4th and 1 at the Cuse 10

[gopher2]

I was hoping we would go for the 1st and try to take the lead rather than playing for the tie. Up to that point they had not stopped us on 4th down. If we don't make it we're still only down 3 with lots of time and ball deep in their end. Gotta take a chance now and then and that would have been a good place to take one IMO. Big emotional lift to the team and the fans if we take the lead there.

 

[Nostical]

Absolutely right. Their D was on its heels. No balls

 

[whaler11]

Yep this was the worst decision of them all yesterday.

 

[Jimdish255]

Disagree. You go for the tie there. Besides we would have to run the ball from there since we don't have any passing plays designed to reach the end zone.

 

[The Viking]

couldn't agree more, our offense had some nice momentum against their defense....and you have to understand that while Syracuse's defense sucks, their offense is good and they run a ton of plays. You aren't going to beat Dino Babers offenses by kicking field goals.

Oh, and you don't call a timeout with 40 seconds left in the half when you have 1st and goal at the 6 yard line and you're offense has been on a roll and you're facing Babers.

 

[businesslawyer]

couldn't agree more, our offense had some nice momentum against their defense....and you have to understand that while Syracuse's defense sucks, their offense is good and they run a ton of plays. You aren't going to beat Dino Babers offenses by kicking field goals.

Oh, and you don't call a timeout with 40 seconds left in the half when you have 1st and goal at the 6 yard line and you're offense has been on a roll and you're facing Babers.

In the NFL, you don't call a TO there. In college, with a struggling offense and that little time left, you do what you have to to make sure you get 3 good chances to score the TD.

FAns here want it both ways. We whine about inability to score at the goalline, and then we want to criticize a coach for focusing on scoring the 7 as opposed to winding the clock down as much as possible? There is a difference between real criticism and shameless second guessing.

 

[SubbaBub]

The kick to tie the game was the correct call. We had taken control of the game on both sides of the ball. If not for the pick six, we kick the second FG to take the lead instead of the fake and likely hold on for a win.

Diaco would be praised for not screwing it up, making a good adjustment after the first two scores and opening up the playbook.

There is quite a bit of outcome bias here this week. Outside of not covering #7, it was the best effort we've seen since Houston. Are you forgetting we topped last seasons entire punt return yardage?

 

[The Viking]

Nope BL, no second guessing here. I called it right away in the game thread.

They ran down to the 6, right? Clock stops briefly on 1st down with what 40 seconds left and 3 timeouts at the 6 yard line? And you think it's a good idea to use a timeout there???


UConn had 3 positive plays in a row to get to the 6, Cuse was on it's heels and it was 1st down - why do you need to call a TO? The only thing struggling at that moment was the Syracuse defense.

And even if you do want to make sure you get the "perfect" play in, why not let the clock roll down to about 25 seconds and call a TO. You still have 2 left. But regardless, at that point on that drive we didn't need Verducci to be Einstein on that one play - hell our offense was already doing fine.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

In the NFL, you don't call a TO there. In college, with a struggling offense and that little time left, you do what you have to to make sure you get 3 good chances to score the TD.

FAns here want it both ways. We whine about inability to score at the goalline, and then we want to criticize a coach for focusing on scoring the 7 as opposed to winding the clock down as much as possible? There is a difference between real criticism and shameless second guessing.

You're off base on this. We had all 3 of our TO's left. We could've run any 3 plays we wanted. He should've let some more time expire. Cuse should not have had the opportunity to drive down for that last FG.

 

[whaler11]

Yeah when you have three timeouts left you can get cute with the clock. It cost them three important points.