[teejers1]

"And so on! The point is: if playcalling is such an important ability, why can observers so rarely consistently identify it in the wild?"

WIM, not sure what straw man you're trying to knock down here.  My criticism of playcalling has (almost exclusively for the last several years) been reserved for the AYFKM calls (which, as noted elsewhere, should mean "Are You Falcon Kidding Me?").  These are specific decisions - typically very late in the game - where the "brain trust" has just puked on themselves and greatly reduced their team's chances of success.  They often are very obvious clusters:  at Utah, end game against SC (twice), home against ND (failing to take at least one knee on first and goal), and last Big Game loss.  And now, the Falcons Super Bowl puke.

For the Falcon defenders, Julio Jones was targeted a grand total of 4 (or 5?) times the entire game.  So why would passing to him in that situation be some great idea when you've been neglecting that (or more likely, it's been shut down) all game?  Also, people forget that an incomplete pass is a BAD thing - it may not be horrific (sack, which happened) or all-time-worst (sack/fumble) - but it's bad.  It stops the clock without forcing NE to burn a timeout.  You run it three times, force NE to burn its timeouts, and even if you lose a yard each time (unlikely), you're still talking a 42 yard FG.  In the NFL, that's a pretty good bet.  And if you're up by 11 with just over 3 minutes left . . . well, I like your chances . . . a lot . . . even against Brady/Pats. 

And speaking of Brady, it's hard to argue against Greatest of All Time (I'd have given him the nod before yesterday); however, I think it's also fair to characterize him as the GLOAT:  Greatest, Luckiest of All Time.  Think what his resume would look like if:  (a) bogus tuck rule was called correctly against Raiders, (b) Petey chose to run Beast Mode from the 1 yard line instead of passing (which resulted in a pick), and © Atlanta ran the ball 3 times and tried a FG.

I'd say Brady has 2 Super Bowl Ws and 4 (straight) Super Bowl Ls.  He still might be the best, but that resume looks and feels a lot different without the "head-scratching luck" he has enjoyed.

[teejers1]

"And so on! The point is: if playcalling is such an important ability, why can observers so rarely consistently identify it in the wild?"

WIM, not sure what straw man you're trying to knock down here.  My criticism of playcalling has (almost exclusively for the last several years) been reserved for the AYFKM calls (which, as noted elsewhere, should mean "Are You Falcon Kidding Me?").  These are specific decisions - typically very late in the game - where the "brain trust" has just puked on themselves and greatly reduced their team's chances of success.  They often are very obvious clusters:  at Utah, end game against SC (twice), home against ND (failing to take at least one knee on first and goal), and last Big Game loss.  And now, the Falcons Super Bowl puke.

For the Falcon defenders, Julio Jones was targeted a grand total of 4 (or 5?) times the entire game.  So why would passing to him in that situation be some great idea when you've been neglecting that (or more likely, it's been shut down) all game?  Also, people forget that an incomplete pass is a BAD thing - it may not be horrific (sack, which happened) or all-time-worst (sack/fumble) - but it's bad.  It stops the clock without forcing NE to burn a timeout.  You run it three times, force NE to burn its timeouts, and even if you lose a yard each time (unlikely), you're still talking a 42 yard FG.  In the NFL, that's a pretty good bet.  And if you're up by 11 with just over 3 minutes left . . . well, I like your chances . . . a lot . . . even against Brady/Pats. 

And speaking of Brady, it's hard to argue against Greatest of All Time (I'd have given him the nod before yesterday); however, I think it's also fair to characterize him as the GLOAT:  Greatest, Luckiest of All Time.  Think what his resume would look like if:  (a) bogus tuck rule was called correctly against Raiders, (b) Petey chose to run Beast Mode from the 1 yard line instead of passing (which resulted in a pick), and © Atlanta ran the ball 3 times and tried a FG.

I'd say Brady has 2 Super Bowl Ws and 4 (straight) Super Bowl Ls.  He still might be the best, but that resume looks and feels a lot different without the "head-scratching luck" he has enjoyed.