking, open WR with 1:30 left, 49ers take the lead right back. He's not a worse coach because Jimmy G overthrew it. But I guarantee this is now front and center on his and everyone's mind the next time he coaches a team to the SB. It's something he's going to need to exorcise, just like Andy Reid did. Hope we see it. 

I think it is fair to question whether Shanahan (the OC) is really to blame for the Falcons collapse rather than Dan Quinn.  But Shanahan's lack of situational awareness was inexcusable. On two different drives the Falcons were in field goal range (inside the NE 30) in the 4th quarter of the SB, in a situation where a single field goal would have put the game out of reach.  Both times Shanahan called some weirdly aggressive plays which resulted in not just not scoring, but not even attempting a field goal (one drive had a sack, one drive had a holding penalty, so both ended in punts).  A coach can't make the players execute, but failing to put your team in a position to win is on you. And by you, I mean Kyle Shanahan, who was calling all the plays. 

This SB was a repeat of that, although not as egregious.  Yes, Shanahan deserves credit for coaching up the team to be in a position to almost win the game, just as he did for the Falcons.  His X and O play design is among the NFL's best.  But his feel for the game is extremely questionable.  SF was running all over the Chiefs for the first 50 minutes, and then at the critical moment when SF had two drives where just a few first downs would ice the game, he abandons the run.  On both drives, in spite of averaging like 7 yards per carry all game, he called a pass on 2nd down that was incomplete, setting up a third down passing situation, which also went incomplete.  Yes, Jimmy was playing fairly well up to that point, and the passes could have totally worked and Shanahan is a SB winner right now.  But passing offense is always higher variance than running offense, and if you're running successfully all day, abandoning it when you need to salt away the the lead is...inexplicable. 
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4 hours ago, dbunting said:

And he was fined $20,000 for doing it.

And anyone paid by the NFL is subject to their rules and standards. That goes for any independent contractor hired by any company.

Which was stupid.

And tell that to Kansas after Snoop Dogg brought the house down with “pole dancers.”

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45 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I think it is fair to question whether Shanahan (the OC) is really to blame for the Falcons collapse rather than Dan Quinn.  But Shanahan's lack of situational awareness was inexcusable. On two different drives the Falcons were in field goal range (inside the NE 30) in the 4th quarter of the SB, in a situation where a single field goal would have put the game out of reach.  Both times Shanahan called some weirdly aggressive plays which resulted in not just not scoring, but not even attempting a field goal (one drive had a sack, one drive had a holding penalty, so both ended in punts).  A coach can't make the players execute, but failing to put your team in a position to win is on you. And by you, I mean Kyle Shanahan, who was calling all the plays. 

This SB was a repeat of that, although not as egregious.  Yes, Shanahan deserves credit for coaching up the team to be in a position to almost win the game, just as he did for the Falcons.  His X and O play design is among the NFL's best.  But his feel for the game is extremely questionable.  SF was running all over the Chiefs for the first 50 minutes, and then at the critical moment when SF had two drives where just a few first downs would ice the game, he abandons the run.  On both drives, in spite of averaging like 7 yards per carry all game, he called a pass on 2nd down that was incomplete, setting up a third down passing situation, which also went incomplete.  Yes, Jimmy was playing fairly well up to that point, and the passes could have totally worked and Shanahan is a SB winner right now.  But passing offense is always higher variance than running offense, and if you're running successfully all day, abandoning it when you need to salt away the the lead is...inexplicable. 

I'd argue the 49ers running game wasn't nearly as dominant as you're describing. It's only averaging 7 ypc largely because of trick plays to Deebo Samuel but that's not the low variance bread-and-butter run out the clock running game you're looking for. Every single 49ers drive after they were up 20-10, they ran on first down. You can make the case they should have kept running on second down each time too, and I'm sure Kyle Shanahan will spend the offseason wondering if the result would've been different had he done so. But too often I see teams failing because they think they can just go predictable run-run-run or run-run-pass with a lead against loaded fronts and end up going 3 and out in the process.

Like we know the result was bad, but the question is how much was it a bad process. And ultimately all you can really question play calling wise is those 2 2nd down play calls you're referring to. I don't think calling a pass is indefensible in either case. Maybe suboptimal, but I get the thought process. It's just the baggage from the ATL-NE Super Bowl that makes it feel so much worse. 

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11 minutes ago, Jaime L said:

Like we know the result was bad, but the question is how much was it a bad process. And ultimately all you can really question play calling wise is those 2 2nd down play calls you're referring to. I don't think calling a pass is indefensible in either case. Maybe suboptimal, but I get the thought process. It's just the baggage from the ATL-NE Super Bowl that makes it feel so much worse. 

I agree a lot of their runs were tricky, but I wouldn't have any problem with them breaking out tricky runs in that situation either.  My main complaint was just that watching the SF offense on those two drives (and the third one to take back the lead), the offense just looked and felt very different.  Like they had lost confidence in Plan A, and were trying something new.  Which, obviously, did not work.  Now it's possible this is just bullshit, as there's no way to quantify confidence or mojo, but this isn't just hindsight.  As it was happening, I was commenting to my friends that the SF offense looks different, and that seemed like a bad thing. 

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I'm pretty sure per reading that the main thing was KC put 8+ in the box every time in the last part.  Compare with GB which stayed in nickel or dime for like 80% of the game.

A lot of offense looking a certain way is in response to defenses. It isn't just something in a vacuum. 

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On 2/4/2020 at 10:32 AM, Maithanet said:

This SB was a repeat of that, although not as egregious.  Yes, Shanahan deserves credit for coaching up the team to be in a position to almost win the game, just as he did for the Falcons.  His X and O play design is among the NFL's best.  But his feel for the game is extremely questionable.

As a niners fan, what has bothered me throughout this season was Shanahan's lack of aggressiveness.  It's quite possible they could have gone 16-0 if Shanahan's late game play-calling wasn't just SO conservative.  And I emphasized this last Friday when talking about the SB with my brother - my hope that if the niners established a lead, Shanahan would NOT let up and just try to run it out, because the last thing you want to do is give Reid and Mahomes a chance to come back.  Especially considering they just demonstrated a few weeks ago how quickly and thoroughly they could do so.

Obviously, based on the outcome, my concern was somewhat realized.  I still very much appreciate Shanahan is my favorite team's coach.  He is indeed probably at the top of his generation in terms of offensive minds.  Kind of appropriate he lost to Reid.  Maybe they can meet again next year and Reid can symbolically pass the buck.

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2 minutes ago, DMC said:

As a niners fan, what has bothered me throughout this season was Shanahan's lack of aggressiveness.  It's quite possible they could have gone 16-0 if Shanahan's late game play-calling wasn't just SO conservative.  And I emphasized this last Friday when talking about the SB with my brother - my hope that if the niners established a lead, Shanahan would NOT let up and just try to run it out, because the last thing you want to do is give Reid and Mahomes a chance to come back.  Especially considering they just demonstrated a few weeks ago how quickly and thoroughly they could do so.

I'm saying that Shanahan was too aggressive (or at least, he changed his game plan away from a run-based attack on the two important 4th quarter drives).  It sounds like you're saying he lacks the game feel in both directions, and at times when his team needs to be aggressive he also dials it back.  That's interesting.

And yes, I freely acknowledge that this criticism is at least somewhat unfair.  The NFL is a results business, and the coach can only do so much.  On the 2 key drives for the Niners, there was one play were Kittle was wide open, but Garrapollo looked and threw elsewhere.  Is that on the coach?  I mean, it can be, he could have drilled it into Jimmy's head that Kittle is the main look.  But at some point you have to let your players play.  Likewise getting a ball batted down on 2nd and 5 is hard to put on the coach, particularly when I believe that was the first batted ball all game.  In general I'm totally on board with teams being aggressive when trying to run out the clock, rather than just run run run punt.  However, in this case, I did feel like the Niners offense started operating differently at this key moment (never a good sign) and in so doing they went away from the run game that was very effective in the first 50 minutes.  I could blame Jimmy G, but he's too handsome for that, I'll blame Shanahan instead. 

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1 hour ago, The Mother of The Others said:

If you ever want to see it, check it out now.  Last time they were out of money by... week 3?

That was the AAF.  The XFL made it a full season... I think.

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So I remember when people were talking draft, some of us speculated that Tua might go undrafted or last till day 3.  Well, I feel very good about my confident prediction that he would still go in the first round, and after a good health report, it's looking like he's a virtual lock to go in the first 5 picks.  I expect he'll only climb higher as teams are always desperate for quarterbacks.  I'm curious if the Scumbags end up trading the #2 pick to someone desperate for a quarterback in a reverse of the RG3 deal.  It would have to be a pretty good offer, because Chase Young is supposed to be a potential All-Pro pass rusher, and he'll still be there at 2. 

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13 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

So I remember when people were talking draft, some of us speculated that Tua might go undrafted or last till day 3.  Well, I feel very good about my confident prediction that he would still go in the first round, and after a good health report, it's looking like he's a virtual lock to go in the first 5 picks.  I expect he'll only climb higher as teams are always desperate for quarterbacks.  I'm curious if the Scumbags end up trading the #2 pick to someone desperate for a quarterback in a reverse of the RG3 deal.  It would have to be a pretty good offer, because Chase Young is supposed to be a potential All-Pro pass rusher, and he'll still be there at 2. 

I still think he goes to Miami at 5. Maybe Detroit at 3, but I’m not sure taking another QB with serious injury issues would be the best move for them. 

No way Washington passes on Young. 

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4 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

I still think he goes to Miami at 5. Maybe Detroit at 3, but I’m not sure taking another QB with serious injury issues would be the best move for them. 

No way Washington passes on Young. 

Barring a medical setback, there's virtually no chance Tua is available at #4.  Either someone will trade up to 2 or 3 to take him, or the Lions put Stafford on notice. 

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