That's Why You're in the Booth

[Biggs3535]

At that point, Buffalo would've run 3 straight and punted...

Link?

The Bills had a 4.7 YPA last night.  I'm not sure why you guys think the Bills offense would all of the sudden shut down on that drive.

And for anyone to say that the Pats were lucky is B-S. It was no accident that Merriweather went for the strip as opposed to the tackle.

What about the moron who ran the ball out of the endzone unnecessarily, and then tried to fight for more yards after first contact?  You make your own luck to certain point, at other times you have to thank the football gods for idiots being on the other sideline.

[Hate]

I'm not sure why, since Buffalo had scored on 3 of their 7 drives in the game.  That's 43%.

At that point, Buffalo would've run 3 straight and punted.... taking the safe route, just like Chucky.

And for anyone to say that the Pats were lucky is B-S. It was no accident that Merriweather went for the strip as opposed to the tackle. Same thing in a playoff game vs the Chargers a few years ago. On a game clinching drive, Brady throws an INT and Troy Brown strips the ball from the defender, recovers, and the Pats go on to win the game. Thats on the coaching.... and as Bruschi said last nite, being prepared for any "situation".

[GhostRider]

As I watched the Pats/Bills game last night, they asked Gruden a "what would you do question".  He said he'd onside kick it with just over 2 mins left and all 3 timeouts.  I thought to myself that that didn't sound like good football sense (why not kick it away and spend your timeouts on defense, right?)  Sure enough, the Pats kicked it deep, forced a fumble and then scored the go ahead TD off of it.  And at that moment it dawned on me "That's why you're in the booth, and he's still down there coaching"...

[ilovebeer]

So....if the Pats would of onside kicked, recovered it, then drove down and scored, this would be a topic about how Gruden belongs on the sideline?

[jaybuc88]

Hind sight is always 20/20.....

[MBF]

Gruden's in the booth because his draft picks have been abysmal, not because he made a comment in passing during MNF. I doubt he'd actually do that had he been wearing the headset.

[GhostRider]

So....if the Pats would of onside kicked, recovered it, then drove down and scored, this would be a topic about how Gruden belongs on the sideline?

The point is, they wouldn't have.  Considering onside kicks have less than a 10% success rate, it made no sense to OSK with all 3 timeouts and the 2 minute warning.

[calicojack]

No fumble, no win...

[Incognito]

Please.

Gruden is an excellent HC. He brought us a superbowl trophy.

Besides, how do you know that HIS method wouldn't have worked out as well? Tell you the truth, I was thinking "onside kick" myself.

The Pats got LUCKY. If the kick returner would've been smarter and just took a knee, they probably would've lost that game... but fortunately for them, the guy was a nimrod.

You must be one of the Gruden haters on this board.

Just you wait, he'll be back to coaching by next year... and if not, its by choice.

[keeponbucn]

I've been considered a Grudenista on many occasions and thought what he said was quite interesting.

Bill B will go down as one of the best ever, an onside kick gives you little to no chance at getting the ball back. It was a dumb comment and if he would done that with the Bucs I would have went ape shat.

Bill B knows what he's doing, not that Gruden doesn't, but those two are polar opposite. Bill B goes for most 4th downs depening on FP and Gruden punts from his 40 yrd line. Big difference in playing safe and playing to win, most times I feel Gruden played too safe like Olson did before the half on Sunday.

[calicojack]

10% chance of an onside recovery is far better than the chance of getting a fumble on a kickoff return.  Either way, the defense had to stone the bills if the pats didn't get the ball.

[GhostRider]

10% chance of an onside recovery is far better than the chance of getting a fumble on a kickoff return. Either way, the defense had to stone the bills if the pats didn't get the ball.

The fumble was just gravy.  Smart football says you kick it away, play defense and make em punt.  You know they're gonna run it 3 times and punt anyway....

[Biggs3535]

I'm not surprised people are turning Belichick into a genius for McKelvin being an idiot and returning the ball.

There is validity to an onside kick as well as kicking it off.  It all depends on what you feel you can do defensively.

[keeponbucn]

10% chance of an onside recovery is far better than the chance of getting a fumble on a kickoff return. Either way, the defense had to stone the bills if the pats didn't get the ball.

wouldn't think this should be explained but here we go....

Bill was playing on the fact that they had all their TO's, he was putting it on the D to stop them to get the ball back not playing for a fumbled kickoff. Surely he felt his D had a better than 10% chance with all TO's to stop them than going for the on-side. The fumble was a bonus, obviously

[keeponbucn]

I'm not surprised people are turning Belichick into a genius for McKelvin being an idiot and returning the ball.

There is validity to an onside kick as well as kicking it off.  It all depends on what you feel you can do defensively.

Wrong, Bill B has been a genius long before this past game. He makes the right decision in crunch situation almost 100% of the time, the better play there was to kick. If he didn't have any TO's then it would have been a different situation