Holy Thread! It was a treat to rewatch the game along with your posts, everyone. Those LOL PATS posts are a lot easier to read when you know who won.

Pats started second half with a huge defensive play, and that set the tone. They played every down like they were on fire. That poor ATL center with the broken leg never stood a chance.

The back who missed the block on the Hightower sack/fumble: the other RB got hurt the play before. I wonder if this was HIS assignment, and the fill-in back wasn't on the same page? This guy looked straight ahead and towards the center of the line, he never once turned his head towards the edge, which is precisely where HT came from.

Brady is getting all the credit for this win, but this was really a team effort. Every single player made a play.

Once again, America is blaming a coach's play call--and once again, America is wrong. If I'm Kyle Shanny, I'm calling pass plays in that spot, as well. We had a nice run play to start the opening drive, but our run game has been dog**** ever since. There's a 1% possibility that we're going to lose 21 yards on the next two plays? Well, that's a chance I'm willing to take! I got an MVP gunslinger out there, guiding the #1 offense IN HISTORY. I'm not taking the ball out of his hands! We're not thinking "field goal" here! We came here to WIN this game!

Crushing Shanny for this is like criticizing a poker player who flops quads and gets it all-in (sorry for the poker analogy, but it's perfect in this case), only to get outdrawn.

"You shouldn't have gone all-in!"

"What do you mean? I flopped quads!"

"Yeah, but you lost, so CLEARLY, you made the wrong decision!"

That's not how games with percentages work.

Playing to win the game seems like a good idea. However a FG wins the game...

ya that julio jones catch should have been game. its an easy 3 run spot

This analogy is so far away from "perfect" it's ridiculous. If you really want to make a terrible poker analogy it's more like being 2nd in chips on the bubble of a flat payout tournament (ie a satellite) and getting it all in with aces vs the chip leader when you could fold into the money 95% of the time.

Both of those are terrible. Please no more poker analogies

What the **** were those analogies

This. Can we stop with the AIDS OT discussion now? Back to the good stuff....

YTF just confirmed that running was the only decision.

Should probably take a knee to lessen the chance of fumbles, holding penalties, runs for loss, etc

OT change is easy. Instead allowing FGs to be tied, change it so if the first team to touch the ball scores, the second team has one change to beat that score. No ties. Otherwise OT is sudden death as normal.

So in this SB, assuming the Pats kicked the XP - the Falcons would have one chance to win the game with a TD+2. Anything less or a loss of possession is a loss. How exciting would that be? If the Pats have the balls to go for TD+2 they win outright. But if they miss that exposes them to losing to a TD+1, so I doubt they would.

I've had this idea since before the new OT rules, and posted it here several times. Someone needs to get me in touch with Goodell or one of the owners. I know I could sell them.

I believe it's still advantageous to receive in this scenario - but seems like not much more than a coinflip.

ot rules are fine. there are plenty of opportunities to win a game in regulation.

Right. So let's just settle it with a coin flip and go home.

6-6-2

ya. its just a flip too. you have to win a 50-50 to get the advantage anyway of the decision to receive or kick (some match ups ive seen its right to kick) i believe a rams 49ers game a couple years ago they made that decision and everyone agreed it was right

luck elements in games are not the end of the world. its not a flip to win the game. you still have a chance

Also would like to add that the college OT rules are the worse i could imagine. why not just create a new sport while you are at it?

It seems pretty easy. If the team who gets the ball first scores a TD, there will be a kickoff, and the receiving team will get a chance to match. If they don't, game over. Same with FG's. How hard is that.

Ah so you want to increase the advantage to the team that wins the coin toss?

I also think they should just remove OT from regular season games because of the physical nature of the game

The flip doesn't win the game. It's close to 50:50 post flip no matter who wins the flip.

No idea what the optimal OT rules are but watching MAtty Ice attempt to drive it back with tears in his eyes would have been awesome. Or would that be too mean?

3 pts for a win and 1 for a draw would be awesome. I'd love to see the ways coaches come up with to burn equity in this case

Just watched the XFL 30 for 30

How about a scramble for the ball to start OT?

The best thing you could do to NFL OT is eliminate the option of a FG. First unanswered TD wins. There would be tons of amazing, high leverage 4th down plays.

Lol.

Just blows my mind how people constantly attack a guy who has done it the right way from day 1 and has likely squeezed every ounce of talent out of his body.