And how on earth does Dak not give the ball to a ref?
I think because he's not a playmaker on final drives. Hear me out.
WR and RB players often get tossed the ball in two minute drill situations and we all see them race to the official with the ball. Ever see a QB do that? (Because who is calling draw plays in those situations?)
Doesn't excuse Dak, just making an observation.
Why did the Ref need to pick the ball up and move it a quarter of a yard back? I get he had to touch it, but move it? Wasted time.
Why did the Ref need to pick the ball up and move it a quarter of a yard back? I get he had to touch it, but move it? Wasted time.
Because he actually spots it vs the Cowboys getting to decide where they want to start with the ball. This isn't actually school yard pick up.
Pretty bad look imo on Dak for execution. I think that higher level of QB stops shorter + gets the ball in a refs hand ASAP. Hopefully Jerry blows the whole thing up and Dak ends up on a team where I can actually root for him.
Here's the actual rule, if anyone's curious. From the NFL Rulebook, Rule 3, Section 2, Article 2 (emphasis mine):
A Dead Ball is Ready for Play while the 40-second Play Clock is running when the ball is placed down by an official at the spot where the ball will next be put in play, or when the Referee signals for the 25-second Play Clock to start.
If you scroll up one article, the ball becomes dead between downs (i.e. after each play) and remains that way "until it is legally put in play."
I think I saw somewhere on Twitter last night that someone (former player?) said they practiced this kind of play (run down the field, spike the ball, take one last shot) but that they needed a minimum of 18 seconds on the clock to pull it off.
Rat Boy wrote:I bet Skip will really miss him tomorrow. ;)
Here's the actual rule, if anyone's curious. From the NFL Rulebook, Rule 3, Section 2, Article 2 (emphasis mine):
A Dead Ball is Ready for Play while the 40-second Play Clock is running when the ball is placed down by an official at the spot where the ball will next be put in play, or when the Referee signals for the 25-second Play Clock to start.If you scroll up one article, the ball becomes dead between downs (i.e. after each play) and remains that way "until it is legally put in play."
I think I saw somewhere on Twitter last night that someone (former player?) said they practiced this kind of play (run down the field, spike the ball, take one last shot) but that they needed a minimum of 18 seconds on the clock to pull it off.
Gotcha, touching it isn't enough, needs to be placed.
Stele wrote:Rat Boy wrote:I bet Skip will really miss him tomorrow. ;)
It's like bad 80's wrestling heel stuff. Very cringe. The fake laughing is awful. To me.
garion333 wrote:Why did the Ref need to pick the ball up and move it a quarter of a yard back? I get he had to touch it, but move it? Wasted time.
Because he actually spots it vs the Cowboys getting to decide where they want to start with the ball. This isn't actually school yard pick up.
I'd happily allow the Cowboys to spot themselves an extra yard after Dak's run if only the 49ers were allowed to give themselves an extra inch after Deebo's.
I caught the YouTube recaps and while I knew going into it that Pittsburgh was going to lose, I had this hope that he would be the Jerome Bettis this time, to bookend a career. But these Steelers are so, so different from the 2005 Steelers.
Now I'm hopeful for the Bengals to go all the way, which as a lifelong Steelers fan from SW Ohio is quite a feeling.
Here's the actual rule, if anyone's curious. From the NFL Rulebook, Rule 3, Section 2, Article 2 (emphasis mine):
A Dead Ball is Ready for Play while the 40-second Play Clock is running when the ball is placed down by an official at the spot where the ball will next be put in play, or when the Referee signals for the 25-second Play Clock to start.If you scroll up one article, the ball becomes dead between downs (i.e. after each play) and remains that way "until it is legally put in play."
I think I saw somewhere on Twitter last night that someone (former player?) said they practiced this kind of play (run down the field, spike the ball, take one last shot) but that they needed a minimum of 18 seconds on the clock to pull it off.
18 seconds is an interesting number because the Cowboys had 14. So they were already in trouble if you take 18 as a good baseline.
After rewatching it the ref did really well actually. He gets his hand on the ball just after it ticks down to 2 seconds. That's with no help either which is hilarious. No one looks for him. No one has the ball to give to him. The guy who gets in his way the most is Dak even. Has to essentially shove him out of the way to get to the ball. Just a comedy of errors, couldn't happen to a nicer team.
The thing is unless they had 2 plays called, there was no way to spike the ball. That act takes 2 seconds off the clock. Even if the ref had been clear to the ball and placed it with 2, time was probably out. Just a bad play call. Would have been better trying 2 hail Marys.
I think I saw somewhere on Twitter last night that someone (former player?) said they practiced this kind of play (run down the field, spike the ball, take one last shot) but that they needed a minimum of 18 seconds on the clock to pull it off.
A couple ex-players sounded off on that.
Geoff Schwartz said 16 seconds:
Chris Simms said his coaches put it at 17 or 18 seconds:
Formers Eagles president Joe Banner also jumped in there, said 16 minimum, ideally 18:
The thing is unless they had 2 plays called, there was no way to spike the ball. That act takes 2 seconds off the clock. Even if the ref had been clear to the ball and placed it with 2, time was probably out. Just a bad play call. Would have been better trying 2 hail Marys.
If they look for the ref + give him the ball I actually think they get if off. Biggest one for me is he still gets there at 2 seconds fighting his way.
Other big one was if Dak stopped a bit shorter.
With 14 seconds they needed to do it perfect. Instead they made like 3 mistakes. Ran too far, didn't look for the ref, didn't help him spot it.
But really not surprising for a team that has 14? Penalties in a game to not know the perfect sequence they needed to pull off. I need to quickly check if the Vikes or Bears are interviewing Kellen Moore.
As PFT pointed out, there were many thing the Cowboys could have done to make the play fit into 14 seconds, and they failed at every one:
- Alert the official that a QB draw is coming, so that he can be prepared to run down the field
- Slide sooner instead of trying to pick up extra yardage and waiting for the defense to be on top of you - pick up the easy 10 yards and then give up the play
- Hand the ball to the official instead of to your center and having your center faux spot it
- Make a lane for the official to get to where he needs to be to spot, and form up after he's gotten clear of you
- Have a play called and run the play instead of the spike, so that it doesn't matter if you hit :00 the instant after the snap
They screwed it up in every conceivable way, and according to Dak, this is exactly how they practice the play. So again, this falls on McCarthy and Moore.
And of course, all of this only happened because Garoppolo "got too excited" on the 4th-and-inches and called for the snap before Williams could get set. Apparently he liked the look they got from the defensive front and wanted to get the snap off before they might shift, but, yeah...
Hopefully Trey Lance is learning better situational football from Jimmy's mistakes. Dak, apparently, is a lost cause, and thinks everything is the official's fault.
Yeah I think that is the thing that gets me:
-Dak not only didn't hand the ball to the ref, he handed it to his center and then proceeded to have him and his center impede the ref from placing it.
-Did he even attempt to get to the side line? To me, if you are going to take a few extra steps, try to get to the side line. 2-4 more yards doesn't matter let alone 7 yards.
-they didn't have another play called and were trying to spike it which would have failed by either running out of time or having a motion penalty called on them which I believe forces time runoff which would end the game
-Plenty of pass plays take 7-8 seconds and could have netted 10ish yards
-Didn't they just run a screen that netted them 10+ yards and would have been much easier to get out of bounds?
-or do the lateral thing again down the sideline?
-Its a draw play in a shotgun which both makes Dak have to run farther and take longer for the ball to get to him and longer to develop
But no, lets blame it on the refs...
As far as WTF on the Niners:
-serious bonehead on the motion penalty
-then punt it into the end zone?
-they didn't have another play called and were trying to spike it which would have failed by either running out of time or having a motion penalty called on them which I believe forces time runoff which would end the game
According to the league's official timekeeping, this part is actually what happened. The Cowboys did get the spike play's snap off. Time expired after the snap and before the completion of the spike.
Geoff Schwartz said 16 seconds:
Yep, that's exactly the tweet I saw last night.
Meanwhile, Kyle Shanahan must be breathing a huge sigh of relief because we're talking about Mike McCarthy's coaching incompetence (as we should) instead of Shanahan's. It seemed like the Niners had a quarter and a half to put the game away but just couldn't do it. Sure, Jimmy G yada yada , but it seemed like all the Niners had to do was get a first down or two or a field goal or something and just couldn't manage it.
SF's final punt ranks pretty high on the Surrender Index, btw.
Edit: All that said, the Niners' win probability didn't dip below 75 percent in the second half. So what do I know, right?
Yeah. The QB sneak false start, maybe shifting is overcomplicating a straightforward play, but you also don't call plays based on the fear that your QB won't bother letting guys get set, especially when there's no clock pressure forcing a rushed snap.
But the punt was the wrong call. Granted this is one week after choosing to punt despite the win probability led to the 49ers finishing their comeback against the Rams and making the playoffs. But that punt was the alternative to a desperate 4th and 18 play, not a 4th and 1.
I understand trusting your defense more than trusting Jimmy, but that Niners line should be able to make the push to get 1 yard.
Stephen Jones said he's confident Mike McCarthy will return as head coach. Jerruh could still be pissed off enough to make a change, but if Stephen isn't looking for one, the odds are low that a change is coming.
If it were me, I would entertain other options. The Cowboys seem to regularly play beneath their talent level. And while I think the 49ers earned the lopsided lead they had most of the game, I also don't think the Cowboys challenged the Niners defense as aggressively as it could have.
Why did the Ref need to pick the ball up and move it a quarter of a yard back? I get he had to touch it, but move it? Wasted time.
An article today in The Athletic has some more on this. They point out that, after the Dak run, the line judge and down judge were each standing on the 25 yard line on the two sidelines, indicating the correct position for the ball spot.
The Cowboys offense spotted the ball and lined up at the 24, a full yard ahead of where it was supposed to be.
The umpire moving the ball less than 1 yard back was a concession to the Cowboys in the name of expediency. For the correct spot, he should have moved the ball back the full yard, and forced the Cowboys offense to step back even more. Instead, the sideline officials crept forward to match the umpire's new spot to make it "official".
The refs fudged the spot in Dallas's favor to try and bail them out, and still they get demonized.
And that's why you find a ref and hand him the ball, so he takes it to the right spot, matching the side judges.
If you look at where the ball is before the umpire gets there, it's not even on the 24, it's well past that, more like the 23 1/2.
They were even more than 1 yard ahead of the correct spot.
I've seen Super Bowls that have gotten less talk than this one wild card game.
Some people have been waiting 25 years for another Dallas SF playoff game.
I've seen Super Bowls that have gotten less talk than this one wild card game.
Most super bowls don't end in such spectacularly stupid ways. If you had 31 Super bowls I'd guess 28 to 3 of them would be pretty ho-hum.
If you look at where the ball is before the umpire gets there, it's not even on the 24, it's well past that, more like the 23 1/2.
They were even more than 1 yard ahead of the correct spot.
This picture is actually my favorite part of this whole situation; the umpire is desperately trying to fight through to set the ball so Dallas can get the play off. He's doing everything he can to help, and the Cowboys players are doing everything they can to help themselves lose. It's one of those perfectly symbolic things.
*Legion* wrote:If you look at where the ball is before the umpire gets there, it's not even on the 24, it's well past that, more like the 23 1/2.
They were even more than 1 yard ahead of the correct spot.
This picture is actually my favorite part of this whole situation; the umpire is desperately trying to fight through to set the ball so Dallas can get the play off. He's doing everything he can to help, and the Cowboys players are doing everything they can to help themselves lose. It's one of those perfectly symbolic things.
Pretty much how I saw it also lol.
'guys let me in and do the stuff or your f*cked'.
Icing was what Legion mentioned that they actually got the snap off but spiked the ball to lose.
Kellen Moore is interviewing with the Vikes. I can't be that lucky that he gets the job.
Some people have been waiting 25 years for another Dallas SF playoff game.
Including Troy Aikman
Icing was what Legion mentioned that they actually got the snap off but spiked the ball to lose.
Wow. I just realized they could have actually ran a play and they even blew that chance. But I guess if the plan was to always spike the ball, it's hard to realize that. It was just a terrible execution of a worse plan.
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