Can we just put this to bed now?

[teeray]

"have faith in your defense to finish"... I have heard that a lot... but, even with their play yesterday, I would rather RISK the OFFENSE getting a yard, then the Defense from stopping them AT HOME with a HOT QB and a WEAK SECONDARY from getting into FG range.

Are you referring to the "hot QB" and "weak defense" that had held Atlanta to 3 points on their last 4 possessions?!?!? smh

[teeray]

Teeray, I know you saw Norman and Nakamura victimized throughout the game. You're a smart guy. You know what I mean. They both had a couple of splash plays but were repeatedly victimized by Ryan and White. Throughout the entire game.

Once Atlanta got the ball, can you honestly say you thought our secondary would hold up? I mean, the game should have been over one drive earlier when the same duo botched coverage on Jones.

Yes. I didn't think they were going to complete a 60 yard bomb over our safeties head when we are playing deep coverage.

[Mother Grabber]

I lost hope when they reset the play clock to 25 seconds instead of 40.

I'm sure it's a rule, but if so it's a dumb rule. falcs got 15 extra seconds.

I didn't like that either. That extra 15sec is huge, especially when you consider that they ended their last play with 10sec left. Even with the successful bomb, they still would have had to make a 50+ FG to win, if we'd had the whole playclock of time burned off.

[PanthersAlv]

Are you referring to the "hot QB" and "weak defense" that had held Atlanta to 3 points on their last 4 possessions?!?!? smh

Yes I am.

Maybe I should have said "weak secondary" because the line stepped up. But, if you watched that game... 3 points is all they needed.. and well.. they got it... so that's 6 points in their last 5 possessions, and a W.

game over

End of Story... those 3 points... lost the game.

[SZ James (banned)]

Damn this kind of stuff is proof that hindsight sure ain't 20/20

[Sloth]

Yes. I didn't think they were going to complete a 60 yard bomb over our safeties head when we are playing deep coverage.

Yeah, me either. I figured they'd march down 12 to 15 yards a pop and kick a 40 something yarder to finish out.

[Happy Panther]

Meh...

http://espn.go.com/b...de-wrong-choice

Yas says...

More info in the article.

but, he pretty much states that the it was the wrong decision... then, at the end says "But I think punting was the right call".

this proves that no one will be happy. Even with stats to back it up.

I will forever feel that was the wrong call.

To calculate the win probability with the Panthers punting, ESPN Stats & Information used data since 2001 to get the net punt average of 31 yards for all punts between the 40- and 50-yard lines. This means the expected field position of the Falcons after the punt (and delay of game penalty) is their own 19-yard line. This situation (Falcons with first-and-10 from their 19, with 59 seconds left in the fourth quarter, etc.) would give the Panthers a win probability of 57.4 percent.

I wonder if it takes into account no timeouts.

Seems specious.

[nobody]

So basicly trust the offense to get 1 tough yard or have our defense hold fr 1 minute.

To me its which one do you trust more. We should have gone for it and said that our guys had to hold 20 yards for 1 minute.

I would also say the fact we were in that situation because of coaching again is getting old

[thatlookseasy]

Yeah, me either. I figured they'd march down 12 to 15 yards a pop and kick a 40 something yarder to finish out.

This. I fully expected the Falcons to win once I saw the punting unit on the field, though downing it at the 1 gave me a little hope we could stop them.

To be honest, I think they still would have won if they missed that 60 yard pass. Its not like they had any problem finding wide open receivers on the outside (the last play they ran on that drive was a 15 yard pass to a wide open WR next to the sideline)

[Argus Plexus]

It was the wrong decision. Fact.

[raleigh-panther]

Because coaches aren't the ones on the field deciding the game?

Each decision had a likelihood of failing.

Each decision has a probabilty of failing and the impact of the failure is what is evaluated in a traditional risk assessment.

Neither the offense or the defense seems capable to me of 'the play' when needed so as much as I wanted the Panthers to go for it, the outcome probably would have been the same.

If there is one positive, it was special teams....wasted though it was, been a long time since the punter and special teams executed that down on the 1 yard line when it was needed.

I'm just disgusted by all of it at the moment.

As said in another thread, surely there is someone in the United States capable of playing in the Panthers' defensive backfield.

[carolina-chuck]

our coaches just sucks

[toldozer]

Ive been pissed about the decision since it was made, but here is the fact. We had 5 or 6 plays in the last minute that if we took care of business on ONE just ONE of those plays we win. 1 out of 6 and we couldn't get it done. I still think the call was wrong, but not the reason we lost. Ive been disgusted for a day now its time to move on to, seattle. Were gonna beat that ass like a drum.

[the_philosopher]

I'm inclined to agree with the team's decision to punt in that situation, but the OP's stat does little if anything to justify it. It's a misleading statistic. First a minor issue: we don't know if enough teams have actually been in the Falcons' situation in the last 20 years (i.e., inside 5, under a minute, no timeouts) for it to be statistically significant that no team in the last 20 years has scored in that situation . But a bigger problem for that logic is that even if it is statistically unlikely to score in that situation (and I expect it is), it doesn't at all follow that it was better (statistically speaking) to punt in that situation. It would first of all have to be rather likely that you would get a punt downed inside the 5 for that stat to even be pertinent.

Let me put my point succinctly as follows. I'd bet that the percentage of teams who have gone for it on 4th and 1 in that sort of situation and have gotten a first down than is higher than the percentage of teams who have punted it in that sort of situation and downed it inside the 5. If I'm right, then the OP's stat does little if anything to justify the decision to punt.