Did you agree with Ekeler not trying to score?

[PhilaBoltster]

Absolutely should not have scored a TD with 90 seconds left for Cleveland to score and only a 5 point lead, when the alternative is to drain the clock and kick and old-fashioned PAT for the win. Can’t believe people would think otherwise. Maybe you can take one crack at a TD with 10 seconds left.

[dmac_bolt]

disagree..... Ekler clearly was told by our smart coach to stay in bounds and keep clock running....... he easily could have scored but would have left Cleveland with way too much time.....

Coach also wanted Ekler to go down short of endzone so we could drain the clock, but cleveland pulled him into endzone.....

Had Ekler been able to go down at the one, we would have drained off most of the clock before letting Herbie sneak it into endzone to win game..... at worst our kicker would have had a FG equal to the old extra points, which are nearly impossible to miss.....

Not sure if Coach specifically told every player to stop short of end zone on his first run to the sideline, i think that was more likely situational awareness by Eke and great play.

On the next play - if Coach wants team to drain clock then as someone above notes the ONLY play call is QB V-formation kneel. You don’t run your RB into the pile and risk turnover if your objective is to stay where you are and not score.

[Ghost of Quacksaw]

I've never seen another team carry the (opponent's) ball carrier to score a winning TD.

This says it all. Priceless.

[Guest]

I am all for not leaving any time for the Browns to come back, but I had no confidence in our kicker, especially after the misses. That was the backdrop of my post.

[Ghost of Quacksaw]

Personally I was more surprised by the Browns offensive strategy after they got the ball back than with what we did with Ek at the end. 1:20ish with no timeouts and they just contentedly played in the middle of the field for short yardage. They pushed Ek into the end zone for that?

As near as I could figure, their strategy was to position themselves for as many Hail Mary attempts as they could get. They probably figured that, the Bolts' run defense being so porous, they had a legit chance to break one or more of those runs for 20+ yards.

[Guest]

As near as I could figure, their strategy was to position themselves for as many Hail Mary attempts as they could get. They probably figured that, the Bolts' run defense being so porous, they had a legit chance to break one or more of those runs for 20+ yards.

The scary thing is, it looks like that last hail mary might have worked if it was thrown 10 yards further. What was going on there nobody waiting in the end zone? Then we REALLY would have had something to talk about.

[Bolt-O]

From Ekeler:

"Crazy play at the end. I'm not trying to score. Right? I'm trying to waste time. Which, I mean, if I was smarter in that situation I would've just immediately gone down. I was like, 'Oh let me try to waste more time.' And I tried to get cute, kill some time, got greedy, and they came and grabbed me, picked me up, took me in the end zone. Weirdest play ever. Has anybody ever been sad to score a touchdown? There's not many situations where you're sad that you scored a touchdown, but that one was like, man, wow, I dropped the ball in that situation by not just going down.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/10/11/bills-chiefs-afc-nfl-week-5-fmia-peter-king/

[Bolt4Knob]

I think it was smart for Ekeler to take a knee

The first down play, Herbert should have taken a knee. Second down, I do think you sneak Herbert to try to score as there would have been a minute left and Browns had no TD

But it worked out

[BlazingBolt]

I think they were worried about taking knees making the kick longer maybe?

They were planning to go for the kick to win was my understanding after hearing the comments after the game.

[Steve]

I think the way you want to approach the downs is:

1st down - wedge the ball forward a yard to even two if you can. Line everyone tight - 2 TE, put 2 receivers in as wingbacks. Everyone wedge off the center (almost like a FG) and have Herbert creep forward to make sure he can turtle up and go down without allowing himself to be dragged in to the end zone. Now, you have the whole playbook to try and score.

2nd down - you can try the same thing as 1st down, especially if you only get to the 2 on 1st down. This runs down the clock, but I don't know how necessary it is. Staley's D is really good at stopping a lot of deeper throws. Any team is going to have a tough time going the length of the field with less than a minute (which is what the clock would be down to after the 1st down play), with no TO. That is especially true against our D. But you give them the 1:30, they can pull that off, even with no TO.

If you did run the clock down to about a minute, I think you go ahead and score the TD. If you get to the 2, you probably want to run, although, maybe they try and help drag the ball carrier into the endzone still? Every team will have their own threshold for when to stop doing that, so it just depends on where that is. But assuming they don't, you might get stopped short still.

3rd down I spread things out, and just see how Cleveland wants to defend it. I take the QB sneak if it is there, but also you want Allen, Parham, Williams, and Cook split out in a 4 wide alignment, unless you have a bunch release you really like in there, so that if Cleveland stacks the inside run to stop the sneak (it takes all 4 DL to do that), then the off tackle is open to the RB, and if they keep enough LB in there, the big receivers are there to box out vs the DB man to man. Just have Herbert go up to the line, see what the D is doing and call the play at the line.

4th down, either kick or rinse and repeat 3rd down.

[Steve]

Personally I was more surprised by the Browns offensive strategy after they got the ball back than with what we did with Ek at the end. 1:20ish with no timeouts and they just contentedly played in the middle of the field for short yardage. They pushed Ek into the end zone for that?

That was the thing that suprised me. They tried to dink and dunked the ball after helping us score? I know Staley's D is hard to throw deep on, but depending on the coverage, there are holes down the field. Not very big holes, but they could throw it in bounds and shoot for those holes. Mahommes was doing that against us in KC, he just missed the holes and threw the int. Cleveland would have had to be more accurate.

But those dink and dunk plays take just as long for everyone to get aligned as going downfield, maybe more for the WR to run back. And they didn't get out of bounds, partly because our D was playing the sidelines. But Cleveland was still playing to take the easy throws to dink and dunk down the field like they had plenty of time on the clock, and they just didn't.

The one big unknown is how was Mayfield's shoulder feeling and did he have the confidence to keep making big throws downfield? He made some during the game (the Njoku play), but was he feeling good enough to keep making those throws?

[floydefisher]

I agree with the move even if it didn’t work out. Generally you do that so there’s no time left for the other team.

With the way Mayfield was slicing and dicing the defense, that does sound like a plan.

You don't have to put the game in the kickers hands, just milk the clock down so Baker doesn't have a chance to go back down the field and score. It's what the Cowboys did very successfully in week 2.