This is what an elite coach would do, I'm talking about Belichick, and John Harbaugh. Not sure who else in the NFL is smart and has enough experience to do this.
I've always wondered about similar strategies in late game football with an explosive offense, but I don't know the rules well enough and assume these things do not happen for a reason. But maybe all it's going to take is one wise-acre and then the ends of NFL games will be forever ruined by intentional fouling, just like NBA games.
Normally, I'd say doing this on purpose is kinda underhanded and not in the competitive spirit... ...but this is a chance to go to the AFC title game and potentially, the superbowl. Screw the competitive spirit.
Agreed. I've always also wondered about false starts. If the clock was running, it runs again and you can eat another 25 or 40 seconds, so you theoretically false start away like 8 minutes of game time if you had a 2 possession lead and like 10 minutes left in the game.
You'd think it would, but apparently it doesn't on a false start! I think it's the most ridiculous thing. There was some team that had 3rd down with 2 minutes left in the 3rd and accidentally managed to run the clock out and have 4th down start the next quarter due to a series of (non-intentional) penalties.
The squib kick, if done right, runs 5-6 seconds off the clock. So KC has 1 play to set up the FG, instead of 2. IIRC, and please correct me if I'm just wrong and dumb (never happened before, trust me), the clock on a kickoff starts when the football hits the ground. eta: Yeah, I'm wrong, has to hit a person not the ground. Remember this the next time I pretend to be really smart. eta2: Do they catch a proper kick drilled down the middle, or does it bounce off of someone's hands and then they scramble to down it? That's my experience...the "hands team" is not in the 2nd line.
The clock only starts when the football touches a player (not the kicker). So it only runs clock if KC decides to return it and run around.
The ideal move would have been to kick it down to the 5 or 10 yardline. The returner is unlikely to just fall on the ball being pinned that far back, but he has to pick it up because it is a live ball and the kicking team can grab it just like an onside kick....
Yeah, this or the way RedFish suggested are the smartest ways to do it. But if you miss your way and hit a guy at the 50 yard line and he can pounce on the ball, you give Mahomes the ball with 10ish seconds at the 50 or you might risk some kind of crazy lateralling play or whatnot that introduces an element of pure luck (see the Music City Miracle!). That's where I think the Bills trusted the safe route - give Mahomes the ball at the 25 with 13 seconds left and assume your defense can avoid giving up 40 yards in 2 plays. That was pretty amazing even for Mahomes, and obviously didn't work out, but I think if you're the Bills, you're comfortable with that scenario. Edit: Music City Miracle was sort of this scenario - 16 seconds left. Bills kicked it to the 10 or 15 yard line and then all hell broke loose.
yeah, the most perfect plan would have been to tell the kicker to kick it as high as possible and make them fair catch it inside the 15 Justin Tucker, Phil Dawson, several UT kickers could have pulled that off.
My feeling while watching it live is if they had Hill back to receive the kick I would have kicked it through the endzone. They didn't have Hill back there. So I thought they should have done what I suggested and kicked it right down the middle of the field around the 10 yard line. If the Chiefs wanted to just sit on the ball and give themselves up at the 10 then even what Mahomes did in those 2 plays would have had them looking at a 60 plus yard field goal. Also, the Music City miracle was a short kick caught at the 25 yard line. That made it easier for the nonsense play because it was fielded by Neal who was not the returner. He flipped it to Wychek who threw it to Dyson. If you kick it to the 10 when the Chiefs had only 1 guy deep as the returner it's much harder to pull that kind of play off.
You are being very, very silly about this, and it strikes me as very odd. I'm wrong all the time and I can readily admit it, so whatever and keep fighting that Jimmy fight. Look at the PbP: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/202001190sfo.htm