NOLAN AND THE NINERS - MORE OF THE SAME pigskinrevolution.com Question: What’s new this football season in San Francisco? Answer: Not much. Mike Nolan continues to lead one of the weakest teams in the NFL down the path of futility. Last year, Nolan posted the worst ranking in Critical Call Index and it wasn’t particularly close. We won’t know until early 2008 how he fares this year, but we suspect it isn’t going to be much better. If last weeks game against the Rams is any indication, the Niner’s skipper is well on his way to retaining his title. It is hard to imagine that Nolan doesn’t take more aggressive actions based on the dismal record of his team during his tenure. What exactly does he have to lose? While we couldn’t bear to watch another live Niner’s game, we did decide to look at the game log. The gory details follow: QTR CLOCK DOWN YTG BALL POS SCORE CHOICE COST 1 8:04 4th and 4 59 0-7 Punt -2.4 1 4:25 4th and 2 90 0-7 FG -3.2 2 7:31 4th and 5 40 3-10 Punt -0.5 3 9:38 4th and 1 31 3-10 Punt -2.5 3 2:44 4th and 5 25 3-10 Punt -0.8 4 6:11 4th and 6 80 3-13 FG -0.1 4 1:55 4th and 10 72 6-13 FG -4.5 Total 14% The final critical decision is particularly worth noting. While 4.5% isn’t nearly the worst we have seen, Nolan gave up over 1/3 of his available winning chances by kicking the field goal. He has to score a TD to have a shot at winning the game whether it is now or after getting the ball back inside of 2 minutes trailing by 4 (assuming they make the field goal). If he was fortunate enough to get his team back into position, he would be thrilled to find himself facing a 4th and 10 at the Ram’s 28. So why not go for it now? |
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