musccy said:
You just said the eagles offense was not very explosive. If that's the case, why would you take the chance of shortening the field for them if the 4-1 doesn't work? If their offense isn't very good, then it would appear that you're playing the odds by putting the game in their hands to drive the field.
I'm not saying Sherman doesn't make mistakes...I agree w/ what you say about Green, I'll also point out that it was stupid of the Packers not to have kicked the fg w/ about 25 sec. to go on Sunday, thus giving them more of a shot in the event that the ensuing onside would work...yes, he screws up.
However, I disagree w/ a lot of the justification used when calling for his head. If you go by the book, in that Eagles game, Sherman should have been kicking the fg AND punting on the latter. However, since people aren't satisfied w/ the result, they use the benefits of hindsight to unfairly tear him down (meaning, it's a lot easier to say it was stupid to punt when you now know the end result)
its cool, i expected a lot of feedback for my opinions about this game...living in eagle territory, that game meant so much more to me than anyone could imagine...it does seem like i just contradict sherman's every move (should've kicked when you ran, should've ran when you kicked)...but here's my rationale...
the goal line stand was, i'm guessing sometime before the half, i know the packers were still up at that point, 14-0 i think...this is philadelphia, they want to win and nothing else (any city does but...) the eagle fans are the most rabid when they're ahead, and the most ready to bury the team when they're losing. We're winning by a sizeable amount in their barn, and I've seen instances like this before, you can not give a struggling team's fans motivation to get back in the game...stuffed on 4th and goal, here come the fans and here come the eagles...instead i kick it and go up 17-0, another commercial break, more boo's...bottom line, the goal line stand kickstarted the eagle rally
on the other hand, 4th and short on the eagles' 39...its different from the earlier situation because the pro's outweigh the cons...you're headed to carolina if you as much as lean forward..."you dance with the girl that brought you" is the expression you hear throughout sports, and did smash mouth football get you there, or did your punting game and ed donatell's band of merry men? at home play for the tie, on the road play for the win...another adage that seems like a cleshea most of the time, but held true on that day
and to respond to the arguement..."they stopped us once they'll stop us again"...it was the fourth quarter, after we had amassed some 200+ yards on the eagle defense, they're tired, we're running downhill on these guys at this point. Yes they stopped us on the goal line but with more territory to cover they would have to loosen up and respect Favre's playaction capability to an extent and also the possibility of favre trying to draw us offside, or just taking the delay of game penalty and forcing bidwell to kcik the ball further to reach the goal line on a punt
