The second challenge was bad, gain 7 yards to lose your last challenge with 11min to go in 2nd quarter.

that challenge was not in the top 50 of his dumb decisions

start with every run up the middle for no gain on first and second down

I'm not sure forcing a fumble wasn't a more likely outcome than converting 4th and 24 there. I mean, I know the numbers wouldn't say so, but they had such a slim fraction of a chance at that point I can hardly get myself worked up over it.

They get a holding penalty or something a portion of the time. Punting is so bad.

try top 500

lol

Down 14 in the SUPER BOWL. 2:04 left. 4th & who cares. PUNT. See ya guys next year!

I could have accepted the punt there if there was like 2:15 left and you have all your timeouts. That way you still have the TMW and 3 stoppages and 4/24 is really a dreadful spot. But given that the TMW is going to hit on the possession change and you only have two timeouts, punting is just quitting. Gotta just Hail Mary it.

Riverboat Ron went into a turtle shell on the big stage. My Marty Shottenheimer PTSD kicked in just watching it.

And the punter didn't even angle it oob

I wanted so badly to see the broncos victory formation after the punt

Most upset were the bargain advertisers who got ~ 0 ratings after the punt, because everybody turned the game off when they saw the punting team run on the field.

I'm sure Rivera was figuring in the small chance of a muff too, so keeping it in bounds would make sense. Denver was smart enough not to go anywhere near it, though. Besides, an OOB kick is likely to take 8 seconds anyway unless you really shank it.

I don't think Denver even fielded a returner.

Bump for Olympics.

Rugby 7s

Very last game of the group stage. Fiji (world number 1) vs USA, who while frequently #1 in other sports, are not #1 in this sport and are in fact closer to midpack of the 12 teams in the competition.

Second best team in competition, New Zealand, have lost two games by super narrow margins and the way of the format means that if Fiji win by 4 points or less, NZ will be eliminated and USA will advance to a quarter final, against Fiji ironically enough.

Fiji end up beating USA by 5 points, which eliminated USA by a single point.

Now Fiji have to play NZ (the second best team in the world) in the QFs. This team has never won a medal at the Olympics, and had the let USA win/lose by 4 or less, they would have had a bracket of (complete with Ash rankings of the final 8 teams)

Fiji (1)
USA (7)

Japan (8)
France (4)
------------
GB (2)
Argentina (5)

Australia (6)
South Africa (3)

Instead, they get NZ and a much tougher road to the final as a result. It would have been so easy to have this happen as opposed to 2012 badminton (let the last USA try scorer score under the posts for an easier conversion, miss a tackle etc) its so stupid.

Oh word?

You're argument is pretty lol considering the 2012 Badminton incident. The fact that you acknowledge said incident is super LOL.

It's just not worth it.

ETA: For those who don't remember, a bunch of Badminton teams in the 2012 London Games were throwing matches in the group stage for a more favorable match-up in the bracket stage. They got caught and were DQed from the games.

In badminton both teams wanted to lose, the fact that both teams played to lose made it apparent to everyone that both teams were trying to lose.

In this game USA would be trying to win. Fiji doing just one of the following things

- Missing one of their conversions or
- Letting USA under the posts on the final try in the last minute of the game.
- Missing one tackle that costs a score

Would not have been noticed to nearly the same extent as the badminton. Not even close to the same thing.

Its a pretty massive equity change in terms of your opponent (Fiji started a 60% fav vs NZ, would have been 90%+ against USA).

Decisions ITT that cost less than 1% win equity or less than 1% future win equity (such as playing players for one more football series than necessary and risking injury) get slammed all the time IT, and this lighting of 30% win equity on fire is considered lol?

Counter point to the badminton

Australia vs Angola in the World Cup of basketball

Australia could lose this game and avoid a potential quarter-final vs USA (if we win we would play USA in QFs, which would give us no chance of a medal). So we lost to Angola playing our better players very little.

FIBA found no wrong-doing (we were resting players, which was plausible deniability) and Australia got the better draw going forward. Aus did lose their R16 game anyway, but the basic idea made sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcqvIyiEn4I

------------------------------

Spain vs Brazil in 2012, same thing.

Spain rested all their players, lost the game, avoided the USA to the final

http://www.sbnation.com/london-olymp...usa-basketball

Yes, they definitely would play Pau Gasol for 24 minutes out of 40 if they were trying to win.

As an aside, Fiji did win their QF vs NZ, but they really should have lost it, NZ had two harsh calls against them.

too funny

falcons preseason kicks off today; my only hope for this season is that Dan Quinn doesn't prove himself to be an idiot for a head coach. I'll take 4-12 as long as none of the losses are outright his fault. I can deal with personnel issues; I can't handle an idiot for a coach. We've already had that with Smitty.

Any preseason games that are likely to be at all watchable? I have a GamePass subscription, may as well use it.

lol @ ever watching any preseason nfl

The first quarter in week 3 usually have starters. Otherwise nope

Seeing this thread on page 1 again brought me excitement and also being a Giants fan, great fear. Last year really almost killed me, and the majority of our fan base still thinks that if they kick a FG in the Jets game to go up 13, it would have made a difference despite having a defense that couldn't hold me to under 300 yards passing.

We will see how badly McAdoo can screw up as HC. Looking forward to another year of lol-ing Fat Mike and coaches enthusiastically sending out the kicking team.