Raiders’ coach Josh McDaniels’ decision to go for two with 4:27 left in the fourth quarter after a huge touchdown pass from Derek Carr to Davante Adams had pulled his team to within one point of the Chiefs at 30-29 made no sense whatsoever. And the fact that most Raiders players seemed to support McDaniels’ decision (after their fourth loss in five games) changes nothing. Unified, collective stupidity is no less stupidity.
A coach’s in-game job is to keep open as many paths to victory as possible. There are four and a half minutes left. Your defense has been pretty much powerless to stop the Chiefs in the second half. If you go for two and make it, you have not guaranteed victory, or really even significantly raised your chances of winning. But if you go for it and fail (which they did) you have taken OT out of the picture. Your job is to keep doors open, not to close them.
Cold “analytics” say you have a better than 50 percent chance of making a two-point conversion. OK. But here’s a situation where the downside of failing greatly exceeds the upside of succeeding.
We’re seeing more and more coaches “think” with their gonads instead of their brains. This creeping insanity really took root last season, when we saw coach after coach make inexplicable decisions to “go for it” on fourth down, regardless of field position and game situation, and “go for two” when it made no sense.
The Dunce Corner of The Royal Order of NFL Mindless Machismo currently includes:
Josh McDaniels
Zac Taylor
Brandon Staley (maybe the most chronic offender of all of them)
John Harbaugh
Nathaniel Hackett
Kliff Kingsbury
WWCLD? What would Coach Landry do? He would think, rather than spasm.
Analytics make a lot of sense in baseball. Baseball is pure stats. That’s simply not the case in football, because there are so many more moving parts and so few games in a regular season, 17 as opposed to 162. A football coach can “analyze” himself into unemployment, and several of these guys are headed that direction.
Kick the damn PAT.
Yeah, let me beat you to the punch. Yes, even The Sainted Andy Reid unnecessarily went for two earlier in the game. Not a great decision, either, but Reid may have been taking his team’s recent kicking woes into account.
The Chiefs come from 17 down to win. Mahomes is now 23-3 against the AFC West. Travis Kelce had only 25 receiving yards, but turned them into four touchdowns.
Look. I’m all for protecting NFL quarterbacks. Quarterbacks are the product and the brand in the NFL. If your quarterback is unavailable and can’t perform, neither can the rest of your offense. But this is ridiculous. The flag the Falcons got Sunday for that love pat on Brady was a travesty. And that Monday night call on KC’s Chris Jones for gently escorting Derek Carr to the ground was even worse. What is a pass-rusher supposed to do?
Hey, Davante. Are you missing Aaron yet?
I almost think getting fired was the best thing that could happen to Matt Rhule. He’s a college coach. And a very good one. His is now better off, IMO. And the Panthers still owe him $40 million.
Astros open up against the Mariners today. I’ll prepare by buying Rolaids by the bulk. Postseason baseball tears my stomach up.