I hope you know by now what we do here. If not, you’ll figure it out quickly. There was a lot of mismanagement this weekend, so let’s not waste words in the intro. First, though, I will briefly highlight what was good about the coaching/strategy decisions on Saturday and Sunday.
First of all, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and/or Happy whatever-else-they-celebrated. Mrs. FnB and I were in Pittsburgh for the weekend with my family and flew back to Orlando on Christmas morning to spend time with hers. Travel tip for anyone who hates lines or people: fly somewhere at 7:40am on Christmas morning. It’s spectacularly easy.
While in the ‘Burgh, I went to a bar near Heinz Field to take in the Steeler game among many fellow yinzers. The disappointment in watching this year’s edition of the black and gold is possibly unparalleled in my time as a Steeler fan. A small part of that disappointment is Mike Tomlin, whose decision making has been questionable at best and amazingly stupid at worst. As you’ll recall, I debuted this new feature last week and will continue it here, beginning with the Super Bowl of Bad Coaching between Mr. Tomlin and Marvin Lewis.
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, Part I
The Situation
13:16 remaining, 2nd quarter; Cincinnati has a 2nd-and-2 at its own 28
Andy Dalton completes a short pass to A.J. Green near the left sideline. It appears that Green steps out of bounds prior to reaching for a first down but is granted the first down spot.
Welcome to a new feature I’m beginning here at FnB – one that I’ve already created a new category and menu for (under “Thoughts” on the main header). If you’re reading this blog, I’m going to assume you’re all astute football watchers like me. Since you are, you probably often find yourself asking questions in the form of, “why would [insert coach’s name here] do [insert dumb action here] when he clearly should have done [insert logical action here]?”
If this does indeed describe you, this new series is right up your alley. In this space, I’m going to highlight the dumb things coaches and teams do when there’s a perfectly logical alternative option. I’ll try to avoid playcalling issues because I’m not in the film room all week creating a strategy so who am I to question a play call?
What I will highlight is poor timeout usage, poor clock management, poor game management, bad challenges, and basically anything else Andy Reid or Romeo Crennel would do. You’ll get the idea.
