Hey, guys, I‘m writing this because I want to get something off my chest. Aside from all of the recent posting, I have been thinking a lot about the conference championship games, we just saw this past Sunday, and after talking to an anonymous NFL expert, I realized something.
It wasn’t 100% the ref's fault, that the Chiefs and Saints lost at home on Sunday. It was actually their fault!
There are 2 instances where Sean Payton and Drew Brees messed up in the NFC Championship game. And there is also an important instance in the AFC championship game, that came back o haunt KC.
So without further ado, let’s get into it.
NFC championship:
1. With the clock around 2:00 mark before the half, the Saints had the ball with a fresh set of downs, and the Rams having two timeouts left. However, instead of burning the clock for an FG, and making the Rams burn their timeouts, the Saints looked for deep passes, which resulted in two sacks. The Saints threw on 4th down out of desperation and didn’t convert, forcing a punt.
That gave the Rams enough time to go down the field and score a touchdown, cutting their deficit to 13-10, and changing the whole complex of the game.
What New Orleans should have done, Is give the ball to Star Alvin Kamara, and have him run it, forcing the Rams to call their final two timeouts and giving the Saints a chance for a last-second FG, that would have given them a 16-3 lead into halftime, completing what was a very dominant first half.
Should that have happened, the Saints would have won 23-17, as there wouldn’t be enough time later in the game for LA to score two touchdowns, instead of one.
2. Now I know you all probably know by now, that the throw to Trever Lewis, late in the 4th quarter should have been called pass interference. But here’s my question, why even throw it to Lewis in the first place? I’ll be honest in that moment in time, I thought Kamara would get the ball, on a catch and run because he can really get some good yardage for the Saints and set up a short pass/ run for a first down on the next play! The Rams probably wouldn’t expect this, because Kamara just went for no gain, on the previous play. What would have happened is the same thing, that would have happened if the penalty was called, the Saints would kick the game-winning FG, and head to Super Bowl. But what would happen is that the chance for the game-winning FG, would be more likely, with the Saints giving Kamara another chance here.
I just want to be perfectly clear and say that I am not a Kamara fan or even a Saints fan. I am just stating my opinion, on what I think the Saints should have done in those situations.
Kamara is small yet fast, and can slip through the Rams defense for some nice yardage., that could’ve set the Saints up for either way, a huge FG to head to Atlanta for the Super Bowl.
Note: Another thing is, even after all that, the Saints had overtime and threw a pick. Allowing Greg Zuerlein to hit the FG, that put the Rams in the Super Bowl.
AFC Championship:
Not only, did the controversial “ The muffed punt that wasn’t “, and the controversial roughing the passer call, come back to haunt the Chiefs in their crushing AFC championship loss to the Pats. But so did their coach Andy Reid calling a timeout in the first half!!
The clock was winding down in the first half in what has been a very defensive AFC championship game. The Patriots, ( Who are up 7-0), are clearly just trying to get to halftime with the lead, and not even try to add on any points before the half, with the way they are running the ball.
However, on 3rd and 4, ( With the ball still in the Pats territory) Andy Reid calls a TIMEOUT!!!! That should not have been called, because it allowed the Patriots to regroup, and actually throw the ball catching the Chiefs off guard. The 3rd Down try was converted into a 1st Down, as the Pats went down the field for a late TD, to put them up 14-0 at the break.
The reason why Reid called a timeout in the first place, was because he wanted the ball back before halftime. In my opinion, if you are going to call a timeout in that situation, call it on 4th down after the Patriots don’t convert there. And even if they did, they weren’t trying to score until that timeout was called. That came back to haunt the Chiefs, as they could have won 28-24, considering the Patriots wouldn’t have enough time to score twice instead of once.
The Chiefs could have gotten the ball with around 30 seconds left, and instead of needing an FG to force the game to overtime, they could have kneeled it and won it right there, putting them in Atlanta for the Super Bowl.
Now, with that out of the way, I just want to say that I am totally fine with this Rams vs Patriots Super Bowl matchup, and I am not trying to disrespect anyone here from these 4 teams. But all I’m saying is, that sometimes the little things in these big games can be the difference maker later on.
I don’t think that this takes away from the bad ref calling in these games, but I do think that these calls wouldn’t have mattered if the little things went the home teams way.
Also, I know that these opinions, will get met with a lot of controversiey themselves. So feel free to get at it in the comments below!! I’ll gladly chat with you on this topic.
Via Cultre Classroom Podcast on Twitter.
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