Another Thing That Completely Perplexes Me...End of Half Play

SirEdHightower

SirEdHightower

Well-Known Member
So there is 1 minute left in the 1st half. In my uneducated, inexperienced opinion, you either throw the ball around and try to get some yards for a field goal attempt or you go conservative and kneel. Instead we run a basic stretch which we all know will go nowhere and Arob fumbles. Just think if we would not have recovered. Things like this really have my saying "what the eff?"
 
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You run an actual play there in the event Arob busts a 20 yard run. You then have the ball near midfield with a min left and you can open up the playbook a bit and look to score points.
 
I'm sure that was the thought process of the coaching staff..lol. It is like it is some sort of facade for attempting to make something happen, when it is actually a boneheaded move.
 
DuffMan said:
You run an actual play there in the event Arob busts a 20 yard run. You then have the ball near midfield with a min left and you can open up the playbook a bit and look to score points.
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Or you throw the ball in the event that there is a 20 yard completion, which is more likely than a 20 yard run.
 
With the Rose Bowl and a BCS berth off the plate, you play aggressive, nothing to lose. Go for a score and sieze more momentum going into the locker room.
 
I agree fellow Maroon(at least we have one football victory under our belt this weekend, and the bball team won today..hooray). I think you go for some points with an "experienced 5th year QB." I just don't understand that if you aren't going to go for it, why run for 8 yards, fumble, then kneel. LOL. We could have still taken a shot downfield at 2nd and 2. I hate to sound like a sourpuss cuz I'm usually not this critical, but some things just don't make any sense to me regarding some decision making.
 
SirEdHightower said:
Or you throw the ball in the event that there is a 20 yard completion, which is more likely than a 20 yard run.
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It's also much more likely to end up a turnover. There was no downside to going into locker room at half up 7-3 at that point. You give yourself an opportunity (small as it may be) to score while minimizing the chances of giving OSU the ball back before half. You may not agree with the decision but I don't understand the confusion on why we did what we did.
 
In my opinion, if you have multiple time outs and a minute left, you give it a shot. It keeps your players in attack-mode and it signals to the other team that it's not business as usual.....gives them something to think about. Finally, it shows your players that you trust in them to make the plays.
 
There was long way to go and and little time, this is only coming up as a question because we lost. The confidence of and in this team is very questionable right now. It's easy to say "we are playing not to lose" and "not playing to win", there was more risk than reward trying to push it downfield. This was OSU and the score at the half was acceptable to me as well.
 
I have absolutely no problem with running out first half clock. Hawks came in as the underdog. No reason to tempt disaster at that point.

Game was there to take, and Iowa played true to form for this year. I can't believe so many people are just now coming to grips with the reality of this year's team. C'mon folks...
 
another reason to do it...in case you have to do it in the second half to win the game. Doing it at the end of the first half is the best preview/practice you can get.
 
HerkyDog said:
I have absolutely no problem with running out first half clock. Hawks came in as the underdog. No reason to tempt disaster at that point.

Game was there to take, and Iowa played true to form for this year. I can't believe so many people are just now coming to grips with the reality of this year's team. C'mon folks...
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Thank god that sit on the ball mentality is winning us all these close games.

Thank goodness for those cool headed coaches.
 
A few reasons why we try and score before half:

1) Our HC always takes the ball to start the game even though this goes completely against any logical thinking. We know that OSU will take the ball to start the 2nd half.

2) We are at home playing in front of a friendly crowd.

3) We have nothing to lose. BCS birth not on the line. Big10 Championship not on the line. Beating a national powerhouse on national TV is a big deal for recruiting.

4) We have timeouts and a clock that stops on first downs.

5) We just picked off the ball and momentum is heavily in our favor.

What do we do? We kneel on the ball. How does the 3rd quarter start? OSU scores a TD.

The problem with all of this is that it's not the first time that this has happened. It's happened so many times that I can't even begin to name the games any longer. You would think that the coaching staff would learn from it's mistakes but they don't. In all honesty, I think that KF was shooting his middle finger at the fans telling us that he knows better than the collective masses and that we shouldn't question his coaching abilities.
 
Its a conservative measure, something this staff specializes in. That attitude might well foster how the team plays in the fourth quarter. Why would you ever give up timeouts and a series of downs to a top ranked team. We are who we say we are, scared to lose, just hopinig to win.
 
This is a losing philosophy. I remember about four years ago when we were playing PSU and we had the ball with over a minute left and all three TO's. The announcers started talking about how we would be trying to get down the field and I literally lol's. Two running plays (followed by PSU TO's) and an incomplete pass later, PSU got the ball back, went the length of the field and added a FG before halftime.

To me, it is inexcusable.
 
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