Right and I put most of the blame on Etling. He's got the pocket awareness and elusiveness of Zach Mettenberger
The play call wasn't the issue. The RT allowing a D Lineman to basically go unblocked was the problem. People call it a slow play action but Etling was creamed well within a 3 count of the snap. Almost any pass call that was more than a lateral would have resulted in the same thing happening. Etling had no chance with how free that defender was.
Etling is far better with pocket awareness than Mett. He had multiple plays even during this game where he moved around the pocket to avoid a sack and make a completion. The problem was with the RT not Etling or the playcall.
diI He could have used some blocks. He was hit from the blind side. KJ Malone is not ready to be a left tackle.
And thus why it was a bad play. Things like linemen beating their blocks can happen. When they happen at midfield the damage is mitigated by field position. Somebody earlier in this thread made the valid point that if we had called it from our own 1 the dumbness of the play would have been obvious. At the 10 it's only slightly less dumb.... and only gets smarter as we move away from our own goalposts.
Not always dictated by field position though. Doing something in situations you aren't supposed to is the epitome of being aggressive. For a long time we've had to endure conservatism and screamed for less predictability so let's not criticize what we asked for. "Live by the sword, die by the sword." To use that logic would mean it's never a good time for an onside kick. Assuming no penalties- since most don't come after a penalty- the play originates from the same point. Sometimes it's obvious and works from execution though other times it works due to element of surprise. Same thing can be said of FG attempts. Sometimes the feel of the game decides if you kick a 45 yarder...or not.
