Play Calling

Check this out. We pick off Brees at their 30yd line with about 50 seconds left in the game. Portis finally gets 9 yds on one run. Wait a minute, penalty. A 10yd penalty puts the ball at the 40yd. line. Do we throw the ball or just let Portis carry this team on his shoulders since he dropped the team last week ? Yes, Portis runs no gain. He runs again. Third down, no one is open and Brunell runs out of bounds. Why Gibbs why? Why Don Breaux why? Why give the ball away to the third team to beat us on a raggedy fourth quarter decision?

Neither the running or passing game were sharp in the 2nd half. With enough time on the clock for San Diego to go score, Portis ran the ball in order to run the clock down and hopefully get yardage. Those were good calls in my book. Then, on 3rd and long, we try to pass the ball to get into field goal range. Another good call.

So, my question is, what exactly was wrong with those calls?

Oh great. We made history today. The Giants, Cowboys and Redskins loss today which is the first time that three teams in the same division loss by three points. Who gives a f#$k.
We lost by 6.

Neither the running or passing game were sharp in the 2nd half. With enough time on the clock for San Diego to go score, Portis ran the ball in order to run the clock down and hopefully get yardage. Those were good calls in my book. Then, on 3rd and long, we try to pass the ball to get into field goal range. Another good call.

So, my question is, what exactly was wrong with those calls?
1-10-SD31 (1:04) C.Portis to SD 25 for 6 yards (B.Jue, D.Florence).
2-4-SD25 (:55) C.Portis right end to SD 25 for no gain (L.Castillo).
PENALTY on WAS-C.Rabach, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at SD 25 - No Play.
2-14-SD35 (:50) C.Portis left end to SD 35 for no gain (R.Godfrey).
3-14-SD35 (:40) M.Brunell pass incomplete to C.Cooley (S.Merriman).
4-14-SD35 (:35) J.Hall 52 yard field goal is No Good, Wide Right, Center-E.Albright, Holder-D.Frost.

From the 35 you are already out of FG range, why are you running the ball instead of running a short pass? No gain leads to 3rd and long which plays right into the defenses hands.. On 2nd and 4 from the 25 why not throw a quick slant to Moss or Jacobs or a quick out to Cooley? Get the 1st, get a few more yds.. The mentality of 'playing it safe' is exactly why we have lost the past 3 games.

1-10-SD31 (1:04) C.Portis to SD 25 for 6 yards (B.Jue, D.Florence).
2-4-SD25 (:55) C.Portis right end to SD 25 for no gain (L.Castillo).
PENALTY on WAS-C.Rabach, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at SD 25 - No Play.
2-14-SD35 (:50) C.Portis left end to SD 35 for no gain (R.Godfrey).
3-14-SD35 (:40) M.Brunell pass incomplete to C.Cooley (S.Merriman).
4-14-SD35 (:35) J.Hall 52 yard field goal is No Good, Wide Right, Center-E.Albright, Holder-D.Frost.

From the 35 you are already out of FG range, why are you running the ball instead of running a short pass.. No gain leads to 3rd and long which plays right into the defenses hands.. On 2nd and 4 from the 25 why not throw a quick slant to Moss or Jacobs or a quick out to Cooley? Get the 1st, get a few more yds.. The mentality of 'playing it safe' is exactly why we have lost the past 3 games.

I think you should have put the penalty in bold. That was huge. The point of that drive was to control the ball, run the clock down and kick a game-winning field goal. Rabach's hold sort of messed up those plans

I think you should have put the penalty in bold. That was huge. The point of that drive was to control the ball, run the clock down and kick a game-winning field goal. Rabach's hold sort of messed up those plans
I agree, change made in my post, but you reinforced my point.. When that penalty occured, you can't run the ball again on 2nd and 14! You have to adjust your plans to the situation. We hadn't been successful running all day, what was going to change on that play. Conversly, Brunell had a QB rating over 100, was completing the short passes (when Royal wasn't dropping them) and getting protection.. We needed 7-10 yds on 2nd and 14. That would have made the difference on the kick.

I agree, change made in my post, but you reinforced my point.. When that penalty occured, you can't run the ball again on 2nd and 14! You have to adjust your plans to the situation. We hadn't been successful running all day, what was going to change on that play. Conversly, Brunell had a QB rating over 100, was completing the short passes (when Royal wasn't dropping them) and getting protection.. We needed 7-10 yds on 2nd and 14. That would have made the difference on the kick.

I don't think our passing game was exactly top notch. In fact, it was downright awful in the 4th quarter. In the 4th quarter Brunell dropped back 7 times and completed just 2 passes for 15 yards (that's just 2.1 yards per pass). Portis wasn't doing well either; he ran for 36 yards on 13 carries (that's just 2.8 yards per carry). The bottom line is neither the running or passing game was working.

Had Brunell gone 3 and out, people would be screaming for Gibbs' head. In my opinion, Gibbs made the right call, it just didn't turn out right.

I agree, change made in my post, but you reinforced my point.. When that penalty occured, you can't run the ball again on 2nd and 14! You have to adjust your plans to the situation. We hadn't been successful running all day, what was going to change on that play. Conversly, Brunell had a QB rating over 100, was completing the short passes (when Royal wasn't dropping them) and getting protection.. We needed 7-10 yds on 2nd and 14. That would have made the difference on the kick.

I totally agree here and the playcalling was the topic of a post I made earlier today. Especially after the hold when you have 2nd and 14 why not throw and underneath route to Cooley. Hell for that matter we even had moderate success with medium routes down the field to Moss and Jacobs. I think the whole game Brunell had been sacked maybe twice and for the most part, had not been under the gun. Running on 2nd and 14 made no sense to me at all. I thought the 1st half play calling was much better with a better mix of the pass and run, plus we were spreading the passes around and using all our receivers (even Royal, who couldn't catch a cold today!). I just think that our problem for the past three weeks we don't know how to hold a lead, and IMHO the best way to hold a lead is to always play like your 3 to 6 points behind and play to score every time. Don't be happy with just running the clock down or 'winning the battle for field position'. As I've understood the game, the team with the most points wins.

I posted this earlier, but the 4th quarter passing game was averaging just 2.1 yards per attempt. The running game, which was also suffering, was averaging 2.8 yards per attempt.

If we had passed two more times and come up with incompletions or sacks and Hall had missed the FG by 4 yards, people would've been screaming at Gibbs for not running the ball and getting a few more yards. The 53-yarder was a tough, but makeable kick.

I posted this earlier, but the 4th quarter passing game was averaging just 2.1 yards per attempt. The running game, which was also suffering, was averaging 2.8 yards per attempt.

If we had passed two more times and come up with incompletions or sacks and Hall had missed the FG by 4 yards, people would've been screaming at Gibbs for not running the ball and getting a few more yards. The 53-yarder was a tough, but makeable kick.

or you could say that we were averaging 7.5 yds per completion and a 7 or 8 yard completion on second and 14 would have led to a 3rd and 7 or 6 yds to go and while being somewhat difficult is a heck of a lot easier than 3rd and 14 with the SD front four teeing of and wanting Brunell blood. The 53 yd FG for Hall was tough but makeable for this guy a year ago, but a real stretch for him this year especially after the leg injury that kept him out for about half the season.

While I acknowledge your point RF, it still doesn't sway me from my stance that our playcalling was defeatist and non-agressive in the second half and I think that was as much the cause of our losing today as lack of execution.

I totally agree here and the playcalling was the topic of a post I made earlier today. Especially after the hold when you have 2nd and 14 why not throw and underneath route to Cooley. Hell for that matter we even had moderate success with medium routes down the field to Moss and Jacobs. I think the whole game Brunell had been sacked maybe twice and for the most part, had not been under the gun. Running on 2nd and 14 made no sense to me at all. I thought the 1st half play calling was much better with a better mix of the pass and run, plus we were spreading the passes around and using all our receivers (even Royal, who couldn't catch a cold today!). I just think that our problem for the past three weeks we don't know how to hold a lead, and IMHO the best way to hold a lead is to always play like your 3 to 6 points behind and play to score every time. Don't be happy with just running the clock down or 'winning the battle for field position'. As I've understood the game, the team with the most points wins.

Well it seem I should have started the SCARED TO WIN! thread a week later, I probably wouldn't have recieved as much flack this week.

Yea but what else is new, Gibbs has been calling games since he came out of retirement as if the world is going to end if he actually does something other than a routine running play late in the forth quarter, I am tired of hearing about the complaining about the refs, Gibbs allows them to be a factor late in the game with his play calling, and lack of killer instinkt to close teams out.

Just like last week, and the week before that, Gibbs went to the apple of his eye with the game on the line and failed again, I guess he hasen't figured out yet that we can't run the ball when the game is on the line, I guess he believes Portis is Tomlinson, Alexander, Barber, all who had huge runs with the game in the balance today, but to be fair to Portis I put most of the blame on Gibbs for not having the sense to not call his number.

But I guess all said and done running the ball there was the right move, just like last week, and the week before that, it really seems to be working out well. :biggthump