haha come on dude. The call turned out to be shitty because it was a failure in execution that was compounded with giving the Bears great field position. Having their 4th string WR or whatever he is in the vicinity of Smith does not constitute good coverage. The ball hit him in both hands and he dropped it.
Seeing as how you seem incapable of understanding what I've said, I'm done with this. You have a good day.
Dropped passes are part of the game. Even if you have the perfect play a receiver can still drop a pass, the qb can still miss the throw, the hand off can get bungled. Lots of things can go wrong. That's why you don't go for it on 4th down in your own territory with the lead. Then at the end of the game, when it might have made sense to go for it, he punts.
No you are incapable of understanding the facts. You know that coverage teams actually practice and prepare for fakes- don't you? Your only arguments seems to be that because they had their punt return team on the field they were fooled. You know on a 4th down with your opponent in their own territory that is the unit and personnel that you will send out. These guys are professionals, they just do not line up and assume a punt is coming. The Bears like the Jets are good at special teams. You are missing the point by constantly saying Smith should have caught it. That is irrelevant as to whether or not the Bears were fooled by the play.
I said they were fooled enough to have there punt return team on the field which is all we needed. Can you grasp that? We had our starting QB out there to throw a pass and they had there punt return team on the field. We had one of our receivers matched up in man coverage against a guy who wasn't even a d-back. That is the definition of a good matchup which is really all you can ask for. After that, it's up to the players to execute. The ball was in a perfect spot, the receiver dropped it. Argue it's a bad spot in the game to take that chance if you want, but we fooled them enough to get a good match up and should have got the first down. Personally I don't mind taking that chance when Hester is on the receiving end of the punt, but I understand people who disagree with it.
OK- we are getting somewhere, having a favorable matchup, I agree with and the play came down to execution. My argument has nothing to do with should we or shouldn't we have gone for it, nor did have to do with should Smith have caught the pass. I was only arguing the "fooled" aspect. The Giants were fooled when the Eagles did the onside kick last week, they had no clue it was coming. NFL network has a replay of Hester running in - pointing at Sanchez before the ball was even snapped - They saw it coming. They might not have had the best personel to defend it but IMO it did not "fool" them. I am not trying to be a prick or argumentative, end of discussion - Peace out bro.
It's not like it happened at our 12 yard line. The Bears were still out of field goal range after the failed 4th down. I don't like pussy coaches like Mangina. That's one of the reason why I hate Belichick cuz he goes for it on 4th very often and converts it. I hate it cuz he's the opposing coach. I like Rex cuz he takes a lot of risks, especially against the better opponents. I just wish we can stop blitzing on 3rd and long. In fact, we should cut down our 'blitzing the entire block' this year cuz we are getting burnt on a consistent basis this year compared to last year. We need to get a couple of excellent to great pass rushers in next year for Rex's philosophy to work. Overall, I think Rex will keep us very competitive in the long run. Yes, he's a gambler. This franchise has been far below average for so many years being conservative. Its time we take a different approach. Woody already likes him, evident by the extension he got last off season, after just one season of play.
You are partially correct. Whereas they were aware, they still had their punt return team back there. If they knew what was coming, Hester would not have been there. They were playing it safe in case we punted. We wanted them to play that way, not having the D to defend properly and pretty much taking out one defender to say the least. We ran the play, and the play calling itself worked. Tough luck Brad dropped it. We executed almost the entire play perfectly until the last second. How many times will Brad drop that? Maybe 10 times out of 100. I'd take those (or similar) odds any week. Being in punt formation simply was to get Bears punt unit out there. Only a fool would be fooled that we might go for it, having Sanchez and Brad Smith lined up in punt formation. And we all know the Bears have one of the best D and ST units.
It doesn't matter if they where fooled or not if smith makes catch it a 1st down and that what the jets wanted.
Yes, Brad Smith should have caught it. No one can argue that. But there was no need for that call, up by 7 in our own territory. And I'm not one of those after-the-fact "well, it worked so who cares" fans either. Even if we had made it, I would have said it was gutsy and paid off, but it would have still been the wrong call. And there's no reason Weatherford can't angle that out of bounds to avoid Hester. IMO, this was the turning point. I won't harp on Rex cause he's gotten into the playoffs back-to-back, now, but his decision making has been extremely questionable as of late...
