Can we just put this to bed now?

[Jase]

How is it the right decision when we lost the game because of it?

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

Each decision had a likelihood of failing.

[Mother Grabber]

because we win 99% of the time...eg against the Taints we did the exact same thing and won. Most of the time, we win against the Falcons, too. You can't take a sample set of 1, and claim the right or wrong decision because of it. We made the right coaching move, poor execution on our part led to the undesired result. The decision, however, was still correct.

[Sloth]

Punting is absolutely the right call in a vacuum. Punting is absolutely the right call with a decent defensive unit.

Punting is not absolutely the right call when your starting corner is Josh Norman and your Free Safety is Haruki Nakamura and the opposing team had been torching both players almost at will.

What's funny is that even after the joke of a defense we fielded, giving up a huge play out of the endzone, we then failed to defend the sidelines at all, giving huge cushions (hello again Mr. Norman) to everyone and allowing the Falcons to move at will into chip shot radius. If they'd had 15 more seconds they would've dropped seven on us. So it probably wouldn't have mattered either way.

The punt was a bad call given our defensive backfield and their performance in that game.

[teeray]

How is it the right decision when we lost the game because of it?

We didn't lose the game because we punted. No more than you lose a poker hand because you go all in before the flop with aces and someone draws out on you.

You didn't lose that poker hand because you got your money in with aces. You made the right decision and you got unlucky.

As a poker analogy, it doesn't matter if you win or lose a particular hand, just as long as you put yourself in the best position to win. Bad beats happen.

[Icege]

Am I the only one that lost hope when they didn't convert on 3rd down? I try to be an optimist, but seeing the coveted offense not get a 1st down to seal the game told me that I wanted to turn the game off (and did).

[teeray]

Punting is absolutely the right call in a vacuum. Punting is absolutely the right call with a decent defensive unit.

Punting is not absolutely the right call when your starting corner is Josh Norman and your Free Safety is Haurki Nakamura and the opposing team had been torching both players almost at will.

What's funny is that even after the joke of a defense we fielded, giving up a huge play out of the endzone, we then failed to defend the sidelines at all, giving huge cushions (hello again Mr. Norman) to everyone and allowing the Falcons to move at will into chip shot radius. So it probably wouldn't have mattered either way.

The punt was a bad call given our defensive backfield and their performance in that game.

Dude, if me and you are playing corner and safety we should be able to keep a team from driving 60 yards in less than a minute with no timeouts.

[Jase]

Am I the only one that lost hope when they didn't convert on 3rd down?

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.

[Sloth]

Also, if we're not comfortable handing off for one yard to our billion dollar backfield to win a game, those contracts slide down from "bad" to "joke" status.

[SZ James (banned)]

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

Each decision had a likelihood of failing.

Shouldn't coaches know what would the best play to call based on their team's ability? Or should they just get to call anything and if it doesn't work then well we just didn't execute it's the team's fault.

[SZ James (banned)]

I understand everyone is just buying into conventional wisdom and applying it to situations where they don't fit.

99% of the time you do opt to punt. This was just the time where conventional wisdom obviously didn't apply based on what I saw on the field leading up to that point.

[Jase]

Shouldn't coaches know what would the best play to call based on their team's ability? Or should they just get to call anything and if it doesn't work then well we just didn't execute it's the team's fault.

You don't think the defense had been playing well enough to stop them from the 1?

I think if we had gone for it, the falcons would've known we were going to run it. We would have had to cross them up or pass. Very risky when the price would be only giving matt ryan only 20 yards to drive to FG range and 25 more seconds than we ended up giving him.

[PanthersAlv]

I agree we should have stopped them AFTER the fact... but, any of us fans that said to themselves "if they pass it deep, we got this" should be shot.

"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.

Step on their throat... we had them against the wall.. and we failed ON DEFENSE and as soon as we made the decision to NOT go for it... take the delay of game call... I lost all hope in winning that game. I truly did.

I am getting faith in the defense, but not to win us games in that sort of situation. I just don't feel it yet... and yesterday reinforced why.

[SZ James (banned)]

You don't think the defense had been playing well enough to stop them from the 1?

Hell no.

[Sloth]

Dude, if me and you are playing corner and safety we should be able to keep a team from driving 60 yards in less than a minute with no timeouts.

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.