Why not run the clock down to, say, 17 seconds or so?

[entropyrulesall]

On an afternoon of conservative, vanilla play-calling and very obvious coaching miscues like not taking field goals and the unfortunate FG icing attempt, this was huge. U have ample timeouts remaining in this situation. Cut half the time and force them to use a TO. Ironically, a vanilla call in that situation like a draw or a FB run, might have won the game on the next play.

We had so many opportunities to win this game that it's literally, is not even funny. Pete has to get better on game day and I think that he will because he is just as hard on himself as the players.

The future is bright and JS will now do his part to improve the team. I feel like this is a defining offseason for Carroll as he must now work to mature the team's youth and be willing to tweak the scheme if we cant get the personell to execute it. Either we fix our pass-rush for real this time or we end the Red Bryant experiment and go to a normal 4-3. Which probably wouldn't work as most of our good defensive players are scheme dependent. So fix that pass rush and go get a Superb Owl.

RW is a franchise QB who we will now build around and protect. This is the #1 commodity in the NFL as it is the only way to compete for a SB every year. Keep the faith 12's, RW and the Hawks have our backs so let's keep 3elieving in them. Go Hawks!

 

[HawkWow]

The problem is when things like penalties come into the mix. 1 yard can turn into 16 with one flag. We did the right thing in scoring when we did. The wrong things happened on the other side of the ball.

 

[BWRyan]

I think you'd bet on this defense stopping a team from kicking a FG w/ 0:26 seconds on the clock. Sucks how it ended up, but I don't think you can afford to stall to score a TD to win, like you would a FG.

 

[MORGULON]

After all is said and done. Gus Bradley deciding to play prevent, prevented us from winning. Brandon Browner after the game said in an interview that they were playing a "soft zone". 31 seconds was more than enough time to march down the field and kick a field goal when the other team can air it out.

 

[AROS]

Soft Zone Sucks. Simple as that. Play man coverage and we probably stop them.

 

[Mjolnir]

The problem is when things like penalties come into the mix. 1 yard can turn into 16 with one flag. We did the right thing in scoring when we did. The wrong things happened on the other side of the ball.

This.

 

[Austin Hawk]

You don't play a soft zone against Matty, Julio, Roddy, and Tony. You only play soft zone when you are trying to prevent a game winner, not when you are trying to keep the opponent from getting 30 yards.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

Can't guarantee a single play, or even two, would be a touchdown. You get the go-ahead score and trust your defense not to give up half the field in half a minute.

 

[rjdriver]

They had timeouts and started at the 30. They only needed about thirty yards or two pass completions of 15 each. They got a little a more than that and missed a long field goal. Kicker got another try and made it. The chicago game was a monumental collapse in regulation. This, not so much. The game was the field goal errors early on.

 

[IBleedBlueAndGreen]

This team was mediocre at best playing zone during the 2012 season. Poor most of the time. I don't understand why in situations like that a defense decides to go away from doing what it does best. Particularly the throw to Douglas. Do you realize that K.J. Wright dropped back into coverage, and BOTH Marcus Trufant and Winston Guy blitzed? What? Play man to man there, and have as many extras in the defensive backfield as you possibly can. We hadn't gotten to Ryan all game, yet obviously they had started reeling. It's disappointing for sure, but who knows what could have been.

As far as running down the clock is concerned, you just can't in that situation. Yes, we had all of our timeouts but in a playoff game in that situation you have to take the points and get the lead as quickly as you can. Plus we have the "best defense" in football. You've got to let them have a chance to prove that they can make a stop at the end of the game.

 

[HawkWow]

Before finalizing any decision tomorrow, Bradley better know Philly is quite a bit more hostile than Seattle. "soft zone" could get a guys house burnt down.

 

[Twisted]

right I don't get why they didn't force Atl to use a timeout or two as well, but the extra 31 seconds and TOs proved to be the game winning recipe?

its like trying to figure out why the Texans with 7 minutes left in the game down 2 possessions were lolly gagging up to the line of scrimmage?

better yet they had THREE chances to stop the clock on caught passes had they only went 2 more yards laterally running out of bounds as apposed to turning into a wall of Patriot defenders just before the out of bounds line?

the best one was the goal line run, he's running laterally with an angle to scrape the cone for 6 from the handoff, instead he turns up and runs into to waiting patriots?

seriously ignorant, you take the angle to the cone, if by chance they do not allow you into the end zone you run out of bounds on the 1 ft line but more importantly STOP THE CLOCK!!!

I asked myself how on earth did the Texans make the playoffs? and how in the world did they go 12 and 4? that was just lack of anything and everything, laziness, no critical thinking, nothing, they deserved to get whomped!!!

 

[Shane Falco]

I thought the offense handled the clock pretty well on the drive. Even the announcers were moaning about us taking too much time and were going to not leave us enough to get the score. We left them 31 damn seconds. 9 out of 10 times the game is sealed. Yeah, if it's one thing I've never stopped bitching about over the years it's that damn prevent defense. Especially when your guys have been shutting them down for the entire second half.

 

[HawkWow]

They had timeouts and started at the 30. They only needed about thirty yards or two pass completions of 15 each. They got a little a more than that and missed a long field goal. Kicker got another try and made it. The chicago game was a monumental collapse in regulation. This, not so much. The game was the field goal errors early on.

Not to be argumentive, but we need to put this idea of Pete blowing the game by calling the TO away, immediately. Bryant knew the play was dead and kicked the ball just for the sake of kicking the ball, testing his distance etc. There is absolutely no reason to assume he would have missed had the TO not been called.

Now, I personally don't like freezing the kicker but it's the en vogue thing to do....which is why we shouldn't have. Bryant would have been expecting the TO, not calling it may have caused him more discomfort than the other way around...but Pete deserves better than having the masses believe his TO cost us the game, IMO, it didn't.

 

[rjdriver]

They had timeouts and started at the 30. They only needed about thirty yards or two pass completions of 15 each. They got a little a more than that and missed a long field goal. Kicker got another try and made it. The chicago game was a monumental collapse in regulation. This, not so much. The game was the field goal errors early on.

Not to be argumentive, but we need to put this idea of Pete blowing the game by calling the TO away, immediately. Bryant knew the play was dead and kicked the ball just for the sake of kicking the ball, testing his distance etc. There is absolutely no reason to assume he would have missed had the TO not been called.

Now, I personally don't like freezing the kicker but it's the en vogue thing to do....which is why we shouldn't have. Bryant would have been expecting the TO, not calling it may have caused him more discomfort than the other way around...but Pete deserves better than having the masses believe his TO cost us the game, IMO, it didn't.

Sorry HawkWow, I didn't clarify......I meant the opportunities WE had to put 3 on the board. Specifically, the failed fourth and one. Take the points, get the ball in the second half. My bad..