NFL GDT: 2023 NFC Championship Game: (1) San Francisco 49ers vs (3) Detroit Lions

[Donnie740]

1.) the kicker did give a reason not to trust him. In fact they had cut the kicker and wanted to move on because he wasn’t good enough. The issue is that the replacement guy was even worse so they had to bring him back partway through the season. The reason he was on the team is because he was the least bad of the bad options they had.

2.) “you have to trust your kicker” isn’t a coherent position to take unless you’re also saying “you have to trust your QB” and “you have to trust your WR”
“You have to trust your kicker” also doesn’t square with “making decisions based on the flow of the game and the situation in the moment”

3.) I don’t understand the appeal to authority by quoting former players and talking about video games. Campbell isn’t some 35 year old stat nerd whose qualifications are an advanced math degree and a bunch of playing madden. He’s been a football guy his entire life with a decade long playing career and now nearly a decade and a half of coaching. He’s a football dudes football dude.

As a collective, nobody knows the game better than players, coaches and GMs. But that doesn’t mean they’re immune from individually making dumb decisions from time to time.

The degree to how vociferously the collective agrees or disagrees with a decision will tell you how brilliant or how stupid it is. And EVERYONE of them was astonished at Dan Campbell’s brutal decisions.

Pete Carroll - - a far better football mind than Dan Campbell - - made a horrifically bad decision that cost his team a repeat championship. Once again, everyone from said collective was adamant that it was a terrible decision.

Andy Reid - - another far better football mind than Dan Campbell - - made an inexplicable decision to acquire Kadarius Toney.The collective ranged from meh to complementary about it.

But Toney’s dropped passes and careless formation penalty gave Andy Reid reason to not trust him. As a result, Toney is now benched and essentially off the team.

Badgely made every single FG this year since he returned to the Lions including a 54yd kick in the wild card. Maybe he worked on his technique while he was out of football. Maybe he worked on his mental toughness while he was out of football. So you have to trust him until he proves otherwise.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

I think the 4th down calls are overly aggressive for the situation but somewhat defensible. His worst call was that final drive before the failed onside kick. Pretty much all of it. They ate way too much clock instead of just going for a field goal once they were in range regardless of the odds because you need it anyway. The 3rd down and goal play where they ran the ball and got stuffed and were forced to use a timeout was the worst of the decisions.

 

[Romang67]

Dorktown also understands probability.

 

[Donnie740]