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When I was a kid teams rarely went for it on fourth down outside of exigent circumstances, and then only on fourth and inches. Fans often bemoaned this. Tom Landry was famous for his conservativism in this regard; he even said if there is a penalty on a made field goal that gives you first down, never take points off the board.
Now it seems that coaches are promiscuous about going for it on fourth down, and fans hate it. Indeed, we see repeatedly that the past generation of coaches appear to have been right. Going for it on fourth down when you don't have to almost never works out. It seems to me that absent the benefit of hindsight going for it on fourth down outside of exigent circumstances or fourth and an inch or so is just plain bad judgment. It's ipso facto a stupid call. Res ipsa loquitur.
The past two weeks Whit cost Utah a chance to beat Washington and may have cost the team the game against Arizona simply by going for it on fourth down. These are calls that I bet most fans would not have made even as they were occuring.
Against Washington the Utes were ahead 8-7 late in the first half, and he went for it on fourth and more than a yard from the Utah 43. (Utah's defense had been ably stopping the Huskies, their one TD was an amazing catch at the back of the end zone, the reciever grazing the end zone with his toes before he catapulted out of bounds.) I was with an experienced Ute fan and we stared in disbelief as Utah lined up to go for it, cursing the coaches. Of course they gave the ball to John White off tackle, and he came up an inch short. The Huskies marched down and scored a touchdown on a 43 yard drive, going up 14-8 at the half.
Last night was worse. The score was tied eight minutes to go in the game, AZ just having tied it, FOURTH AND SIX, and the Utes fake punted it FROM THEIR OWN 39! As Orangeute noted, punters are not normally cut out to be quarterbacks. AZ drove 39 yards for the winning score.
Remember in the 2008-09 BCS title game Stoops went for it, fourth and goal just before the half when a field goal would have given Oklahoma the lead over Florida going into halftime, and Florida held? Another egregious example of coaching malpractice.
What is the matter with stupid coaches who understand less than silly fans do about going for it on fourth down? When are they going to figure it out?
Now it seems that coaches are promiscuous about going for it on fourth down, and fans hate it. Indeed, we see repeatedly that the past generation of coaches appear to have been right. Going for it on fourth down when you don't have to almost never works out. It seems to me that absent the benefit of hindsight going for it on fourth down outside of exigent circumstances or fourth and an inch or so is just plain bad judgment. It's ipso facto a stupid call. Res ipsa loquitur.
The past two weeks Whit cost Utah a chance to beat Washington and may have cost the team the game against Arizona simply by going for it on fourth down. These are calls that I bet most fans would not have made even as they were occuring.
Against Washington the Utes were ahead 8-7 late in the first half, and he went for it on fourth and more than a yard from the Utah 43. (Utah's defense had been ably stopping the Huskies, their one TD was an amazing catch at the back of the end zone, the reciever grazing the end zone with his toes before he catapulted out of bounds.) I was with an experienced Ute fan and we stared in disbelief as Utah lined up to go for it, cursing the coaches. Of course they gave the ball to John White off tackle, and he came up an inch short. The Huskies marched down and scored a touchdown on a 43 yard drive, going up 14-8 at the half.
Last night was worse. The score was tied eight minutes to go in the game, AZ just having tied it, FOURTH AND SIX, and the Utes fake punted it FROM THEIR OWN 39! As Orangeute noted, punters are not normally cut out to be quarterbacks. AZ drove 39 yards for the winning score.
Remember in the 2008-09 BCS title game Stoops went for it, fourth and goal just before the half when a field goal would have given Oklahoma the lead over Florida going into halftime, and Florida held? Another egregious example of coaching malpractice.
What is the matter with stupid coaches who understand less than silly fans do about going for it on fourth down? When are they going to figure it out?
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