=== Olindo Mare ===
Never been a fave. Am sure his family loves him, and Felix will send flowers. But...
The kickoffs are magnificent to watch, and last year he did have the 24-27 season. Objectively speaking, he's an NFL placekicker, high-risk high-reward.
I cringe constantly.
Sunday, with a devastating non-faircatch that took us from the 20* to the 5, and sometimes terrible KO coverage, Chuck Knox puts this game in the L column for the special teams. He wanted 2-0 per season from his special teams. Am guessing he's got the count at 0-1.
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=== FG Kicker Controversy ===
SSI isn't about one kick costing a guy his job. That's not how we roll. :- ) But that missed 34-yarder was pretty much the game, and with the Colts coming up, could in some scenarios be the season.
How does Dr. D process this I/O?
...................
I'm all for judging players mercifully, and of course, nobody wants the field goal more than Mare does. Nothing wrong with his effort.
But the Bears were a load. You're not going to be able to overpower them. The best you can hope for, is to have a few more points at the end of the game.
The Hawks gave this footbrawl, their best shot, gave their kicker a 90% chance to win it for them*, put them in position to win, and didn't get the win.
................
You might say that the Bears won by 6 so two made FG's didn't win, but we're talking about an alternate reality. If the Seahawks go up by two possessions at half ... well, halftime itself, the locker room, is a very different thing. That yanked 34-yarder was the turning point of the ballgame -- the Bears went into the locker room battered but confident after that.
Granted, from a Strat-O-Matic point of view, the difference between +6 or +9 points is not the end of the world. But in that particular game, the Seahawks with all the riding time in the first half, to answer the Bears' 0-13 to 7-13 score with a 16-7 field goal and then half ... the game is difference.
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=== Closers Blow Games, Too ===
... but it's one thing for Rivera to blow a save, and another thing for Lidge to blow one, right?
In terms of percentages, the Sunday game was similar to being up 5-3 in the ninth inning, and having your closer blow the game. It's easy to say, well, we should have been ahead more runs. But against a great team, you can only ask for a lead in the 9th, and then your closer has to protect the lead.
A closer has about a 90% chance of closing out a 2-run lead, and an NFL kicker has about a 90% chance of hitting a 34-yarder off turf in good weather. This one's on the closer.
A free throw in basketball? Guys miss free throws, sure, and always will. If Cavlin Murphy were paid huge $$$$ to do nothing but come in and make two free throws at the end of a game, he's got to be the best there is at making free throws, obviously.
It's not that Mare missed one field goal. It's that he is (IMHO) unreliable by 21st-century NFL standards.
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=== Class Up, Man ===
That was a gasp-inducing mistake for Jim Mora Jr. to go on a postgame and rip his player. Chuck Knox, Mike Holmgren, the HOF-caliber guys, they "let a day go by," let feelings cool off, and then they speak intelligently.
Nothing against Mora; he's got them playing well. But the postgame was amateurish and it does not help him get the next FG under pressure.
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=== Dr's R/X ===
I would have preferred a higher-percentage kicker if one had been available, as opposed to the kickoffs. I have no idea if one was out there.
That's still the case, not because of Da Bears. If I think he's just cost me the game, that's exactly the wrong time for me to send panic signals to my team. Mora chose the guy. If he's going to swap out, it would be better to do so when emotions are not as high.
I chose a different guy in the first place. But now, I keep a steady hand on the tiller, and look to swap a few weeks down the road.
After a press conference like that, though? Guess you gotta change now.
Cheers,
Dr D