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2019 Divisional Round Playoffs


Leader

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Nick Wright -   It’s not just the resting guys in Week 17. Ravens didn’t play a real opponent after Week 14, then played on a Thursday in Week 15. Top guys played one time since December 13th & team wasn’t tested since December 8th. All that showed up today.

Ryan Wood -   One thing we saw today: The difference when a team gets its star running back going (Titans with Derrick Henry) and when it doesn’t (Vikings with Dalvin Cook). Which is to say the Packers should probably try to get Aaron Jones going tomorrow.

Ben Fennell -  Vrabel having to prepare for Brady/Patriots and then Lamar/Ravens and now onto either Mahomes/Chiefs or Watson/Texans - sheesh what a stretch.  The playoffs are an absolute gauntlet

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4 minutes ago, AlexGreen#20 said:

Just about every game this playoffs has been a classic reminder that despite the NFL's attempt to make the sport about something else, it's still about blocking, not getting blocked, tackling, and not getting tackled.

Thats the Ravens basic premise though. They just played about the worst game they could. 

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32 minutes ago, Golfman said:

You know momentum is a real thing in sports don't you? That is something your analytics does not take into account. When it fails you give that momentum to the other team. This is a classic case of that. 

It's not a real, provable thing. It's wonderful to talk about when it "exists" but then it's conveniently forgotten about after a team fails to take advantage of earning it or preserving it. It's abstract at best and there are plenty of examples you can point to of teams with momentum changing moments utterly failing.

Team A misses a 4th quarter FG. Team B win the OT coin flip. 

Team A misses a chip shot 4th quarter FG. Team B win the OT coin flip. 

Team B completes two miracle passes and inexplicably ties a game.

Team B completes a miracle pass inside the 5 and a go ahead score in sight.

Imagine if Team B won in those situations. We'd be talking about how those were momentum shifting moments. 

For actual analysis not using painful Packer memories: https://grantland.com/features/bill-barnwell-theory-momentum-football/

I'll also add, while I think momentum isn't necessarily real, the psychological impact *can* be meaningful, if not just a tad bit overstated. Coaches should still make the statistically advantageous decision every time.

Also, one could argue that punting it away on 4th and 1s that you normally go for it would be robbing your team of "momentum" because you're not showing confidence in your offense. Especially if your defense folds.

14 minutes ago, Golfman said:

You gave a team who is inferior a reason to believe, they capitalized and are now kicking their ***. Sometimes, instincts have to overtake analytics. GO back to the first one. I pretty much predicted it was not going to be successful. You could tell by the flow of the game. 

Maybe Jackson and the coaches are just making poor choices given the situation? Maybe you could see that the Ravens did have some warts that the Titans could expose, such as a highly questionable rushing defense and a young QB who was coming off of a 2 game rest with weapons still injured and is still unproven.

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Football Perspective -  Only 4 times in the last 15 years has a QB started a conference championship game after winning less than 8 games in the regular season.

2019 Ryan Tannehill
2017 Nick Foles (Won)
2015 Peyton Manning (Won)
2012 Colin Kaepernick (Won)

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