Robinson should have been allowed the TD Monday

[PackinSteel]

I told my wife this as soon as the play was over - Robinson should have been left to make the endzone on that last Vikings pass play Monday. Why? Then the Vikes would not have been in control of the clock. Sure after the PAT the Packers would have had only :50 left on the clock but as it was they never touched the ball again. It's not out of the question that the Packers could have moved the ball down the field and tied the game back up. Better than having no chance at all right?

Now, I'm not going to say the defender (Horton) was wrong to tackle the guy. But you'd think this might be a scenario that should be discussed for the future.

Surprised we didn't hear the same from Al Michaels - he's usually on top of odd clock management situations like that.

 

[cdnpackfan]

That's exactly what I said to my dad, and he agreed. I was like as strange as it sounds and I never like to see teams lay down ...but if we wanna chance to win, maybe we should let him score. It's good I guess to see the players finish the play and make the tackle, but you're right, we would have at least had time to attempt to comeback rather than have Minny waste time and kick the FG (and have TO's if they needed them).

 

[Greg C.]

Good point. When Robinson broke free, I was hoping he would score. This type of situation comes up fairly often in football, but it's rare for a defense to allow a deliberate score, especially on a play where the offense was not in scoring position to begin with. The defender would have to say to himself, "Okay, now that they're in easy field goal range and are going to run out the clock and kick a field goal, I might as well let him score." On the other side, it is rare to see an offensive player take a knee in that situation.

The most famous example of letting a team score was in the Super Bowl that the Packers lost to Denver, when Holmgren ordered the defense to allow the TD at the end. It didn't work. But allowing the Broncos to run out the clock and essentially kick an extra point to win the game would have had even less chance of success.

 

[wpr]

The guy next to me in the stands was saying the same thing. "Let him score." His buddy pointed out the Super Bowl incident as well.
Since we were on the south in of the stands and the play was all the way across the field from us we have a bad perspective. It looked to me like Robinson slowed down and moved to the center of the field. Was he still running hard are was he willing to let time run off the clock once he got down there?

 

[vikefan]

I was screaming for the Packer to tackle Robinson. I didn't want Farve to have one second left on the clock!

 

[IPBprez]

That's exactly what I said to my dad, and he agreed. I was like as strange as it sounds and I never like to see teams lay down ...but if we wanna chance to win, maybe we should let him score. It's good I guess to see the players finish the play and make the tackle, but you're right, we would have at least had time to attempt to comeback rather than have Minny waste time and kick the FG (and have TO's if they needed them).

Good example on this tactic - is the game between the Patriots and the Broncos, a couple of seasons ago.... Bill Belicheck let...., yes - I said "let"..... Mike Shanahan get his safety against the Pats.. but then used the time on the clock to go back down and score a TD - taking the game... While Mike Shanahan was pretty full of himself, for a bit.. it didn't last long and Belicheck walked home with the Victory.

Every Head Coach out there should have that page in their Playbook....

 

[sixone220]

i figured i wasn't the only one screaming to let him score. i think mn realized how lucky they were and decided not to run and give the D the chance to let them run it in.

 

[NDPackerFan]

I just wish Horton would have played the right damn coverage DAMMIT!!!!

Anyway, I agree that Robinson should have been allowed to score but you could always counter that...KR could have run the ball to the 2 yard line or so and laid down and the result would have been the same.

 

[all about da packers]

That is what I thought too after Robinson caught the ball. But I think Horton is so inexperienced that he didn't even think of something like that. Just goes to show Horton should never have been out there in the first place.