Subscribe via RSS Feed

A Note

[ 45 ] December 12, 2011 | Scott Lemieux

Normally, when icing the kicker “works” God kills twenty kittens. But if the Cowboys lose, She saves them instead.   Garrett must have been disappointed he couldn’t do it himself.

 

 

Comments (45)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Linnaeus says:
    December 12, 2011 at 1:38 am

    From what I saw, it wasn’t a case of an “iced” kicker, but a blocked kick.

    Reply
    • Scott Lemieux says:
      December 12, 2011 at 1:45 am

      You ignore the mystical power of the Iced Kicker? Next you’ll be saying that Tim Tebow is a shitty QB who has benefited from fluke wins against a bad schedule…

      Reply
      • TT says:
        December 12, 2011 at 9:09 am

        There is no dumber, more annoying, and less effective “tactic” in all of sport, maybe even all of human endeavor, than icing the kicker. It is Exhibit A in the case against the idea that NFL coaches are, in fact, intelligent bipeds.

        Reply
        • Green Caboose says:
          December 12, 2011 at 10:16 am

          The psychology of “icing” a kicker is easy to understand. We all want to be in control of things that affect our lives. Many of us at home will do funny rituals to try to influence the FG kick, like hold our lucky stuffed animal or tell a designated scapegoat to leave the room. And like any other superstition if the result goes well we’ll believe that our ritual affected then end result (ignoring both lack of causation and the fact that there is a 7 second delay between the FG kick happening and it appearing on our TV screen). They even do this in the stadium – “praying” for the kick to succeed/fail, as though that could possibly make a difference.

          So, in that context the coach calling timeout makes all the sense in the world – that is the one thing he can do that actually does influence the event, if only delaying it. There is no evidence it works – in fact the evidence is the opposite – a delayed kick is more likely to be successful than one in which the kicking team rushes the play in order to beat the play clock. But “icing” means doing SOMETHING as opposed to NOTHING, so the coach does it.

          Now, there is a difference between traditional icing and the recent trend of calling the TO a nanosecond before the snap – thus assuring that the play goes off anyway and the players find out afterwards that it doesn’t count. In that case if the invalidated kick succeeded there is the possibility that the kicker will think “oh man, i felt all this relief that I made that high pressure kick and now I have to do it again” and possibly choke up. OTOH, if the invalidated kick missed the kicker will feel huge relief and is more likely to make the second attempt. So the last-nanosecond TO very well might make a difference – but again you don’t know in advance which way it will change.

          In this case, of course, it had nothing to do with the kicker but instead the Defensive Lineman who rethought his rushing approach and got the block the second time. But that can go the other way too, so icing is still dumb.

          Reply
          • News Nag says:
            December 13, 2011 at 1:53 am

            The only drawback in icing the kicker is that each team doesn’t have an unlimited number of timeouts to call, which would make it even more effective and fascinating to watch than it already is. Rules committee? Are you paying attention? Okay then. How about a rule making it legal to spear-tackle the head coach within three seconds before he calls a timeout meant to ice the kicker? All’s fair in love and football.

            Reply
        • joe from Lowell says:
          December 12, 2011 at 3:59 pm

          There is no dumber, more annoying, and less effective “tactic” in all of sport, maybe even all of human endeavor, than icing the kicker.

          Right. Why would you give him a practice kick?

          Reply
    • Njorl says:
      December 12, 2011 at 4:30 pm

      Sometimes a block is the kicker’s fault. On a short kick, the kicker can put the ball on a high trajectory which is hard to block. When you see a kick blocked by a guy who got almost no penetration, that’s on the kicker. I didn’t see it, so I can’t say.

      Reply
  2. Scott P. says:
    December 12, 2011 at 1:47 am

    I see that Garrett finally figured out how not to ice his own kicker — use all his timeouts so he has none left!

    Reply
  3. c u n d gulag says:
    December 12, 2011 at 7:53 am

    Near Dallas did Jerry Jones
    A stately pleasure-dome decree.

    And still, two week in a row
    His kicker missed a three.

    Scott – thanks for that video clip! That’s my Christmas gift!!!

    There is NO team on the planet in any sport that I hate more than the Dallas Cowboys. And every Giants fan I know feels the same way. If we went 1-15, and that 1 win was over Dallas in Dallas, then for some of us the season wasn’t a total loss after all.

    The year the Giants won their last SB, their game against the Cowboys was every Giants fans real SB – beating Green Bay and the Patriots were just cherries on top of that sundae!

    “Suck on it, Jerry Jones!!!”

    Reply
    • howard says:
      December 12, 2011 at 11:30 am

      c u n d gulag: maybe i’m not a real giants fan (50 years of memories notwithstanding) but i’m not especially down with the idea that beating the cowboys is all that matters. why invest them with that importance?

      what matters is winning the super bowl; insofar as traditional rivalries go, i invest more in giants-eagles than giants-cowboys, but even so, i don’t find success for the season in anything but a super bowl (and i trust the organization doesn’t either).

      Reply
      • elm says:
        December 12, 2011 at 11:36 am

        I agree: as a Giants fan, I want to beat the Eagles more than the Cowboys.

        As a human being that likes to consider himself on the side of goodness (apart from the being-a-Yankee-fan thing), I want to beat the Cowboys more.

        Reply
        • GeoX says:
          December 12, 2011 at 1:39 pm

          Really? As an Eagles fan, if I have to choose between beating the Cowboys and beating the Giants, I’m gonna go with the former every time. Sure, I’m constitutionally mandated to hate the Giants, but I don’t feel it in any visceral way. Whereas the Cowboys…

          Reply
          • elm says:
            December 12, 2011 at 3:38 pm

            Yeah, I realize that Eagles fans don’t view the Giants as their most hated rival. I realize I’m going to make witless chum mad at me for saying this, but this is closest I get to feeling like a Spartan, all my energy focused on a team (Michigan) who cares much more about beating someone else (OSU). At least I’m comforted by the Giants being the clear #2 rival behind the Cowboys. Sparty has to compete with Notre Dame for that honor with Michigan.

            Reply
            • Hogan says:
              December 12, 2011 at 3:46 pm

              Hank: What’s your problem with our dad anyway?!

              The Monarch: (awkwardly) Well, I- he- he’s my nemesis. My archenemy.

              Dean: I don’t think pop thinks you’re his archenemy.

              The Monarch: Come on, I’m sure the walls of the Venture Compound are practically caked with the lingering curses of the Monarch’s name.

              Dean: Uhh, no. I’ve never even heard him mention you.

              Hank: Yeah, I always thought Baron Ünderbheit was dad’s arch-enemy.

              The Monarch: (astounded) Ünderbheit!?! Why, that dime-store Doctor Doom isn’t fit to — just you wait til your father calls me back!

              Reply
          • Njorl says:
            December 12, 2011 at 4:16 pm

            For me, the Eagles-Giants games are so much more interesting. Something weird is more likely to happen in those games than in any other. That’s what makes it a better rivalry.

            It doesn’t matter who you hate more, fate has decreed that the divisional rivalries are Eagles-Giants, and Redskins-Cowboys.

            Reply
      • c u n d gulag says:
        December 12, 2011 at 12:01 pm

        Guys, I go back to the days a few years after YA Tittle.

        I lived through the Milt Plum, Fran Tarkenton, Gary Wood, Randy Johnson, Norm Snead, Tom Blanchard, Jerry Golsteyn, and Joe Pisarcik years, when I figured I would personally walk on the Moon sooner than the Giants would get within a sniff of the playoffs, let alone the SB.

        Remember THOSE days, Howard?
        That’s why I still treasure wins over Dallas – because back then, that was ALL we had! :-)

        George Young, Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor, and Bill Parcells, among others, changed all of that.

        I won’t ever walk on the Moon, but I’m still more shocked that we’ve won 3 SB’s, and lost another, than if I had.

        Reply
        • howard says:
          December 12, 2011 at 12:34 pm

          c u n d gulag, i’m a de gustibus guy, and if beating the cowboys makes your season, be my guest, but even in those days, it didn’t make mine.

          (as for a stroll down memory lane, how about: homer jones, tucker frederickson, ernie koy, willie young (the holding-est tackle i’ve ever seen), chuck mercein, earl morrall….)

          and since you’ve got me going, your qb roll of honor missed craig morton, for whom the giants gave up the number one draft pick that became randy white (and the other top pick that year? walter payton. for craig morton, for crissake), and of course you remember the years when there was only one good defensive player on the entire roster, spider lockhart.

          Reply
          • c u n d gulag says:
            December 12, 2011 at 12:53 pm

            Yeah, those guys were all on the team as I was starting to get into football, and I loved them all. But wtf did I know, I was a kid…

            And YIKES! – how could I have forgotten the immortal Craig Morton?
            I remember watching him throw, what was it, 3 interceptions, when Denver lost its first SB – TO DALLAS!, and joked to my friends that, like Fran “The Man” Tarkenton, when a QB has seen the inside of a Giants uniform, he will NEVER win a SB!

            I also remember when back in the late 70′s, the Giants “brain-trust” was looking to turn Harry Carson, one of the best MLB’s in his time, into a Tight End.
            Now making Pisarcik a TE I could understand, because he had a Tebow-like ability to throw a waddling, wounded duck at any opportunity – but without any of the Jesusy goodness. Or victories.

            Thank goodness for Pete Rozelle’s intervention!

            Reply
            • howard says:
              December 12, 2011 at 1:11 pm

              c u n d gulag, so we don’t kill the whole day on this, a few more quick points:

              a.) craig morton had already started in super bowl v before the giants traded for him, and he had 3 interceptions in the cowboy loss; he then had 4 more interceptions when he qb’d denver in ’77 (and lost): http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MortCr00/super-bowl/;

              b. homer jones was actually a pretty good receiver although a terrible route-runner, but his average yards per catch in 6 years as a giant was an astonishing 22.6;

              c. terrible as the trade for morton was, the worst move (in my estimation) the giants made in those awful years was to draft tucker frederickson with the number one pick in the draft when – get ready – both dick butkus (who went number 3) and gale sayers (who went number 4) were available! even ken willard, who went second, had a much better pro career than frederickson….

              Reply
              • Bill Murray says:
                December 12, 2011 at 2:09 pm

                Did Homer run any route but the Fly (or in his later years, Superfly) route? He did originate spiking the ball IIRC. He, however, was no Warren Wells

                Reply
              • c u n d gulag says:
                December 12, 2011 at 2:28 pm

                Wow, you’re right, I’d forgotten that earlier Morton SB.
                But my gag about him losing the SB after seeing the inside of a Giants uniform still holds – at least in my feeble mind.

                I knew Homer had great YPC stats, but I didn’t remember him being such a bad route runner. Thanks for that info.

                And I remember waiting for the promise that we kept being told Tucker had to make itself evident.
                I mean, it was explained, after all, he WAS drafted ahead of those guys for a reason.
                And and so we waited.
                And waited.
                And waited…

                Reply
                • Thlayli says:
                  December 12, 2011 at 4:47 pm

                  Morton is one of two quarterbacks who started a Super Bowl both before and after he was a Giant; Kurt Warner is the other. (Tarkenton doesn’t have a “before”.)

        • actor212 says:
          December 12, 2011 at 12:46 pm

          I’d trade any for one of those bland and insipid mediocrities for two words: Richard Todd.

          Nuff said

          Reply
          • c u n d gulag says:
            December 12, 2011 at 1:27 pm

            Yeah, they were THAT bad.

            But I remember poor Richard Todd after a few years on the Jets – while he wasn’t the man who invented “Happy Feet” for QB’s, he certainly became the NFL’s version of Fred Astaire.

            That poor guy got hit so many times when defenders ran past his leaking O-line, which offered even less resistance than a super-conductor, that after awhile, you actually felt sorry for the poor SOB.

            I bet he still wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, waiting for that hit from the blindside DE.
            And sees AJ Duhe whenever he passes the salt.

            And, after just a season or two on the Jets, Ken O’Brian became the Gene Kelley of QB’s.

            Reply
            • R Johnston says:
              December 12, 2011 at 8:42 pm

              Whenever someone goes on about bad it was that the Jets passed on Marino to pick O’Brien I can’t help but wonder if he’s forgotten about how bad that offensive line was. Marino never quite becomes Marino if the Jets had drafted him.

              O’Brien was sacked more times in his first full season at quarterback than Marino was in his first four seasons combined, and that was much more the fault of the O-line than the fault of O’Brien. When he wasn’t being battered like a ragdoll, O’Brien’s numbers weren’t even all that different from Marino’s (58.6% completions vs. 59.4%; 2.7% interceptions vs. 3.0%; 7.0 yds/att vs. 7.3 yds/att; Marino had a distinctly better td%, but that at least partly reflects the offense’s ability to maintain a drive and end up in good position to throw a td rather than qb play in isolation). But if you look at sack rates (8.9% vs. 3.1%), net yards per attempt, which incorporates attempts resulting in a sack (5.7 nyds/att vs. 6.9 nyds/att), and time lost to injury (lots vs. very little), you see a vast gulf.

              Stats from pro-football-reference.com

              Reply
        • Njorl says:
          December 12, 2011 at 4:21 pm

          One reason to hate the Cowboys is that they never had to suffer through Norm Snead, like the rest of the division.

          Reply
  4. Leeds man says:
    December 12, 2011 at 9:44 am

    Time-outs are an abomination to God and all right-thinking people.

    Reply
  5. witless chum says:
    December 12, 2011 at 10:16 am

    Ha, ha.

    The Cowboys are the closest thing in pro sports to the hateability of the University of Michigan and/or Catholic Michigan of northern Indiana.

    Reply
  6. Scott Lemieux says:
    December 12, 2011 at 10:21 am

    By the way, who is the Cowboys defensive coordinator again? If only the producers would show him once and a while. He’s doing a hell of a job!

    Reply
    • c u n d gulag says:
      December 12, 2011 at 10:31 am

      Yeah, him and his brother Rex, fatuous blowhard Buddy Ryan’s sons, prove once again that the turds don’t fall far from the sphincter.

      Reply
    • elm says:
      December 12, 2011 at 11:19 am

      Well, given his fabulous hair, how could the cameras stay away?

      Reply
    • howard says:
      December 12, 2011 at 12:36 pm

      given the way the rules have evolved to favor the people’s choice – high-octane passing games – i’m not sure why anyone other than a masochist becomes a defensive coordinator….

      Reply
      • Njorl says:
        December 13, 2011 at 9:44 am

        One way the NFL could cut down on the type of hits that cause injury is if they let DBs cover receivers again. As it is, they over-rely on breaking up the play with a big hit.

        Reply
  7. ploeg says:
    December 12, 2011 at 10:29 am

    Most of the time, you’re just giving the kicker a mulligan, letting the kicker see how the winds are swirling in the stadium at that particular moment and allowing the kicker to adjust for the second kick. And you’re as likely to block the first kick as the second (if not more so: the kicker can adjust the angle upwards if the kicker boomed the first kick). So icing the kicker is a dumb move — except when the other coach showed that it could work the previous week.

    Reply
  8. Jim Lynch says:
    December 12, 2011 at 10:41 am

    Few things in sport are more enjoyable than watching Jones, on camera, on national TV, and with him enjoying the spotlight, during a last second Cowboy meltdown.

    Reply
  9. actor212 says:
    December 12, 2011 at 11:54 am

    New Rule for a stoopid sport with too many of them already: When the ball is set, trying to call a time out is a fifteen yard penalty.

    Reply
    • Chuchundra says:
      December 12, 2011 at 2:16 pm

      There are plenty of legitimate reasons for calling a TO on defense when the ball is set: wrong personnel, wrong defensive alignment, too many men on the field, etc.

      Fixing this “problem” would break too many other things.

      Reply
      • actor212 says:
        December 12, 2011 at 4:27 pm

        I have no problem with making those penalties too. If you’re too slow or too stupid to get the right defense on the field before the set, then you pay the price.

        Reply
        • KadeKo says:
          December 12, 2011 at 7:07 pm

          Something akin to the basketball free throw rule would be appropriate in the case of a team defending a FGA, for my money. Even in a situation where they’re thinking it’s a fake: If they don’t get the right people out there, too bad.

          In hoops I think it’s “once the ref gives the shooter at the line the ball, no time out call will be recognized”.

          Reply
  10. Western Dave says:
    December 12, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    Grew up a Giants fan, son of a Giants fan who was at the game on the original Pearl Harbor Day and remembers that day as a series of loudspeaker announcements (“Will General so and so please report to the front desk for a message. Will Admiral so and so please report to the front desk for a message.” “Will all active servicemen please return to their stations.” I don’t have the language quite right but you get the idea). I was taught hatred of two teams, Washington and Dallas. My first pro-game 1981 Eagles vs. Giants opening day (the Eagles won). But I never, ever hated the Eagles the way I hate Dallas and Washington. In fact, I am now a Philadelphian and have been for 10 years, after moving around the country for 10 years or so, and have shifted allegiances to the Eagles (just in time for the Andy Reid era, lucky me). It was a pretty easy switch.

    Reply
  11. joe from Lowell says:
    December 12, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    Who would have thought Marion Barber wouldn’t be the biggest choke story of the weekend?

    Reply

Leave a Reply




If you want a picture to show with your comment, go get a Gravatar.

    • Switch to our mobile site