Cardinals kick field goal instead of going for TD, WTF!!!!

[AngusThermopyle]

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not sure what the rule is but Monday night Miami got flagged for the illegal forward pass with 2 seconds left in the game.
I thought if PIT accepted the penalty then the clock would wind down 10 seconds and be the end of the game or something like that.

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The 10 second runoff applies only to certain penalties. False start, yes. Illegal formation, no. And the clock has to be running for it to apply (ie if 9 seconds left with the clock stopped, a false start will not result in a 10 second runoff).

And illegal forward pass is a 5 yd penalty.

[Smell The Glove]

Billy Bibbit got it exactly right imo. The coaches are playing to deflect criticism from themselves personally, rather than playing to maximize their chances of winning the game. If the Cardinals go for the TD and don't make it, then it's the coach's decision that led directly to the loss. If the Cards kick the field goal and then lose in overtime, then the problem is the players or luck or the other team or whatever.

It's the same reason that MLB teams bunt too much and overpay for mediocre veterans. Also NBA teams taking star players out of the game when they get 3 fouls in the first half.

If sports fans were less results-oriented, things might be different.

[Triumph36]

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Billy Bibbit got it exactly right imo. The coaches are playing to deflect criticism from themselves personally, rather than playing to maximize their chances of winning the game. If the Cardinals go for the TD and don't make it, then it's the coach's decision that led directly to the loss. If the Cards kick the field goal and then lose in overtime, then the problem is the players or luck or the other team or whatever.

It's the same reason that MLB teams bunt too much and overpay for mediocre veterans. Also NBA teams taking star players out of the game when they get 3 fouls in the first half.

If sports fans were less results-oriented, things might be different.

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if sports fans were less results oriented i might not win at poker

[guilt_trip]

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It's because they're afraid of getting criticized in public if they do anything that could lead to an immediate loss. As I was watching the game, I was thinking "The Cardinals should go for it here" but you are the only other person I've heard say this, and you can bet that if they'd gone for it and gotten stuffed, every armchair coach in America would be all over it.

To be fair they have a slightly better than 50% chance of winning in OT because they're a better team than the 49ers but it's obv nowhere near 70%.

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This is the crux of it all. Losing in OT brings alot less heat than if you run 4th&1 and get stuffed. The standard is "Go for the kick, play OT" and I doubt there are many fans that know the relative %'s for each situation so I doubt its an obvious decision to them all.

Infact there is a concensus among some that you shouldnt ever punt in your OPP half considering all of the factors of it all. A high school team in Texas actually never punts unless its a completely hopeless coversion attempt

[Jurollo]

I really dont mind going for wins in the NFL rather then ties. Especially with the NFL's retarded OT system where it is extremely feasible that only one teams offense touches the ball.

[MicroBob]

"Losing in OT brings alot less heat than if you run 4th&1 and get stuffed."


I still really disagree with this.
These guys are under tremendous heat as it is. Many of them are going to get fired within 1-3 years anyway.
If they actually understood the math they would go for it in a heartbeat and wouldn't give a crap what the idiot fans have to say.

All these guys hear ALL the time is how they should pass more...no wait...you should run more...no wait, why do you have your punter kick like that when it's clearly better to aim it towards the sideline...etc etc.

They hear all the "expert" telling them the most non-sensical idiotic crap over and over and over again. They aren't completely immune to it.
But they aren't total brainless dweebs who are just making play-calls all game long based on what will get them the least amount of heat from their fans.

They are very much trying to win the game and if they do they know the fans will follow...and if they don't then the fans will turn against them.

I really think the impact of the fan criticism on such decisions is being somewhat overstated here.

[MicroBob]

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I really dont mind going for wins in the NFL rather then ties. Especially with the NFL's retarded OT system where it is extremely feasible that only one teams offense touches the ball.

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exactly.
If he fails when he tries it then he just says, "look...I thought we had a good chance of making it. We were practically on top of the goal-line so lets finish this right now instead of relying on the coin-flip."

Fans would totally buy this imo.

[CharlieDontSurf]

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"Losing in OT brings alot less heat than if you run 4th&1 and get stuffed."


I still really disagree with this.
These guys are under tremendous heat as it is. Many of them are going to get fired within 1-3 years anyway.
If they actually understood the math they would go for it in a heartbeat and wouldn't give a crap what the idiot fans have to say.

All these guys hear ALL the time is how they should pass more...no wait...you should run more...no wait, why do you have your punter kick like that when it's clearly better to aim it towards the sideline...etc etc.

They hear all the "expert" telling them the most non-sensical idiotic crap over and over and over again. They aren't completely immune to it.
But they aren't total brainless dweebs who are just making play-calls all game long based on what will get them the least amount of heat from their fans.

They are very much trying to win the game and if they do they know the fans will follow...and if they don't then the fans will turn against them.

I really think the impact of the fan criticism on such decisions is being somewhat overstated here.

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right now Neil Rackers and Kurt Warner are taking heat/blame for Cards loss.

If Wiz goes for it ala Pete Carroll and misses...he gets all the blame.

[Bork]

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not sure what the rule is but Monday night Miami got flagged for the illegal forward pass with 2 seconds left in the game.


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Wikipedia says the 10 second runoff doesn't occur for illegal forward pass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football_rules

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cool, thanks.
Still wonder why they declined penalty though.
At least, I THINK they declined the penalty. I really can't remember for certain now.

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They did decline the penalty and it still made no sense. They could have forced Miami back further. WTF

[prohornblower]

I agree with the general point of this thread:

Many coaches are scared of getting fired or taking heat and thus, make poor decisions which end up hurting their team.