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Week 10 was by no means the most exciting week of football this season. Last Sunday saw blowout after blowout, but not all of the games last week sucked. Cincy vs Blitzburgh was close the whole way and San Fran vs NYG was a lot of fun, but hands down, the best game of the week was the Saints vs the Falcons. I briefly talked about the big matchup in last week’s article, highlighting that the winner would take the lead in the NFC South. Just as we all suspected, the game was extremely close throughout and for the 4th time in a row, the winner of this division matchup was decided by a field goal.
Drew Brees and Matt Ryan are 2 of the best QBs in the league, and both showcased their skill sets last weekend. They combined for almost 700 yards, 4 TDs and only 1 INT. The Saints offence was efficient as always, but the Atlanta D refused to allow the game to turn into a blowout. New Orleans put up 23 points in 60 minutes, which for their high caliber offence is actually pretty pedestrian. Brees spread the ball to 9 different players including 3 running backs and 1 random fullback named Jed Collins. Drew Brees continued both of his streaks of consecutive games with 20+ completions and 1 TD: SWAG. As good as Brees played, Atlanta’s “Matty Ice” had a great game of his own. Ryan threw the only INT of the game, but refused to lose. Matt Ryan never gave up on his team and led a very impressive comeback to tie the game in the final minutes and force a very controversial overtime.
People have been talking about the NO-ATL game all week, but for the wrong reason. In OT, Atlanta’s coach decided to go for broke on 4th and inches from his own 30 yard line. This is one thing I don’t like about NFL “Experts” and the media: if the Falcons convert on 4th down and go on to win the game, Mike Smith gets nominated for coach of the year and everyone talks about how gigantic his balls are, but if they don’t make it, he looks like an idiot and gets crucified for not having any faith in his team. On 4th and inches, Atlanta lined up in their “Big” formation and everyone knew it was going to be a power run up the middle. Many people have a problem with the obvious play call and I would usually agree that you can’t pick such an obvious play, but in this situation, I agreed with Mike Smith and his call. The Falcons running back, Michael Turner, went to the Pro Bowl last year and has been having a good year so far. He weighs 245 lbs and has thighs larger than my torso. WHY WOULD YOU NOT RUN UP THE MIDDLE WITH HIM!?!?!? If the Saints tried to jam it up the gut with 180 lb Darren Sproles, that would be a terrible play call, but to try and get 3 or 4 inches by pounding it up the middle with a small truck is the right decision. The Saints D really stepped it up and managed to stuff the play in the backfield, effectively winning the game. Mike Smith has been blamed all week for making a “bonehead” decision, but 80% of coaches would have made the exact same call.
The 2 main things that people are upset about are the play call and the decision to go for it. First off, any coach who doesn’t believe his 5-3 team can get 3 or 4 inches doesn’t deserve to coach in the NFL and should consider a career in synchronized swimming or some other soft shit. Why would you punt the ball to one of the elite QBs in the league and let him embarrass your team in OT? Smith made the right decision to go for it on 4th down, no doubt. The better argument people have been making is that the play call set the offense up for failure before they even snapped the ball. I’m not even going to waste time explaining why throwing the ball or trying a misdirection play wouldn’t have worked in this situation, so lets talk about the only option that was better than Michael Turner up the middle: Matty Ice calling his own number and QB sneaking. Had Ryan ran the sneak, there’s probably an 80% chance he gets the first down, so why wouldn’t coach Mike Smith call that play? Think about the procedure of a QB sneak: the QB has to dive over the linemen head first against guys who HEAVILY outweigh him looking to knock his head off. Like I said, the chances that Ryan converts on 4th and inches is probably 80%, but the chance that he suffers a concussion (or worse) on a play where the entire D is crashing the middle trying to clog those gaps is far too high for the play to pay off. For anyone who’s thinking, “No, that’s stupid. This is the NFL, no one’s that much of a bitch,” think about this: the QB has the right to audible any call he wants. If Ryan thought that sneaking was going to get them the first down and wasn’t aware of the dangers of the play, why didn’t he audible to call his own number and dive for the first?
The point of my rant is that Mike Smith made the right decision. If you can’t get 3 or 4 inches on 4th down, you really don’t even deserve to win the game. Also, the decision to pound it up the middle with Turner was the right call, because it carried the least amount of risk of a horrible play or injury to your franchise player.
Next week the Saints have a bye, so I won’t be writing about New Orleans. However, I’ve been thinking about next week’s article and I must say, it’s gonna be a good one. Some things to look forward to: Texans’ bad luck, WTF Ravens, Aaron Rodgers and his inflated stats, and the Rookies of the Year.
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