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I don’t understand the play calling on the last series. At 3rd and 14 from the 44, you have to view that play as getting some yards on something underneath to give you options on 4th down, either attempting a long FG (which with Maher is probably not an option) or making 4th down a more realistic “go for it” situation. I don’t understand punting in that situation even though it is 4th and 14 with the fact that you only have 1 timeout remaining. With three timeouts, yes, you punt but with one timeout and the opponent only needing two first downs to win, does it really matter that the Lions have the ball at the 10 or 44?

That close up of McVay as the clock was running down when the Lions was in victory formation. Exactly the same lost/introspective look that McVay got when he got trampled by BB in the Superbowl. Maybe I'm glad this happened.

McVay will learn from this and I bet 4th qtrs never look like this again. He knows he blew it with the calls in the 4th qtr and he knows time management wrecked his plans.

We'll see.

Wasn’t heartbreaking. Played hard. Lost by a point. This team achieved about as much as they could with the resources they had. Most had them as a 5 win team. They were a WC team (and the only WC loser to even remotely compete so far).

majik wrote:I don’t understand the play calling on the last series. At 3rd and 14 from the 44, you have to view that play as getting some yards on something underneath to give you options on 4th down, either attempting a long FG (which with Maher is probably not an option) or making 4th down a more realistic “go for it” situation. I don’t understand punting in that situation even though it is 4th and 14 with the fact that you only have 1 timeout remaining. With three timeouts, yes, you punt but with one timeout and the opponent only needing two first downs to win, does it really matter that the Lions have the ball at the 10 or 44?

After the game, Stafford was second-guessing his own decision-making on the 3rd and 14 play, thinking he might have had time to find somebody else who wasn't as deep. So, yeah.

And McVay regretted his decision to punt on 4th. So, yeah.

Those things weren't lost on anybody. Good points.

It was close. So close. And yet from the time the game started, to me this didn't feel like a game we were going to win. I was nervous and discombobulated all the way through.

Nah...nowhere near a Super Bowl loss. And not as bad as the Giants in 1984, the Foreskins in 1983, the Cowgirls in 1978, the Whiners in 1989...

This team way overachieved, so totally not a SB loss.

It was painful in that we had opportunities to win this game. McVay def needs to look into mirror when inside the 10 yard line.

Kupp is a shell of himself, hope he can get right in the offseason.

Not sure what defense we tried to play against Jared in first 1/2 but finally got more aggressive in 2nd half.

Unfortunately the lack of a real pass rush ( and tackling) reared its ugly head.

However the future looks very bright. Ra will get an HC job so another 3rd rounder this year with 3 more comps coming and a full draft picks except 4th. Pick well, find new quality coaches ( some will go) and sign a few key vets.

Draft edge , Cb , lT , edge , ilb

rams74 wrote:After the game, Stafford was second-guessing his own decision-making on the 3rd and 14 play, thinking he might have had time to find somebody else who wasn't as deep. So, yeah.

And McVay regretted his decision to punt on 4th. So, yeah.

Those things weren't lost on anybody. Good points.

It was close. So close. And yet from the time the game started, to me this didn't feel like a game we were going to win. I was nervous and discombobulated all the way through.

Very similar for me, felt like we were gonna lose from the get go yet it's been such a charmed season, somehow i figured we'd pull out a win, kinda felt both things the whole game.

On the other stuff, Stafford said:

“Part of me is like, ‘Man, is there a chance to hold on to the ball a little bit longer and try to get something underneath, but man,we’re playing aggressive, we’re trying to win the game.”

I'm okay with being aggressive and trying to win the game. Puka was held, interfered with and almost made the catch, can't say it was a bad decision by Stafford.

McVay:

“The way our defense was playing, we’d hoped we’d get a shot, hindsight is 20-20 and I certainly regret that decision now.”

Don't think you need hindsight on this one.

OTOH, i was okay with being conservative at the end of the first half. Detroit had all of their timeouts and i didn't want to see the Rams punting out of their own endzone.

Side note, special teams did not lose this game. Maybe if it had come down to a kick at the end they would have but it came down to defense, redzone, stuff like that...

“The way our defense was playing, we’d hoped we’d get a shot, hindsight is 20-20 and I certainly regret that decision now.”

I sort of read this as .. yeah, go ahead and say I should have gone for it, if you want .. I won't disagree with you, and I'm definitely not going to stand here and posture defensively why I did it. A lot of coaches fall into that trap and that leads to columns like "A testy McVay defended his decision to punt bla bla bla."

I expected to lose most of the game but allowed myself to get sucked in at 24-20 approaching the goal line. I felt they needed to eat up all of the clock in taking the lead at the end or we were going to see end of Seattle / Giants games again.

Also - confetti, seriously, for a wild card win. Some franchises just behave like loser franchises. That's something a loser franchise does. It's like the Saints framing Hakim's muffed punt return in their building back in the day. Good job, the high water mark of your franchise is another team's unforced error.

majik wrote:I don’t understand the play calling on the last series. At 3rd and 14 from the 44, you have to view that play as getting some yards on something underneath to give you options on 4th down, either attempting a long FG (which with Maher is probably not an option) or making 4th down a more realistic “go for it” situation. I don’t understand punting in that situation even though it is 4th and 14 with the fact that you only have 1 timeout remaining. With three timeouts, yes, you punt but with one timeout and the opponent only needing two first downs to win, does it really matter that the Lions have the ball at the 10 or 44?

Exactly what I said. Perfect post.

Elvis wrote:Tough loss for sure but i'd rank it more like Atlanta at the Coliseum in 2017.

Painful yes, winnable yes but in the end, this team overachieved...

I was there at that game.