NFC Title: 49ers Win After Lions Misfire on Field Goal
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 If you missed it, by the way, and you're just tuning in, game finishes 34-31.
00:05 That was the Niners on top of the Lions.
00:08 Seven in the hook, 51 being the total, game gets over, and San Francisco laying that 7.5
00:15 does not cover.
00:16 Detroit actually slips through the back door with a couple minutes left in the fourth quarter.
00:23 Four Lions backers there.
00:25 I'll tell you, the Dan Campbell not kicking it in the fourth quarter was just talking
00:29 with Frank, our producer behind the scenes, and Matt, and that was one of the more head-scratching
00:35 calls, Mark, that I can really remember.
00:38 I mean, like you just eat up.
00:40 It's in the fourth quarter, you're down three, you kick the field goal, man.
00:44 You don't go for it.
00:46 It would have been, what, a 47-48 yard or something of that nature.
00:50 Not necessarily a chip shot, guys, but this is the NFL.
00:53 I mean, you got to trust your kicker a little bit, you know, the holder, the snapper, the
00:57 whole unit, and he didn't.
01:00 So that one, I'm totally with you.
01:02 I really am.
01:03 The Ravens one, though, well, I guess I'll throw it back over to you.
01:07 As I agree with one of your takes, and I disagree with the other, Mark Zito.
01:11 Well, look, you're talking to somebody who, as you know, despises kickers as the most
01:17 evil humans on the entire planet.
01:20 So if I'm sitting here advocating that you should send one of those idiots out there,
01:24 it should tell you something, right?
01:26 Like, I never want to aim at my own head with a kicker.
01:29 But the idea from a coaching and game management standpoint, which is your number one job as
01:34 the head coach, is to make decisions in moments of the game that will put your team in a position
01:39 to win the game.
01:41 That was the right call, was to kick the field.
01:43 I get it.
01:44 That's how we got here, going for it nonstop.
01:46 I get it.
01:47 I get it.
01:48 I get it.
01:49 But at some point, you've got to put your ego in your pocket and say, "The time is now
01:53 to tie this game and let our defense try to make a play for us."
01:57 Now, I'm not here to listen to his press conference.
02:00 If a coach was so honest to say that, "I did not think my defense was going to be able
02:04 to get a stop.
02:05 I didn't think that there was a way that we were going to get the ball back if we didn't
02:08 score a touchdown."
02:09 I mean, even at that, with eight minutes left, there was enough time for them to go back
02:12 down and score another touchdown and take the lead again.
02:15 So the point simply is, is to keep it a one-score game the whole time, and by kicking a field
02:20 goal, that's what you did.
02:22 That's your job to manage the game in that moment.
02:24 Because if your defense doesn't get a stop after you kick the field goal, guess what?
02:29 It's still a one-score game.
02:31 If your defense doesn't get a stop after you don't kick the field goal and don't get the
02:33 first down, guess what?
02:34 Now it's a two-score game.
02:35 I mean, it just, again, it's not really that hard.
02:42 It's not a hard ask to turn around and just go kick the field goal.
02:49 Can't explain.
02:50 Can't justify it.
02:51 It's just mind-blowing.
02:52 And it's almost kind of like parlayed with the decision-making at the end of the first
02:58 half.
02:59 The Lions were up 21-7 with about 10 seconds left in the first half.
03:04 Inside the five-yard line, and Dan Campbell, I mean, he goes for it on fourth down, I believe
03:09 more than any other NFL coach since he's been hired three years ago.
03:13 And it was one of those, "Man, is he going to go for this at the end of the first half?"
03:17 And they ended up kicking the field goal mark.
03:19 And actually, I think that was the right decision.
03:23 And then the one in the fourth quarter was the wrong decision, not kicking it.
03:27 So I think both times he should have kicked it.
03:30 But our producer Frank, to reference again, he was like, "Man, it's crazy that you kick
03:35 it at the end of the first half and you don't kick it in the fourth quarter.
03:38 That's almost like opposite of what you should do because coming down to the end of the game,
03:44 you know, I'm all for taking chances.
03:45 But if you're not taking chances early in the game and then you take the chances late
03:48 in the game, it's almost like now you're rolling the dice late in the night when you've already
03:52 had seven gin and tonic."
03:55 - You're giving yourself a chance to recover from not getting it.
04:00 - Exactly.
04:01 Yeah.
04:02 - Clock is the issue.
04:04 It's not about whether what Dan Campbell did all season long to get to this moment.
04:08 That's not how it goes.
04:10 Look, best example I can give you, okay?
04:13 If you're in combat, all right, and the way you're advancing on the enemy is ground forces,
04:18 ground forces, ground forces.
04:20 And then guess what?
04:21 Towards the end of the battle, they match you ground force or ground force.
04:24 Guess what?
04:25 The idea is that it keeps sending more people on the ground to go win the battle.
04:28 You have to try a different strategy to go do it and Dan Campbell didn't.
04:31 So I'm not saying he's a bad coach.
04:33 I'm saying it was a stupid coaching decision.
04:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]