<p>OK, guys. We’ve had the threads that have been dominated with topics leaning towards our better halves. How about a sport-centric thread?</p>
<p>Did you see the end of the Philly/Dallas game today? What a smart play by Westbrook. Rather than take the easy touchdown, he takes a knee at the one so Philly can run out the clock instead and gaurantees the win for Philly. Smart, and a level of un-selfishness rarely seen in pro sports today. Can’t imagine T.O. doing something like this.</p>
<p>Sorry if this belongs on the ESPN site, but I was surfing here when I saw the play and had to immediately comment…</p>
<p>I wasn’t so sure at first. It was real quick thinking on his part.</p>
<p>I would have gone for the TD though. 2 scores ahead, in the bag, with under 2 minutes to play would have been nearly insurmountable. Hmmm…come to think of it, I guess it WAS a good move. It was basically a guarantee. Better than nearly insurmountable.</p>
<p>As an Eagles fan, this was sweet. Westbrook is amazing. Ugly game but sweet.</p>
<p>Not that I’m a Philly fan. I’m just a fan of a player doing the smart and unselfish thing. And I hate the Cowboys, so it made it oh so much sweeter!</p>
<p>Yeah. It took me longer than his run to figure out that he made the right decision, and no one weighing 300 pounds was trying to tackle me. It’s hard to believe he could make that judgment in the middle of a touchdown run.</p>
<p>My dad (as smart as he is) didnt understand why they did it. I explained that it’s what I would’ve done and they did the right thing. He had the biggest ‘OHHH’ look on his face when they ran the clock all the way down.</p>
<p>I admit, it took me a couple of moments (to include screaming at the TV “What the H#$% are you doing!”) for me to see the logic. I can only hope that SPORTSCENTER recognizes this as the “Play of the Day”. No showboating, no trying to show up the other guy with a silly display of athletic ability, just a smart move from a player trying to help his team.</p>
<p>Yes, that was a sweet move and a wonderful game. I had almost talked myself out of watching after the last few disasters but that one made up for some of the duds. I was proud to put up my husbands Eagles ornament on the tree!</p>
<p>It’s too late in the fantasy season that it likely wouldnt matter. NFL offenses have evolved so much so over the last 10 years, that rarely does one lose by 6 points.</p>
<p>That was a sweet play all right. It the kind of thing Woody Hayes would have appreciated. Near the end of games when the Bucks were punting inside of their 5 yard line and leading by nine or more points, he would often call for the punter to run around a bit and step beyond the endline for an intentional safety and free kick. It always worked like a charm.</p>
<p>Yes, but that’s a standard thing for teams to do. I’ve seen them do it with a six-point lead. And it’s a situation where the coach can tell the punter what to do before he goes in – it’s completely dictated by the pre-snap situation.</p>
<p>There’s no chance Andy Reid told B-West: “Hey, if you happen to break free for your longest run of the game and have no one between you and the end zone, remember not to score even though we’re only four points up, because a team can score 11 points in two minutes with no time outs, but not if they never get the ball.” Reid was laughing and shaking his head at the end of the play. He had no idea Westbrook was going to do that.</p>
<p>Actually, I was watching another NFL game a few weeks before this and a similar situation came up where the team ahead was inside the red zone and the announcers were discussing whether it would be best to score or to just run the clock out. Perhaps Westbrook saw this game as well and took his cue from that.</p>
<p>fundingfather: If Westbrook had just gotten a first down at, say, the 12, and the two-minute warning came, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the Eagles just ran the clock. Again, that’s pretty common, you see it almost every week in some game or another. I’ve seen teams deliberately take safeties at least a dozen times, both as a planned matter to protect a lead, and in a correct snap decision in a broken play (as happened yesterday in the Buffalo-Cleveland game). But in about 45 years of watching football games, I’ve never seen a player stop and sit down at the 1 after breaking loose for a big play, much less in a game where you didn’t need all the fingers on one hand to count the plays that went more than 20 yards from scrimmage. (Once, I remember a player running sideways across the field on the goal line to use up a few more seconds before stepping in when the defense finally got there.)</p>
<p>Has anyone ever seen a player who is able to score a touchdown deliberately sit down like that? (Not Leon Lett celebrating too early and getting stripped of the ball at the 2.)</p>
<p>Well, I’m still chuckling about a high school kid I saw Saturday night in the state semi-final game. He had lined up on the kick receiving team on the front-line. The kicker for the opposing team with no warning from formation or ball placement or where he set-up tried an onside kick (obviously a deception they had worked on. Looked just like he was going to kick it away. Full leg kick and all. ). The ball squirted into the air like the proverbial wounded duck carried just about 10 yards downfield before it started dropping . The kid raised his arm and the kicking team just bowled him over catching the ball before it ever hit the ground. Mass celebration. Until they saw the flag. Tweet. We got the ball and 15 yards. Whatever possessed that 16 year old kid to throw his hand up for the Fair Catch? Incredible presence of mind given the situation.</p>