To me, I have the clock stopped at 35 seconds and I'm at 2nd & 10 on the 24 yard line. Either way you're looking at about three offensive plays remaining in the game. I just happen to think that the chances of punching the ball into the end zone from the 24 yard line on two plays, and then running ONE successful offensive play from midfield which gives you a chance at a long kick...has more chance for success than kicking a successful 42 yarder and then completing a hail mary from 45+ yards out. The way I look at it, you recover an onside kick around the 50 yard line most times and the play takes roughly 5 seconds. The Dolphins recovered an onside kick against the Jets on the Jets' 49 yard line and that play took 5 seconds. Kicking the field goal took 5 seconds off the clock from 36 seconds to 31 seconds. So making the decision to kick on 2nd & 10 meant the Dolphins could've had the ball back at 26 seconds on the 50 yard line looking for a touchdown. I guess I'm just trying to decide whether that's a more likely outcome than taking two more shots into the end zone from the 24 yard line with 36 seconds left, recovering your onside kick, then completing one 10 to 15 year sideline pass where you get out of bounds (or a defensive penalty) that gets you a shot at kicking a long one with 1 second remaining. Personally when you're talking about doing something as tough as punching the ball in the end zone, I want to be trying that from as close to the end zone as humanly possible. In the scenario where you get the ball with 26 seconds remaining at the 50 yard line trying to get into the end zone, I can't help but think that ends up in a hail mary which has a near-zero chance of success. Either way I'm not sure why the whole strategy was so universally-lauded when it looks pretty much to me like 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. It was an unusual decision, and perhaps it's being lauded because of it's being unusual.
It certainly was unusual. I don't recall seeing anything like that before. But you're right, it made no real difference in the outcome of the game, except that it affected the spread.
Mentally, for the players. I think getting the ball back with time left on the clock gives players more belief that it's possible to score, as opposed to maybe eating all the time up and potentially kicking a FG anywaysm, then getting the ball back wwith seconds left and needing a TD. i think it was about managing the mindframe of the team.
It's also possible that Philbin knows our offense has greater efficiency and play success when there is a less compressed space to operate in... i.e. we stall out in the red zone. We get the ball at the 50 and with the Pats in a prevent type shell, we make one sideline play or pass in the middle for 10-15 yards, then we take on shot to the endzone from about 35 yards out. Meh, either way, we had lost game. As hame Rizzi's squad didn't redeem itself for that muffed punt by getting us the onside kick back.
That exact argument though could be used to defend the strategy of continuing to go for the end zone from the 24 yard line. Getting to the 24 yard line was no easy feat. A lot of things have to go right for you to get there. Offenses tend to stall more around mid field and in long field goal range. The chances of us recovering the onside kick and then getting THAT close to the end zone again so that our final play doesn't have to be a ridiculously low percentage hail mary...have to seem low. And meanwhile, like you said, with a whole bunch of space operating from the 50 yard line, that 15 yards to set up a doable 52 yard field goal for Dan Carpenter...seems pretty accessible. In short I think it's easy to go from the 50 to the 40 or 35, but harder to go from the 40 to the 24 yard line. Once the Dolphins managed that, surprisingly, I'd have kept pressing that advantage and seen if I couldn't punch it in. If you recover the onside kick and you don't feel you have enough time left to run a play and then kick your field goal, you can always try the hail mary. But if you recover the ball with as few as 6 seconds left on the clock then I think you've got a good chance of getting 10 to 15 yards and giving Carp a real chance at the kick.
It seems like tight ends consistently have huge days against us. I always dread going against Dustin Keller, let alone Gronk &/or Hernandez.
Fasano is in that mix as well, but still they are not exactly going to frighten anyone. Tho Hartline was wiiide open THill just missed him
A "Popcorn Fart", is a weak sounding fart....like the sound a kernel makes being popped in the microwave.
Is that similar to "Popcorn Muscles"? [video=youtube;f8lB-KRmhd4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8lB-KRmhd4[/video]
Makes me wonder if Philbin, with his long coaching experience had some past situation where something occurred relevant to this, where he won a game by doing this, or lost a game by not doing this.
I should state, however, that I'm a huge fan of Patton Oswalt simply because of these same joyful expressions that Vince's lovely wife exhibits...Ah jealousy, you narcissistic cruel mistress *****. When will you leave me?
