TwistedHusky":2sg1j2af said:
I know Bevell won us a Super Bowl but man it feels like he is clueless at times.
Here is a quote that perfectly captures my feelings on watching his playcalling:http://www.footballoutsiders.com/audibles/2014/audibles-line-week-11
"Vince Verhei: OK, now I'm pissed. After the failed fourth-and-goal play, Seahawks force their first punt. They then have a fourth-and-1 in Kansas City territory. Now, I'm not sure Seattle has thrown a deep pass all game, so Kansas City crowds everyone up on the line, effectively running an 8-0-3 formation. There are corners covering the receivers, but there are no real safeties or linebackers, just everyone pressed up to the line. Also, Max Unger is out again. So what do they call? Read option? Bootleg keeper? Quick slant? Nope. Straight handoff to Lynch up the gut. Nobody is fooled, nobody is beaten, the play loses yardage. That play probably fails 99 times out of 100. That's a much worse call than the goal-line fade route."
Is that fair? You absolutely know that if Bevell had called a slant, bootleg or deep shot in that situation and failed to convert that he would be crucified here. KC also has better edge talent than many teams we've faced, so I'm not convinced that a QB keeper or Lynch to the edge is necessarily the perfect call there either. Maybe pitch-back option with Michael or Turbin could've worked better -- but we've already shown that look multiple times on 4th down.
Personally, I actually do like seeing passes on 4th-and-short. However, I dread them in ways because even if you convert 60-70% (which is great), your fanbase will kill you for not running Lynch (who, quite honestly, has never been elite in short yardage situations) on the 30-40% you fail.
Anyway, yadda yadda, he's okay, he sucks, etc.. I thought overall Bevell got the offense moving. I do wish we were better in the redzone, but honestly, with different calls I'm not sure we get better results. I can't ignore that we have terrible redzone talent and KC is league-best at goal line run defense. 2/5 on RZ opportunities is probably what the stats would extrapolate to if we ran simulations with those elements factored in.