? Can anyone explain Tomlin's decision to accept the 3rd down holding penalty....

[feltdizz]

I doubt Tomlin does this against a team with a legit QB.... People are acting like we had Ben at QB and our RB's had a monster game. We had 7 TO's and put the ball on the ground 10 times before he made that decision.

[pittpete]

Accepting the penalty was the absolute wrong call.
1 pass interference call,defense holding,illegal contact,hands to the face,roughing the QB,etc.... and the Browns get an automatic first down.
Too many variables for a decision to be made out of anger like Tomlin chose.
We're talking about 10 yards here, not 20 or 30 or half the field.
Yes the Browns were playing it safe, but 1 missed tackle on a draw play or screen could've been disasterous.
Our punt return unit had been garbage all day at that point.
Decline the penalty, get the ball back and stop playing merry go round with your RB's might have worked.
Dopey,dopey call.

[feltdizz]

Accepting the penalty was the absolute wrong call.
1 pass interference call,defense holding,illegal contact,hands to the face,roughing the QB,etc.... and the Browns get an automatic first down.
Too many variables for a decision to be made out of anger like Tomlin chose.
We're talking about 10 yards here, not 20 or 30 or half the field.
Yes the Browns were playing it safe, but 1 missed tackle on a draw play or screen could've been disasterous.
Our punt return unit had been garbage all day at that point.
Decline the penalty, get the ball back and stop playing merry go round with your RB's might have worked.
Dopey,dopey call.

all of those things could have happened.. but the odds were against 99% of them taking place and we watched the Browns run a draw play for 2 yards. The Browns were getting flagged all second half, why not try to see if they get another penalty.

If our punt return unit was garbage all day then it really made sense. Why let them punt with +10 yards when you can back them up and gain a few yards?

As far as playing merry go round... who should Tomlin have stuck with at RB? Who showed us they could be trusted with running the football?

[virgilbosetti]

Odds against all those things are a tough call. It's just too risky. Your D hands you the football.....and you hand it right back giving them another chance to beat you. I don't care who's at QB/RB. It was off the charts bad.

[feltdizz]

Odds against all those things are a tough call. It's just too risky. Your D hands you the football.....and you hand it right back giving them another chance to beat you. I don't care who's at QB/RB. It was off the charts bad.

Risky? They ran the ball, we gained 8 or 9 yards and they punted.

Risky is the Browns QB dropping back and barely missing an open WR..
Risky is a draw play that exposes a weak rushing defense for a 20 yard gain...
Risky is a pass attempt where the refs missed a blatant PI call...
Risky is making that decision against the Pats...

a 3rd and 20 hand off WITH A BACK UP QB for 2 yards against the #1 D in the league isn't risky.. it's desperation after watching the offense struggle all day.

[virgilbosetti]

No.....I mean risky because IF they convert it could put the decision that much more in peril. A CB trips and takes a WR out & it's Automatic first down. Hands to the face, etc..... A million things can happen by giving them the ball back. Struggling for any score, now you may need two.

That's risky.

[SanAntonioSteelerFan]

No.....I mean risky because IF they convert it could put the decision that much more in peril. A CB trips and takes a WR out & it's Automatic first down. Hands to the face, etc..... A million things can happen by giving them the ball back. Struggling for any score, now you may need two.

That's risky.

Risky yes, but trying the same thing that has failed multiple times and expecting a different outcome - well, some say that's the definition of insanity!

I think Tomlin might have been thinking at some level - "If I don't try something completely different, we WILL lose". From that point of view, I think his decision to give the defense one more chance to win the game is very supportable (as opposed as giving it to the offense to **in all likelihood** p-ss away another set of downs).

[virgilbosetti]

Risky yes, but trying the same thing that has failed multiple times and expecting a different outcome - well, some say that's the definition of insanity!

I think Tomlin might have been thinking at some level - "If I don't try something completely different, we WILL lose". From that point of view, I think his decision to give the defense one more chance to win the game is very supportable (as opposed as giving it to the offense to **in all likelihood** p-ss away another set of downs).

Good point. I'm all for trying something new, but taking the ball out of your own team's hands, and giving it to the other team?.......Any team. Not good. If he thought giving the ball to Batch was just p-ssing away another set of downs, then he should have removed him, or tried something else with the ball. Try a reverse, an end around, a half back pass.....anything to keep the ball out of their hands. Odds of scoring don't increase when you don't have the ball. Doesn't matter who you have at QB, or who you are facing.

Not trying to be ignorant to anyone here, and I'm not trying to trash MT. Just don't like the call.

[feltdizz]

Odds of scoring don't increase when you don't have the ball. Doesn't matter who you have at QB, or who you are facing.

Our D had 7 points that game... odds of scoring were actually worse in that game.

a million things could've gone wrong but none of them did...

[virgilbosetti]

Right. Bullet dodged.

[Slapstick]

Right. Bullet dodged.

Not really...

We still lost the game...

This particular call had nothing to do with that...

[feltdizz]

Right. Bullet dodged.

The Browns had a jammed gun and a broken trigger finger...

[virgilbosetti]

The comment was regarding the call.....not the game.

[skyhawk]

I agreed with this call. I was hoping the Browns would either do another predictable run and lose more field position with the 10 yards or have their rookie QB throw downfield and force one into coverage. We needed a big play on DEFENSE and I thought it was worth the risk to try to make something happen.

I agree with the call He trusted his D to make another stop and wanted to give the O better field position. Not to mention move back the hottest FG kicker in the league right now!! What's so bad about the call? This isn't Playstation.