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dzrams
I appreciate the admission on that particular play and knowing your stance in general of his decoy value.
I too suspect the Rams may have found another way to score on that drive and win the game but I can’t be sure.
Personally though, despite being an optimistic person, I’m still not a big fan of speculating. I’ll take the one certainty over many would’ves, could’ves, and should’ves.
What is certain is that TA was a big part of scoring 7 points in a close game that was only won by 5 points. I would never minimize a player’s contribution in such a scenario.
Tavon may be a small part of this O now but it appears to me that his part is growing. His snaps seem to be increasing week to week. McVay has said that there’s aspects of him being a WR that we haven’t seen yet.
I think you’re severely down playing his value. But we can agree to disagree.
Leaving aside that Gurley TD, the Rams scored 8 times. 7 of the 8 times they scored 3. I think the "best guess" is that the Rams would have scored - they scored on almost every drive - but they would have scored 3, not 7. In which case, the Cowboys would not missed the 2-pt conversion that proved critical because they wouldn't have needed it. That's a 5-pt swing, and the whole dynamic of the game would have changed. *Maybe* now Dak gets the ball under 2 min, no timeouts, but the game is tied.
Bottom line: given that the Rams scored only 1 other TD that day, I don't think it's fair to assume that they would have scored one if not for that play. FG? Sure. They did that 7 times. And NOW the game plays out COMPLETELY differently.