[Snorlax94]

Teejers,
I did consider a path along the same lines you suggest, and I think it’s a reasonable criticism.

For my own part, now the day after, I lean toward agreeing with Shaw’s call.

1) first of all, this had the feel of that old triple overtime game, but this time we don’t have luck. We needed the lead. I feel like we lose a tie game in overtime. Or, given a shot at overtime or given the odds of converting a 2 yarder on 4th, I’d take the run.

2) second, my feeling was that the run game was getting stronger and stronger. I felt the momentum and the surge. And on watching the replay, running into the teeth of the defense was not the problem. The left o line won and drove their opponents back and the endzone was there for the taking.

3) there’s some criticism of that specific call because we’ve been denied short conversions that way before. On the one hand, if the o line splits on the right side were just two inches wider each, maybe Scarlett makes it. Or maybe if the qb gets a chip block, maybe we make it. But also recall Love had just hobbled out. Maybe they’d practiced this with Love and Love has the lower center of gravity, faster speed, and faster play mechanics to make it (the handoff could take a split second longer to Scarlett) but because Love was hurt, we had to plug in whoever was next, and the play ends up taking a tiny fraction of a second too long.

Also many uninformed Cardinal fans screaming during our offense, which could hurt the timing and aid the defense, was not helpful either.

[Snorlax94]

Teejers,
I did consider a path along the same lines you suggest, and I think it’s a reasonable criticism.

For my own part, now the day after, I lean toward agreeing with Shaw’s call.

1) first of all, this had the feel of that old triple overtime game, but this time we don’t have luck. We needed the lead. I feel like we lose a tie game in overtime. Or, given a shot at overtime or given the odds of converting a 2 yarder on 4th, I’d take the run.

2) second, my feeling was that the run game was getting stronger and stronger. I felt the momentum and the surge. And on watching the replay, running into the teeth of the defense was not the problem. The left o line won and drove their opponents back and the endzone was there for the taking.

3) there’s some criticism of that specific call because we’ve been denied short conversions that way before. On the one hand, if the o line splits on the right side were just two inches wider each, maybe Scarlett makes it. Or maybe if the qb gets a chip block, maybe we make it. But also recall Love had just hobbled out. Maybe they’d practiced this with Love and Love has the lower center of gravity, faster speed, and faster play mechanics to make it (the handoff could take a split second longer to Scarlett) but because Love was hurt, we had to plug in whoever was next, and the play ends up taking a tiny fraction of a second too long.

Also many uninformed Cardinal fans screaming during our offense, which could hurt the timing and aid the defense, was not helpful either.