Divisional round playoff games

[alancac98]

I don’t like this kicking first strategy in the playoffs. If both teams get a stop, you stand to allow the opponent 2 possessions to your 1. Plus with the new kickoff rules, even on a 3 and out the second team getting the is backed up with worse field position.

Great point about possessions! Why give your opponent 2 chances?

[Jobu]

I don’t like this kicking first strategy in the playoffs. If both teams get a stop, you stand to allow the opponent 2 possessions to your 1. Plus with the new kickoff rules, even on a 3 and out the second team getting the is backed up with worse field position.

Yeah but if the first team scores you know if you need 7 or 3. Plus you know if you need to go for it on 4th.

If your in.tje playoffs in OT, you need to.play to win and not figure that the other team will stop you and get an extra possession.

The bolded is the key. You’re playing 4 down football your entire possession. That’s a play calling advantage.

[anpsteel]

if its OPI, then what the defender prior to release was doing was DPI

Not the way I saw it

They were both standing in the EZ

Neither was controlling the other just sort of posting up


Then the bears receiver pushed off while the ball was in the air

[alancac98]

I don’t like this kicking first strategy in the playoffs. If both teams get a stop, you stand to allow the opponent 2 possessions to your 1. Plus with the new kickoff rules, even on a 3 and out the second team getting the is backed up with worse field position.

Yeah but if the first team scores you know if you need 7 or 3. Plus you know if you need to go for it on 4th.

If your in.tje playoffs in OT, you need to.play to win and not figure that the other team will stop you and get an extra possession.

The bolded is the key. You’re playing 4 down football your entire possession. That’s a play calling advantage.

Great point as well!

[Steelperch]

Seattle vs Pats SB. Hope Seattle runs it this time.

I don't think there's the same devotion to Darnold as there was Wilson at that time and I don't think the regime in Seattle particularly liked Marshawn.

Darnold winning a title before Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield and the rest of that draft class would be pretty funny.

[Steelperch]

I don’t like this kicking first strategy in the playoffs. If both teams get a stop, you stand to allow the opponent 2 possessions to your 1. Plus with the new kickoff rules, even on a 3 and out the second team getting the is backed up with worse field position.

Yeah but if the first team scores you know if you need 7 or 3. Plus you know if you need to go for it on 4th.

If your in.tje playoffs in OT, you need to.play to win and not figure that the other team will stop you and get an extra possession.

The bolded is the key. You’re playing 4 down football your entire possession. That’s a play calling advantage.

Both games this weekend where the team won the toss and chose to kick lost when the other team got 2 possessions to their 1. Something to rethink for the coaches.

[franco32]

I love how aggressive both McVay and Johnson were. After Caleb's last INT, McVay immediate goes up-tempo no huddle and attacks to win the game. It's essentially the opposite of the Tomlin ball we've watched for 2 decades.

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

That’s exactly why the faithful were done with Tomlin in 2017

[CKSteeler]

I love how aggressive both McVay and Johnson were. After Caleb's last INT, McVay immediate goes up-tempo no huddle and attacks to win the game. It's essentially the opposite of the Tomlin ball we've watched for 2 decades.

Put Ben with a guy like McVay and he'd have probably won at least one MVP. His physical talent was never fully appreciated by non-Steelers fans and for a guy who supposedly didn't put in the work he could basically call the full offense himself in his prime from the no-huddle. Just never allowed to do it regularly.

What could have been during the Killer B's era...

I said a long time ago that they'd move on from Tomlin at some point, and I'd barely care because it was just going to happen far too late. Squandering the back half of Roethlisberger's career just sucks still. That was the last player I had attachment to from when I was younger and actually got worked up over football to some degree. We aint getting those years back.

[Stillerz Bar]

Yeah but if the first team scores you know if you need 7 or 3. Plus you know if you need to go for it on 4th.

If your in.tje playoffs in OT, you need to.play to win and not figure that the other team will stop you and get an extra possession.

The bolded is the key. You’re playing 4 down football your entire possession. That’s a play calling advantage.

Both games this weekend where the team won the toss and chose to kick lost when the other team got 2 possessions to their 1. Something to rethink for the coaches.

Both teams winning the toss also threw interceptions. Without the INTs they both would have likely been in the position to win. Also both teams were moving the ball with no time constraints and chose to go for a big play down the field when the INTs happened. High reward but also high risk and this time it didn't pay off for either.

[W&M_Steeler]

I love how aggressive both McVay and Johnson were. After Caleb's last INT, McVay immediate goes up-tempo no huddle and attacks to win the game. It's essentially the opposite of the Tomlin ball we've watched for 2 decades.

Put Ben with a guy like McVay and he'd have probably won at least one MVP. His physical talent was never fully appreciated by non-Steelers fans and for a guy who supposedly didn't put in the work he could basically call the full offense himself in his prime from the no-huddle. Just never allowed to do it regularly.

What could have been during the Killer B's era...

I said a long time ago that they'd move on from Tomlin at some point, and I'd barely care because it was just going to happen far too late. Squandering the back half of Roethlisberger's career just sucks still. That was the last player I had attachment to from when I was younger and actually got worked up over football to some degree. We aint getting those years back.

Agreed. Tomlin wasted Ben's last decade. Ben probably has 100 more TDs, at least 1 more ring, and an MVP or two if Andy Reid came to Pittsburgh instead of KC.

After the Bills game, talking heads were saying "just imagine if Mike Tomlin had Josh Allen." We don't have to imagine- it would probably look a lot like the 2010s Steelers.

[jeemie]

Yeah but if the first team scores you know if you need 7 or 3. Plus you know if you need to go for it on 4th.

If your in.tje playoffs in OT, you need to.play to win and not figure that the other team will stop you and get an extra possession.

The bolded is the key. You’re playing 4 down football your entire possession. That’s a play calling advantage.

Both games this weekend where the team won the toss and chose to kick lost when the other team got 2 possessions to their 1. Something to rethink for the coaches.

Since the new OT rules took effect in the playoffs, there have been three playoff OT games.

These two, and Super Bowl LXVIII, where the Niners won the toss and elected to receive.

They lost the game.

So the jury is still out as to which is better, from a statistical standpoint.

The team getting the ball first is 2-1, but the winner of the coin toss is 0-3.

I'm sure someone could dig into the probabilities of it all.

What the probability of stopping the team the gets the ball first from scoring.

What is the probability of the second team scoring after the first team scores, given the knowledge that the second team is now playing four down football?

[Dan Smith--BYU]

As I pointed out in another thread Tomlin mostly "won" by being rehired over and over by a patsy owner and letting the law of big numbers work.

If you run the odds mathematically, Tomlin's overall record of success is mediocre. A team with a franchise QB and a decent defense the Steelers preseason odds were running between 8-1 and 12-1. So each year the chance of not winning is .9 and if you run that out to the 10th power (the number of years the talent was clearly competitive and above average), you would expect the average competent coach to win a SB in 3/4 of Monte Carlo runs.

[CKSteeler]

I love how aggressive both McVay and Johnson were. After Caleb's last INT, McVay immediate goes up-tempo no huddle and attacks to win the game. It's essentially the opposite of the Tomlin ball we've watched for 2 decades.

Put Ben with a guy like McVay and he'd have probably won at least one MVP. His physical talent was never fully appreciated by non-Steelers fans and for a guy who supposedly didn't put in the work he could basically call the full offense himself in his prime from the no-huddle. Just never allowed to do it regularly.

What could have been during the Killer B's era...

I said a long time ago that they'd move on from Tomlin at some point, and I'd barely care because it was just going to happen far too late. Squandering the back half of Roethlisberger's career just sucks still. That was the last player I had attachment to from when I was younger and actually got worked up over football to some degree. We aint getting those years back.

Agreed. Tomlin wasted Ben's last decade. Ben probably has 100 more TDs, at least 1 more ring, and an MVP or two if Andy Reid came to Pittsburgh instead of KC.

After the Bills game, talking heads were saying "just imagine if Mike Tomlin had Josh Allen." We don't have to imagine- it would probably look a lot like the 2010s Steelers.

Those constant refrains are really the product of the media despising Roethlisberger for a very long time. The guy can't even open his mouth without being bashed no matter how relatively innocuous the opinion being expressed and then some fans eat it up, too.

The media would never admit he wasted Ben's years the way they do with every other coach not named Belichick who had a franchise QB because that would be acknowledging Ben's talents. Putting Ben down props up Tomlin and vice versa. It has to be that Ben let Tomlin down and just wasn't good enough for their narratives to survive.