I'm surprised there was no sense of urgency or mention in the group chat mid-game about the potential Longest Road situation up until the point you brought it up: where Orange and Red each had a road length of four at the time and, with Orange likely having two down VPs, potentially sneaking a win with one more point and building one road. If I were Red I would have extended to the 9/12 ASAP.
I'm surprised there was no sense of urgency or mention in the group chat mid-game about the potential Longest Road situation up until the point you brought it up: where Orange and Red each had a road length of four at the time and, with Orange likely having two down VPs, potentially sneaking a win with one more point and building one road. If I were Red I would have extended to the 9/12 ASAP.