John Fox: I made the call

Good points. This is a team thats obsessed with going for the kill shot rather than making a fucking tackle. Morgan takes heat for a lot of things, but he always wrapped up. I watched Thomas Davis look like a fucking idiot out there a couple times today after going for the shot, and the ball carrier get like five extra yards.

Like I said last week....by week 5, we'll have it under control. THat'll be when we remember to stress the virtues of fundamental football, and God knows, maybe we'll win a few games.

 

yep. He didn't say he made the call. He didn't say he was happy with what happened out on the field. he didn't take blame for what happened on the field.

there's no reason for Fox to be covering up something. If so, then maybe "liar" is strong, but would have to be true. It'd also mean the coach doesn't have control over his coaches and/or players, and I don't believe that. Especially over someone like Crossman, who has such a history with Fox.

If someone had called a play without fox's permission, do you really think all we'd get out of him is "what the fuck"?

 

Fox has taken the heat for other people's mistakes in the past. Like I said, I haven't seen a replay yet, so I am going to reserve judgement. Seeing it in realtime, however, I had a hard time believing that it was a designed throwback. If it was, shame on the Danny Crossman for drawing it up, and John Fox for signing off on it. There are times to use trick plays, but that was certainly was not one of them.

In any event, the only positive to come out of this is that we've learned a lesson going foward.

 

it didn't look like it was executed correctly in any form, so it's hard to say whether it would've looked designed. I do have a hard time believing there would be some huge wall of blockers ahead of Marshall, especially it being a punt return. Was marshall out of position? Yeah. Should he have been behind Gamble? You would expect. If it wasn't a play call, what was he even doing over there?

 

Marshall started forward a couple of steps, and then raced back, before Gamble turned to throw. Looked like a called play to me.

Fox's reaction was to the result, or to the poor throw, or to the decision to use the option. Danny White called a fake punt (disasterous) on his own once, and Landry exploded into a long, long tantrum on the sidelines. Do you think Fox would be less?

There are usually a bunch of players each year who score a 10 or so on the Wonderlic. I think Thomas Davis scored a 10. Marino and McNabb also did, I think.

Several players have scored a 6, and several have scored a 5, including Julius Peterson.

This year, after the Vince Young controversy, the NFL effectively prevented the rest of the scores from being leaked. They may have fixed this for a good long while. Too bad.

 

I just saw the replay again.


Called play. It was a called play. Just a piss poor throw, and they weren't fooled at all. Gamble should have ate it, still.

 

looks like he had some runnin room ahead of him before the 360-whirlnthrow gift......definitely called.

 

Just saw the replay on NBC's halftime show. Had to be a designed play. It was just untimely, poorly designed, poorly executed. I swear to God, if we run anymore trick plays I'm going to throw my TV out the fucking window. We do not have the personnel to pull this stuff off.

 

he should've, yes. Either Gamble made a mistake or Marshall was out of position, but there's absolutely no reason at all for Marshall not to be out there if the option wasn't there. You don't have blockers on PR and you damn sure don't have other skill players just standing at the other sideline for shits and/or giggles.
So either Marshall was out of place or Gamble made the wrong read. Either way, Gamble made the bad throw and should've tucked it anyway.

Given that Marshall had run back the blocked FG, if not legally, I bet that's what put the bug up their ass to do it.

 

Exactly. I don't think we'd only get a "what the fuck was that" if someone did something of this magnitude against the coach's back.

You get a "WTF" from an awful throw, or a player out of position, or both. You don't say a one-liner if your team overrode you. You go grab someone by the facemask and you take their helmet, you throw it into the fucking stands, and you tell that player to shower up early.

yeah. Gamble's no record setter. I don't remember many scores, but I remember a number of backs scoring 3s, 5s. A 9 is low but it's by no means outrageous.

Several players have scored a 6, and several have scored a 5, including Julius Peterson.

probably so.
It was nice knowing what we could about players, including measurements, and by next year, you'll probably never get that information, much less wonderlic.