Our vantage point doesn't allow us to see the exact angle, but I'm pretty sure the issue with cutting the 14 in the other corner is the scratch. That's if he just rolled it in using center or top. I'm sure if it wasn't a scratch shot, that's the shot he would have chosen, rather than taking such a thin cut and flirting with the traffic on the other side of the table.
I still like cutting the 14 in that corner like you said, but it probably required hitting with a little more speed and drawing the cue ball to the side rail to miss the scratch (and maybe a little outside english), then coming off the short rail back up for a less than ideal cut on the 8 in the left side.
I think that was the shot, given we got to see how the angle on the other shot played out. I think Darren was confident in how he saw the angle, but in reality he misjudged it.
I don't know, to me it looks like the tangent line goes to the pocket, so I think you could avoid the scratch by 3-4" just hitting it soft with follow. I would be tempted to play it with a bit of inside as well, just to slow the cueball down a bit, and that would take the scratch out of play even more. These camera angles can be very tricky, though, so I may not be seeing it right.
Aaron