Shooters are going to shoot, but there was no need for the Seahawks to chuck up a fake field goal at the end of the first half against the Falcons on Monday night.
Trailing 21-14 at home, Pete Carroll and Darrell Bevell dialed up a fake field goal that featured punter/holder Jon Ryan pitching the ball to Luke Wiilson as Blair Walsh sprinted off the to left side.
Not today! pic.twitter.com/r2NT1waofS
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) November 21, 2017
Now, there are a few things to take into account here.
For starters, you see that the Seahawks have one timeout. That's great news. Unfortunately it was fourth down. That's not great news, because if you don't pick up the first down, the timeout is useless. The Seahawks would not pick up the first down.
Here's the other problem: best case is you score a touchdown. That would be swell if it works. But the next best case is you get the first down and you're ... kicking a field goal again. Worst case is either you run out of time or the Falcons snuff the play out and you get zero points in a very close game with a playoff rival.
It didn't make much sense to do it, outside of just not trusting Walsh. And naturally the Internet roasted Seattle for the call.
Watching that fake field goal like pic.twitter.com/ogAyDrIXgv
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) November 21, 2017
Grady Jarrett is not here for your nonsense
— Gregg Rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) November 21, 2017
That was a hilariously stupid call, though. 24-17 Falcons at the half
— The Falcoholic (@TheFalcoholic) November 21, 2017
The most stupefying play call of the season. Period.
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) November 21, 2017
.@Seahawks pic.twitter.com/X5YPpg46xp
— Tom Crabtree (@itsCrab) November 21, 2017
Well that’s obviously an idiotic call. He’d have to score for that to make sense.
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) November 21, 2017
That was really weird. Was your tight end really gonna score from 20 yards out?
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) November 21, 2017
That fake made no sense. How were they going to do better than a field goal with no time left?
— Chris Wesseling (@ChrisWesseling) November 21, 2017
That’s an embarrassingly stupid time for a fake FG.
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) November 21, 2017
Damn, that is dumb. If they don’t score, no time anyways. Stupid
— Pete Prisco (@PriscoCBS) November 21, 2017
Even if it had worked what was the point of that fake field goal? It wasn't gonna score a touchdown and there were only seven seconds left before halftime.
— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) November 21, 2017
What is the upside of that play?!? You pick it up & hope to kick a 3 yard shorter field goal?
— nick wright (@getnickwright) November 21, 2017
It's funny ... because it worked even worse than a normal fake
— Patrick Daugherty (@RotoPat) November 21, 2017
That was insanely dumb
— Dave Softy Mahler (@Softykjr) November 21, 2017
The justification for the FG is maybe it's worked before? Carroll "just kind of shrugged" and told Lisa Salters of ESPN, "Look, we were trying to score, we were trying to take a shot" when asked about it before halftime.
Unfortunately Dan Quinn told his team to be on the lookout. It's very possible that if the field goal works -- and it was not a great play design per se, based on the result -- that we all fawn over the genius of the Seahawks. There will be no fawning when the fake ends up going that poorly.