The 49ers second touchdown drive at the end was unnecessary

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by 1251alex:
Be serious bro. If Alex does that s**t and we lose the game, a certain poster named Brian would be having a field day.

If Smith was stupid enough to run out of bounds, instead of going for the easy touchdown, AND we lost the game because of it. My posts would get drowned out by every poster in this forum seeking to hang Alex Smith from the highest tree. At that point, I would be one of the few defending him.

So, Smith is a genius then?

NERD ALERT. This aint madden.

Obviously we won the game, so you can't complain about how things turned out, however think about how things were looking at that point:

49ers are up by 5 with 2:11 to go and Saints had 1 time out (obvously we would have had to trust our All Pro kicker to make a chip shot FG). Aren't you a bit worried about the Saints marching down the field and scoring a touchdown? They have the time, but they are going up against our outstanding defense.

Or, we could have been up by 2 and given the ball to the Saints with 30 seconds left and no time outs. Their kicker doesn't have much range, so they would need to get inside the 30 to have a decent shot to kick a FG. So 50 yards in 30 seconds would have been a huge challenge even for the Saints offense.

In my opinion, the odds of winning are much higher in the second scenario than in the first. In most situations in the first scenario, the Saints would have scored the TD with very little time on the clock, but as it turned out they scored quickly enough for Alex Smith and VD to be able to march down the field.

P.S. Nice video (:

i can't lie.....i was yelling GO DOWN GO DOWN................then GET OFF THE FIELD.......i thought the was going to be a celebration penalty .....knew we need the 2 point conv.

Originally posted by 1251alex:

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by 1251alex:
Be serious bro. If Alex does that s**t and we lose the game, a certain poster named Brian would be having a field day.

If Smith was stupid enough to run out of bounds, instead of going for the easy touchdown, AND we lost the game because of it. My posts would get drowned out by every poster in this forum seeking to hang Alex Smith from the highest tree. At that point, I would be one of the few defending him.

So, Smith is a genius then?

Not genius. Not stupid.

Saying one or the other gets you ripped in half.

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by 1251alex:
Be serious bro. If Alex does that s**t and we lose the game, a certain poster named Brian would be having a field day.

If Smith was stupid enough to run out of bounds, instead of going for the easy touchdown, AND we lost the game because of it. My posts would get drowned out by every poster in this forum seeking to hang Alex Smith from the highest tree. At that point, I would be one of the few defending him (then I'd be a "homer", or Alex Smith lover, or whatever fit the current tide).

Actually, we don't want Alex Smith to run out of bounds. Instead he needs to fall to the ground, to keep the clock running. And if the Saints did manage to travel 50 yards in 30 seconds with no time outs, I think most would be blaming the defense. Because if the Saints could travel 50 yards in 30 seconds, then it would be quite likely that they could travel 80 yards in 2:11 like they did.

If Alex had gone down at the 1 and then we missed the fg or the Saints scored in those 30 seconds (as they did after Alex got the td), Alex would be run out of town and become a national laughingstock.

Originally posted by vamphunter23:
i can't lie.....i was yelling GO DOWN GO DOWN................then GET OFF THE FIELD.......i thought the was going to be a celebration penalty .....knew we need the 2 point conv.

If the field goal was a 100% guarantee, than perhaps sliding down and killing some clock is the better thing to do. But once the play was called, and the touchdown is in sight, you have to score because the points are right there in front of you.

Originally posted by fryet:
Actually, we don't want Alex Smith to run out of bounds. Instead he needs to fall to the ground, to keep the clock running. And if the Saints did manage to travel 50 yards in 30 seconds with no time outs, I think most would be blaming the defense. Because if the Saints could travel 50 yards in 30 seconds, then it would be quite likely that they could travel 80 yards in 2:11 like they did.

Right, not out of bounds.

My point is that it was not Smith's fault. Once the play was called, he had to go for the biggest gain possible without taking a hit and fumbling. The only way to get the most yards possible without taking a hit and fumbling, it to either run out of bounds or score a touchdown.

The play call and/or strategy is the only thing in question here. Smith did what he had to do once the play was called.

Originally posted by fryet:
Obviously we won the game, so you can't complain about how things turned out, however think about how things were looking at that point:

49ers are up by 5 with 2:11 to go and Saints had 1 time out (obvously we would have had to trust our All Pro kicker to make a chip shot FG). Aren't you a bit worried about the Saints marching down the field and scoring a touchdown? They have the time, but they are going up against our outstanding defense.

Or, we could have been up by 2 and given the ball to the Saints with 30 seconds left and no time outs. Their kicker doesn't have much range, so they would need to get inside the 30 to have a decent shot to kick a FG. So 50 yards in 30 seconds would have been a huge challenge even for the Saints offense.

In my opinion, the odds of winning are much higher in the second scenario than in the first. In most situations in the first scenario, the Saints would have scored the TD with very little time on the clock, but as it turned out they scored quickly enough for Alex Smith and VD to be able to march down the field.

P.S. Nice video (:

You're probably right. It's a tough decision to make though. If you run the clock, line up, and then the kick is blocked everybody questions Harbaugh for playing conservative. But its probably the right thing to do against the Saints.

this thread was unnecessary

/thread

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by fryet:
First off, major kudos to Alex Smith and Vernon Davis for doing it anyway, however think about this scenario instead.

Instead of Alex Smith running 28 yards for a touchdown, he instead runs for 26 and stays in bounds.

New Orleans only has one time out left. So alex gets tackled, and the clock ticks down to the 2 minute warning. The 49ers kneel down or do running plays that don't product a touchdown, with New Orleans calling one time out. The 49ers would kick a field goal on 4th down and then kick the ball back to New Orleans. Depending on how long it took to execute those 3 kneel downs, the Saints would get the ball back with 30 seconds, and no time outs, being forced to kick a field goal to win. I like the 49ers chances in that scenario.

Fortunately for the 49ers the Saints scored very quickly and gave the ball back to SF offense with enough time to complete that winning drive, but it could have been avoided if Alex had done the unthinkable and avoided going into the end zone in the first place.

Your right. I was expecting them to just hand the ball off and kick the field goal. But field goals can get blocked, so if you are behind in the game and you see an opportunity to score the TD, you have to take it.

How can he be right and so f-ing wrong at the same time.

people said this during the game. Saints call time prior to two minutes. 1st down=2 minutes. 2nd=115. 3rd is 30 seconds. the pass to jimmy graham took 15 seconds. I like that we scored. I liked it then. You can't second guess it. We won. I get that you could milk the clock but the play was just too awesome and a 5 possibly 7 point lead that late in the game is hard to pass up.

Originally posted by fryet:
Obviously we won the game, so you can't complain about how things turned out, however think about how things were looking at that point:

49ers are up by 5 with 2:11 to go and Saints had 1 time out (obvously we would have had to trust our All Pro kicker to make a chip shot FG). Aren't you a bit worried about the Saints marching down the field and scoring a touchdown? They have the time, but they are going up against our outstanding defense.

Or, we could have been up by 2 and given the ball to the Saints with 30 seconds left and no time outs. Their kicker doesn't have much range, so they would need to get inside the 30 to have a decent shot to kick a FG. So 50 yards in 30 seconds would have been a huge challenge even for the Saints offense.

In my opinion, the odds of winning are much higher in the second scenario than in the first. In most situations in the first scenario, the Saints would have scored the TD with very little time on the clock, but as it turned out they scored quickly enough for Alex Smith and VD to be able to march down the field.

P.S. Nice video (:

You obviously don't remember week 2 MNF against those same saints last year.

http://youtu.be/pVgdDJE3PE0?t=4m50s
/thread

you never give up point for time on the clock. Points are always harder to overcome. unless of course yoou can run the clock out completely then you take the points.