[Super Bowl LI] - New England Patriots vs. Atlanta Falcons

The two points that cost them the game was when they decided to drop back to pass 2 plays in a row when they were in FG range late in the game and when the kick returner decided to take the ball out of the end zone on the last possession.....he not only wasted time off the clock, he also failed to get to the 25 and made their job that much more difficult.

 

It was anything but obvious in the stadium when it happened. Had to see it in slow motion on the largest tv screen in the world to realize that ball never actually touched the ground.

 

I don't know if you can blame the kick returner for that. Those were just perfectly executed kicks. If he doesn't catch it, he risks being pinned.

 

Does anyone know why these numbers don't add up?

 

If you take the 24 sack yards away from the passing total it adds up.

 

The screw up that jumped out to me was Freeman's nonblock on the NE pass rusher who caused a fumble with by sacking Ryan. What the hell kind of block was that? He wasn't even going out on a route; he just did the slightest chip block I've ever seen, giving the defender a damn near free run to annihilate Matt Ryan.

 

I think he was supposed to chip, and then go out for a route, but he realized that his chip block was the worst executed chip in the history of the Super Bowl, so he turned around to see if he could still remedy the situation. Obviously he could not. But, I'd still put the idiotic play-calling while in FG range ahead of that in terms of epic screw ups from last night.

 

That's possible.

We should make a Top 10 List of the Falcons' ****-ups from last night.

 

Holding call and sack when in chip shot field goal range.

That field goal would have iced the game.

I'm surprised I haven't seen more pub on this. I thought BOB was coaching the Falcons for a second.

 

Can anyone explain why Brady's incomplete pass with 3:30 left in the game wasn't an intentional grounding and a safety for Atlanta?



At the 3:14:16 mark.

 

It was close but he caught it in the end zone meaning if he didn't catch it then it would have bounced into the end zone. I understand that it's a lot easier to see that from my vantage point than it would be to determine that while being the guy on the field so I'll give him some credit for it being difficult, but he made the wrong decision and it hurt the team.

The kick returner didn't hurt them anywhere near as much as the bad decision to not just run the ball 3 times and kick the FG though, it's just a pet peeve of mine

 

He was hit as he threw which changed the path of the ball. You can't call that intentional.

 

It looks to me like he knows he's going to get hit so he gets rid of the ball. The ball didn't land near a receiver. That's intentional grounding.

 

He was throwing to a receiver, but was being dragged down so couldn't make a good throw. Refs always give the benefit of the doubt in plays like that. You rarely see intentional grounding be called on a quarterback being dragged down.

 

How was that different than this?

 

Because in that case there clearly wasn't any receivers near by and he was throwing it deep past the coverage so it can't get intercepted. Here, he was clearly trying to throw it to the flat on the right (Edelman?) but the defender dragging him down made him miss left wildly. That's why you don't see any Falcons players arguing for it.

 

Disagree. To me, he sees he's about to get sacked so he rushes his throw. Even if he was clearly targeting Edelman, it landed around 10 yards away from him in between 3 Falcon defenders. To me, that's the very definition of intentional grounding.

In the other link, no one on the Giants was arguing for an intentional grounding either. They simply didn't think about it. However, the refs recognized it and correctly called it.

 

It's subjective, but to me Edelman was close enough where it doesn't warrant an IG. IG calls have to be pretty obvious usually.

 

the receiver was definitely close enough in that play to not warrant a IG.

 

To me, that's far enough away to warrant an intentional grounding. The pass was far enough away that even the receiver didn't think he was the intended target.