hook me

Assuming you're quoting me, but even if not. I'm not assuming Mahomes is scoring a TD since they hadn't done it all game aside from the time they got the ball after the punt hit the 9ers players leg. What I am assuming is that, if it was a viable option, the Chiefs were going to win it or lose it with Mahomes and not their defense, even though their defense had been exceptional all year. Shanahan played for the 3rd possession but the Chiefs never had any intention of letting it get to the 3rd possession. Acting as if Shanahan would go for 2 had they scored a TD is pointless. He wasn't ballsy enough to go for it on 4th and 4 inside the 10 but he was going to be ballsy enough to go for 2? I don't buy it. That said, had Purdy thrown it to Aiyuk on the last drive of the 4th instead of going to Jennings they would have gotten the first down and ran out the rest of the clock and we (probably) wouldn't be having this discussion.

This is the only way taking the ball first makes sense to me unless you're just not worried about the other teams offense at all. Any other option and you're letting the other team have the first crack at winning the game. They may not decide to go for 2 should they only be down by 1 after scoring a TD, but the opportunity is there & every team has a 2 point play or 2 that they can go to & if you just watched your defense give up a TD then that probably influences your decision even more. "But the defense was gassed" - The defense was on the field for less than 2 minutes on the final drive in the 4th. If they were "gassed" it was because they had played an entire game & that wasn't going to change with one drive anyways. Even their 8 minute drive didn't make the defense look any better once they took the field. "The defense had held them in check most of the game" - All the more reason to give them the ball first & not let them have 4 downs to get a first down every time. Also, it's fucking Mahomes, you're not going to keep him down forever. "We would get 1st crack at sudden death IF we were tied" then call a better play on 3rd & 4 and go for it on 4th & 4. Make them drive 50 yards for a long FG or 60 yards for an easier FG but only have 3 downs to do it instead of 4. It was a bad decision in the moment & it's a bad decision now. It looks worse when the Chiefs players said "we talked about the new rules every week" vs the 9er players having no clue. I'm sure Shanahan knew, but the optics are bad when comparing the players. There's no "captain hindsight" here, I was shocked when they made the decision & I was completely unshocked at how it played out (other than them kicking the FG instead of going for it).

A couple of idiots agreed to it, even AFTER watching it backfire.

Exactly. Unless the team with the first possession scores a TD + 2pt. conversion, the second team has the ball with a chance to win first & knowing exactly what they have to do to get there.

And be way less entertaining, eliminate almost all strategy, render an entire phase of the game moot, & completely suck ass. I'm not worried about advantages for or against a certain team, win it in regulation if you're worried about the coin flip. I'm fine with the rules the way they are & actually had no problem with the sudden death format. Straight to 2pt. conversions sounds like ending a basketball game after 4 quarters and having a 3pt. shootout to see who wins.

Most (all?) major soccer tournaments have periods of sudden death before it goes to penalties.

ESPN had the reporting. That's shocking honestly. Looks as if the coaches were still aware, but the players not knowing is surprising. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39511676/49ers-players-say-know-super-bowl-rules

This is why I would still want to be on defense first. Mahomes had 4 downs to get a first down every time because they knew punting wasn't an option. Even after that terrible 1st down that left them in 2nd and 14 instead of 2 and 4 they knew they had 3 downs to get it instead of only 2. That completely changes the play calling and mindset. I understood the "rest the defense" part of the decision for Shanahan, but I would have thought not giving Mahomes 4 downs to get first downs would have outweighed resting your defense. Taking the ball first is a huge advantage if it goes to 3 possessions, but you have to hope that you can actually get to that third possession before you have that advantage.

So the Chiefs aren't getting the 3-peat? Good to know. More Usher? Thank God we dodged that bullet.

I scream at the TV for roughly 4 hours 12 times a year. My wife and daughters don’t get it just like I don’t understand why they smile and say “oh my gosh there she is” every time they show Swift in a suite. My wife has actually wanted me to turn on the playoff games (even the ones sans chiefs) so I’m not complaining and am enjoying the ride while it lasts.

I thought it was pretty obvious what was going on when I bolded the "Aggiest shit ever" portion of your post...

Sark got HIS guy. Was Rod a candidate? Yes. Was O a possibility? My gut says he wouldn't turn down a chance to beat LSU & we had the money to get him here. But if you've been paying attention you'd know that Sark wanted a guy that he knew he could hang onto for a few years to avoid the trouble Saban had at Bama. He saw how difficult it was to have that much staff turnover every year and that's why I think this guy was actually number 1 on the board. So what's he do? He goes and gets an under the radar, up & coming, NFL guy. Make no mistake, people in the Dolphins organization rave, RAVE, about this guy. I had one NFL coordinator reach out to me personally and talk about how this guy is going to be a HC one day. That's how good he is & Sark got him at a discount because he's buying low. This sets up the defensive side nicely because you know what you have in PK, you have a natural successor in Nansen should PK move on, & now you have a guy that can come along after that should he prove himself as capable as what I've been told. Is he going to struggle recruiting? Maybe, but keep in mind the NIL at UT is a huge weapon for every coach & don't be surprised if T-Choice accompanies him when visiting some of the higher profile recruits - at least until he gets his feet under him in that area. All in all this is an B+ hire with a chance for us to look back on it as an A+ here in 3-4 years. It was the best I could do off the top of my head

FIFY

So we go there to get the news & come here to bitch about it & argue with each other? Or do we bitch first, then go get the news, then come back to update our bitching? Or, both?

Surly’s Law. Fuck y'all for that stroll down memory lane.

That's 8-9 wins this year, while you still have a roster of Saban recruits and developed players & you're still allowed to schedule the likes of Mercer. The point of the post wasn't to say that Bama fans have never experienced 8 win seasons, but that it's been 15+ fucking years & once you've been in the penthouse that long you forget what the outhouse is like. It won't be long until you'll start to hear your fanbase say things like "We weren't this bad even during the Shula/Dubose/Perkins regimes" & that's when you'll know you're in the wilderness. You'll long to just be relevant in November again. Bama fans will hope for a mostly competent 8 or 9 win season to show that (insert the name of the coach here) may have finally started to turn the corner. OR DeBoer is THAT dude, I'm living in a fantasy land, & you don't miss a beat except for maybe this year & you quote this post in a few years to mock me. Should be interesting either way it goes.

Whatever wilderness you're claiming is going to look like the Disney Jungle Cruise compared to what you're about to go through. You're only hopes are 1) Deboer can work his magic in < 2 years and get y'all back to competing for SEC championships by 2025 or 2) Saban comes out of retirement before the 2026 season to take it back over and save the program. You're not getting the Saban discount, paying players is now legal, & the team is losing a LOT of talent. We'll see what happens in the Spring portal window but right now you're looking at 8-9 wins (MAYBE) & a lot of shock for Bama fans. It's only going to be more difficult to pull proven coaches so, if Deboer falls flat, you're likely playing P5 coordinator/G5 coach roulette in 3 years &, even if you hit on a good one, good luck stacking the roster the way you have the last 15 years. It's a good thing you got sick of championships because you're not going to have to worry about one for a minute.

lol no. Arky probably won't have a coach by the time we play them, a&m is going to be complete shit this year, FL was awful this year & they have just a tough enough run that they may not have a coach by that time either, UK is the best of that bunch & they got trounced in almost all of their big games last year vs. good teams (UGA, Bama, Mizzou). I don't know that the last 4 games are all that different than the last 4 games from this year. KSU @TCU @ISU TTU a&m & arky are bigger rivalries but KSU would beat all 4 of the teams we end the season with & the rest would probably be about even. Other than UGA, this conference schedule looks as manageable as 2023 was, if not more so. We didn't play a team as bad as Vandy or MSU in 2023 & we get both in 2024

Our coaches aren't even good enough to get mid-level HC jobs? What kind of shitty position coaches is Sark hiring?

aggy replacement on line 1:

Still would. *Me a week after watching that movie for the first time*

What? No. UT, OSU, USC, UGA, UM, LSU, & UO (While PK is alive) are all better jobs than a&m and it's not really close. Then you have the next tier with a lot of teams that are in similar boats as a&m but have actually done something the last 40 years: OU, ND, UF, FSU, Clemson, Bama, Auburn Then the tier that I think a&m is closer to in terms of just how good the job is: UW, PSU, Miami (maybe they belong in the tier above but they've been so bad for so long with no end in sight) A&M has no history, no brand that the general public cares about, is in an ass of a city, is surrounded by & forced to recruit against UT, OU, & LSU, & is currently employing a glorified G5 coaching staff. Could someone theoretically go there & change things? Sure, but that is not an easy fix & the dumpster fire that Jimbo left in his wake makes it even less appealing. If the SEC ever decides to go to a 9 game schedule & eliminate FCS opponents then a&m is going to fall from their 8-4 standard & have to fight to be 6-6 most years. They'll have surprisingly good years every so often, but the trajectory of that program is decidedly pointing down & I'm not sure where it stops.