Conference Title Games

[The Feral Slasher]

even this NBA guy noticed. on Twitter:

Bill Simmons @BillSimmons · 42m 42 minutes ago

This was an incredible bad coaching performance by Mike McCarthy. We're gonna be telling our grandkids about it.

Okay then, if you and Bill Simmons say so, it was the worst job of coaching in playoff history

[Bodhizefa]

curling into a shell with 10 minutes left is not a great idea, nor are 18-yard FGs

should I go on?

Agreed. I couldn't believe how conservative he was when they had the 12-point lead and decided to run it straight ahead for three plays in a row while Rodgers just looked on into space. And the field goals early on were silly, too. You can't do that in today's NFL. Maybe 5-10 years ago that's a defensible position, but not today.

[Erik]

well don't I look silly now

that McCarthy "effort" seriously is the worst-coached playoff game I've ever seen, and plenty of brain farts by the players as well.

Andy Reid and last year's Chiefs staff might have something to say about that, as might the 1992-93 Oilers staff.

[Judge Jude]

at least last year's Chiefs had pretty much every quality player on the team get hurt during the game

[The Feral Slasher]

curling into a shell with 10 minutes left is not a great idea, nor are 18-yard FGs

should I go on?

So I went back and looked at the play-by-play. The Packers entered the 4th quarter ahead 16-7. They started at their own 25 and ended up with a field goal. During the drive Aaron Rodgers was 1 for 3 for 7 yards, while they ran four times for 43 yards. Don't see any problem so far.

The Seahawks got the ball and were forced to punt, the Packers got the ball back at their own 13 with 6:53 left. Nothing to complain about so far.

Deep in their own territory the Packers ran the ball twice for 6 yards, and then passed and failed to convert a manageable 3rd and 4, and had to punt with about 5:20 left. Seems reasonable to me.

Wilson throws an interception on the first play so the Packers get the ball back with just over 5 minutes left.

The Packers run on first down and lose 4 yards, forcing Seattle to call timeout. Don't think you can really blame a coach for running on first down, up by 12 when you are trying to run out the clock. They run again on second and third down which seems to be the plays that must make McCarthy the worst coach in history. Should they have been more aggressive on 2nd and 14 ? Maybe, but I don't think it is a no brainer. So after the punt the Seahawks go on to score, recover the onside, score again, and convert for 2. Followed by a Green Bay field goal to send it to overtime.

A little too conservative when they got the ball back with 5 minutes left ? Yeah, probably, but the worst coaching job in playoff history ? Not to me.

[The Feral Slasher]

I haven't double checked but I believe Wilson targeted Jermaine Kearse 5 times during the game. The first four were intercepted and the 5th was the game winning TD.

Edit: Right after I posted this ESPN showed the stat. He was targeted 6 times, there was also an incompletion in the 4th quarter

[madducks]

Seahawks fans who left the game early couldn't get back in lol.

[Judge Jude]

to be fair, it has been almost a year since their team won a Super Bowl. it's hard to suffer that long!

[dslaw]

It is easy to pick on play calling because the Packers lost. Seattle gets the ball with about 4 minutes to go and marches 60 yards in 2 minutes against a D that has shut them down all day. Even with that TD if GB recovers the onside kick and ran 3 plays and punted the Seahawks get the ball back with about 1:10 to go, 80 yards away and no timeouts. If they don't score and the Packers win it is excellent clock management making Seattle waste timeouts early instead of throwing incomplete passes. Instead GB botches the onside kick and it is terrible clock management.

[nullnor]

after the GB lose belichick basically called mccarthy his peer in the press conference. if he said that than it's true. so you'll be seeing McCarthy in the suberbowl with rogers next year. in fact you should've been seeing GB in the superbowl last year. the year before that and this year, and definitely next year.

I don't think the pats can beat seattle. it's gonna be a damn close game.

and can someone explain to me what happened to pete carroll's nose? when did that thing become so crooked? did someone break his nose? he's a good coach. it adds a nice effect.