Originally Posted by Marvin

In addition to the points made by others:

1. You normally would not want to retract landing gear after a tire failure -- the old saying goes, "A down gear is a happy gear"

2. You normally would not want to retract the flaps after a tire failure since some of the rubber could have been thrown into the flap mechanism, causing potential damage or jamming, and finally,

3. Due to the above stated reasons, they would not have had sufficient fuel anyway for a flight from ATL to Portland with gear and flaps extended.

I don't know what flap setting they landed with, but I suspect they extended the flaps incrementally to minimize control issues in the event that any flaps were damaged or jammed.

Originally Posted by FlyingDawg

What if later in the flight they were to have another problem, maybe unextendable flaps or a single engine approach, now you have two problems to deal with. Why not limit it to one on your own terms?

Originally Posted by sailingfun

The 737NG does not use gear doors. The tires fit very tightly in the gear wells to reduce drag. Any damage to the tire could jam the gear in the well. To prevent this there is a pin that would be hit by a blown or damage tire. It prevents that gear from retracting into the gear well and it free falls back down. It would be a long flight to PDX with one gear hanging down.