Did anyone else feel like they overstated how bad Shane was doing?

Being there

for those commenting on earls behavior during the match.
I am sure that shane can handle just about any sharking move that you could throw at him.
However.
During this weekends match, earl said some things to him that the people watching the livestream could not hear.
I will not quote him because i may not get it exactly right, but believe me, they were personaly insulting.
I was sitting right next to shane & it was obvious that he was dumbfounded by several of earls comments directed at him.
He laughed at the funny stuff: Magnifying glass, earmuffs & all of the funny comments earl made, but it was obvoius to me that the other comments bothered him.
Earl did out shoot him, but shane definatly out classed earl.

SLIM
 
I can't argue momentum and psychology didn't play a part, nor can I argue that at some point shane was 17 games down... so if they'd play about equal on a 'normal' day, shane dropped 7 or 8 games he shouldn't have. So yeah, he didn't play at his full speed.

I just feel the concensus was that he played some of the worst pool of his life, and 'fell apart' when he in fact he was within spitting distance (single digit deficit) for a large chunk of the match . I don't think all three of these statements can be true:
-Earl played as well as a human possibly could on that table, like a demon.
-Shane played horribly, missed more makeable shots than he ever has before.
-This equals a 17 game difference after 183 racks (and near the end shane pulled within 7)
Somehow, that math doesn't add up.

A top pro on his worst day + another top pro on his best = something like a 40 game blowout (aka earl vs. shane I). That's when all the hyperbole should come out.

I think we have this mental optical illusion going on. When earl dropped 8-10 racks and let shane crawl back from a 17 game deficit, and dogged a routine shot leading to multiple assaults on his harpoon and headphones, nobody remembers, they just remember the times Shane's rail cuts got spat out by the V-shaped pockets. Shane made all but about 3 of his kicks and earl left shane looks at the whole ball on several safes, those things aren't shane at his worst or earl at his best.




Shane played fine. He just took the match a little lightly or maybe he said **** it, why prepare so much. Ten footers ain't coming back. He had wrong equipment, and a wrong game plan. Didn't you guys watch his shooting arm? My god. He had to keep raring back and hitting so hard. He was totally out of his normal stroking routine. I watch his arm constantly when he shoots, because its the best way for me to learn something.

Remember the game also had the Grady rules, making safe shooting much more important. He needed to play safe so much more. There could be games where you run two or three, play safe. Shoot another ball. Play safe again. Shoot two more balls. Play safe again until your opponent is so sick to death of you playing safe that he wants to ****ing rip your throat out, and you just smile at them and play safe and hope to god with all your might you can get Him to implode and walk off and forfeit or something. Even if everybody in the joint is pleading shoot, just play safe and tell the crowd ( in your mind ) to go **** yourselves and leave if you want to. Cause Shane plays great safeties when he really concentrates on them. But he wanted to RUN OUT and let Earl who prepared relentlessly and played great, to get too many EASY OUTS and that's the way it was.......
 
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