Should they have tried for the record?

[Dave Gray]

That's kinda like in chess when your opponent has you beat and he offers his hand as a sign of respect and instead of shaking his hand you move. Seriously? You're not going to admit defeat when you are down by 50 points with 30 seconds left on the clock?

I'm not really trying to argue that he should've kicked it.  I get what he was doing and it's fine.

In terms of "the game was over" -- the game was over after 3 quarters.  We literally could've taken a knee and punted for the rest of the game.  Considering the last 15 seconds as "over" but not the last 2 minutes where we were running the ball or the last 10 minutes where we were airing out 60 yard TDs is just arbitrary.  Again, it's fine.

The only thing I'm trying to say is it's not like we had to do something out of the ordinary to beat the record.  We had to do something out of the ordinary to not beat the record.

[Brian Fein]

^^ agree with this.  taking a knee on 4th down seems deliberate and unusual, considering there were no kneels on 1st, 2nd, or 3rd down.  Why now?  It seems more like a mercy play, like showing "hey, we're not going to embarass you today" all while pointing out that you're losing by 50.

[Downunder Dolphan]

^^ agree with this.  taking a knee on 4th down seems deliberate and unusual, considering there were no kneels on 1st, 2nd, or 3rd down.  Why now?  It seems more like a mercy play, like showing "hey, we're not going to embarass you today" all while pointing out that you're losing by 50.

The previous couple of plays Denver started getting chippy on the field - at the prospect of being officially on the receiving end of the biggest spanking in history, you could see they were getting upset. I think it was smart by McDaniel to stop it there and then - that along with his message after the game about not being around to chase records was a pretty good reality check (and hopefully reset) for the team. There are more important goals ahead.