Fox and this game

I really don't blame Fox for the loss, I feel like it was more on the players, but there were three things I didn't like: the TO on the blocked FG, the strategy at the end of the first half that got us burned and the punt with 4 minutes or so left. I have the bigger problems with the strategy, especially throwing on second and third down, and the punt (even though it was third and low percentage). edit: I meant to say 4th and low percentage.

So anyhow, Fox says he called TO on that FG because he thought we had 12 men on the field. If there were 12 guys out there it was the right call.

I looked, and can't even find but ten in the picture. Can anyone else look? My TV/DVD doesn't have great resolution on pause. I'm curious about that.

But on the strategy after they'd kick the FG to make it 10-3, under two minutes to go in the half, I disagreed with at the time. And then I found a quote from him that really pissed me off:

Instead, the defensive touchdown tied the game at 10-10 and Fox was asked after the game why he didn’t run the football in that situation.

“We get criticized when we run it. We get criticized when we pass it, so maybe we’ll start punting it,” Fox said. “The key is whether it works or not and obviously (that play) didn’t work.”

http://www.carolinagrowl.com/Read.aspx?Story=749

Can't bear to look at much more but while chasing the blocked FG sequence, a btw: just prior to that Davis was called for PI to give them a 1st down, the WR initiated the contact, plain as day. He got fucked on that deal. Didn't hurt us point wise, but cost some minutes of game time.

 

run it there and the vikings call timeout and get the ball back. Passing the ball is a sound philosophy there, we should've done just that. If Delhomme gets that ball out to Smitty, we're rolling.

Didn't happen that way, and while our play and letdown was apprehensible, that particular play for whoever you blame was a solid idea.


And yeah, Davis got hosed on that play. We held on D, which was surprising given the time of the drive and how we'd been beaten down the field.

 

What is the saying? Three things can happen when you put the ball in the air and two are bad? Probably more than three are bad, I know the clock stopping on an incomplete in that situation is bad too, in case you have to give the ball back. What if he missed Smitty? Clock stops again, they haven't used a timeout, they're still able to try to score.

I honestly don't recall if they had all their timeouts left, I'm thinking two. The 2 minute warning was already given, so no stoppage for that. I favored conservative, gain a few yards or not on 2nd and third down, use our weapon, Baker, and make them go 40 yards in a minute with no timeouts, works for me. Maybe then we'd have been the ones to get a turnover, or they'd have been content to run it out.

 

That is truly astonishing, and it pisses me off. I wouldn't expect the head coach of an NFL franchise to be such a whining, pissy little bitch. I'm tired of Fox's excuses and I'm tired of his complacency. This team needs regime change, not because we lost to Minnesota but because of what I've seen from Fox over the last year.

I couldn't disagree more. Running the ball was clearly the better move and is what teams do 90% of the time in that situation. In fact, I had just typed "here comes the draw" when the ball was snapped. Yes, Minnesota would have gotten the ball back but they had shown little ability to sustain a drive at that point, and you don't expose yourself to unnecessary risk deep in your opponent's territory with a minute left in the half.

 

I was staunchly opposed to the fire Fox crew, but yes he's getting on my bad side with some of his stuff.

 

we were at our own 29.
Running a draw with 1:17 to go is safe, but trying to make a drive happen is realistic and not at all over-aggressive. It's a play we didn't execute right - another half second and the ball's out to Smith, or if he'd been looking right, Muhammad was wide open on the right side. We had an opportunity, but we squandered it.

Running a draw there is the safe thing to do and that's fine, I'd as rather have taken the lead into the locker room and no one would state otherwise. Passing the ball to get another play, going into typical 2 minute mode where we've had a fair bit of success this season already, seemed to me at the time a no-brainer and certainly on average the better call.


I also disagree with the idea of that statement being "whining". I've heard hundreds of coaches say pretty much exactly that - you can second guess the call, but the end result is you have to make your call work.

 

At best, that was a very unprofessional comment by Fox.

If we're actually modifying our gameplan based on what retard fans think, then yeah, we might need to start looking at changing coaches.

 

It's not the right call. It's a risky move when you're leading and nowhere near scoring points of your own. As noted, teams will almost always run in that situation. Sometimes they won't even pass if they're trailing by 7 deep in their own territory, much less leading.

The incomprehensible thing is in calling a pass "no-brainer" when no one else sees it that way. What is it about you that you feel compelled to argue against the consensus? Is it really a way to make yourself feel superior to others, like you know better than they do? It's bizarre. You can legitimately say that you agreed with the call, but saying that passing was a "no brainer" is absurd. Again, teams almost always try to run out the clock in that situation. Clearly they don't agree with you about passing it being a "no brainer."

Thank goodness the world doesn't depend on you acknowledging the obvious. It clearly is whining when a coach says, "We get criticized when we run it. We get criticized when we pass it, so maybe we’ll start punting it." That's obviously petulant, so don't waste anyone else's time by pretending otherwise. I'm not saying that you can't believe that it's not whining if you want to, because I don't care what you think, but it really would be best if you spared the rest of us any insincere argument along those lines.

If you really want to argue this instead of just pretending you never said anything (I advise the latter), then find me some NFL head coaches who have said anything close to that. Don't respond if you're not going to find something to back up that statement.

 

How does Delhomme not see the corner coming? At the end of the day, that's the bottom line. We didnt run on that play, but we didnt execute on the pass, it was the game changing play that the Panthers never recovered from.

 

I don't think I am ready to call for his head yet but that is clearly whining.

The fact is this team has one two games despite the gameday coaching. The last time I remember a coach doing something to help win a game was Henning against Atlanta in 06.