ISU fake in OT

HskerFever73 said:
Just thinking about P. Rhodes call on fake in OT. He basically decided, "Hey I have a wounded QB who has fought and battled to get us back in this game, we are at HOME in OT, we just scored easily on our possession. So I guess I'll put the entire game in the hands of my backup on on a trick extra point play and hope that wins it." If I were a ISU fan or player I would be disappointed that he didn't trust the guys who got him there to finish the job. This single decision could affect the psyche of these team and ruin the rest of their season. Oh yea of little faith. Thoughts?
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I thought it was the right call by CPR to go for the win. I agree with some people questioning the way he went about it, but in general I agree it was the right call.

I look at it this way:

The longer the game goes on, the more likely it is that Nebraska, the deeper, more-talented team with a far better kicker than Iowa State eventually assumes control. Compounding this problem, Arnaud had been inconsistent all game long and appeared to have an injured wheel - a bad match-up against our ball-hawking defense. That being said, at that point in time of the game, ISU had all the momentum, and was playing at at least as high a level, if not more so, than NU.

With those factors in mind, the odds of ISU executing the two point conversion are much better than them standing toe-to-toe with us for 2-3 more rounds in an overtime situation.

It's the same principle applied by Boise St. against Oklahoma in the 06 Fiesta Bowl: When you have the momentum against a superior team, you don't extend the game any longer than you have to. Instead, you capitalize on Big Mo when you have it and are in a position to win the game - where you only need to be better than your opponent on one play, not on a series of them.

Thankfully it didn't work in this particular instance, but, on balance, it was the right call to make when you consider the odds.

 
It was an awesome call by Iowa State and made a lot of sense, even in hindsight.

I'm too lazy to look it up, but isn't Nebraska undefeated in OT?

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
melscott62 said:
imo if you are going to go for 2 there you send your offense out. imo they would have got it too. we couldnt stop them
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What sense would that have made? They caught us with our pants down on that fake. If the offense comes out onto the field, obviously we'll be ready for it.
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yeah but they also had their punter throwing a pass into the wind. people act like they caught us and just got unlucky. thats a tough pass to make..... let alone at the end of a game and into the wind. all of those things should be factored into the decision.

 
This is one of those plays that, if it'd worked, 87% of the fans who call it "stupid" now would have been touting it as "genius!!!!1111!1!!" The other 13% would have said, "wow, that was really risky and pretty stupid, but awesome that it worked!"

I think that his thought process was something like this-- "(Like someone said above) We just punched this in, we have the momentum. Faking it against this secondary would, under normal conditions, be stupid. But I'm not stupid and they know that I'm not stupid, so they won't be expecting this in the first OT because only someone very stupid would have a backup QB throw a ball at this secondary in a high-pressure situation. Because it's SO stupid, it could work." I think he thought it out, i don't think it was knee-jerk, but if I were an ISU fan, I would have been a little cheesed that he didn't wait until the 2nd OT to try something like this. Then again, he might have been aware of his odds of scoring again... maybe he felt that it was the only real shot that he had at winning. Who knows? The latter is only true when you look at the team's total performance and not just at their performance that day against ISU.

I think that it was in the "So Stupid It's Smart" category.

 
It was a ballsy call that would have worked even with the holder making the pass except that NU had a fast, smart, instinctive athlete lined up to guard against it. I totally respect the call.

Yeah, the pass was soft and the wind caught it, but even with a bit more zip, Hagg may well have deflected it. It was a great college football moment.

 
Fuzzy said:
My thoughts?

Great call by Rhoads, poor execution on Cyclones part.
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I thought it was a gutsy call by Rhoads but a bad play selection. Backup punter throwing into a 30 MPH wind against the nation's best secondary is not a recipe for success - and it did not succeed. I think he'd have been better off sending in the regular offense for the 2-point try.

 
Great call to go for the win right there, but a bad play choice (along with bad execution).

If I remember right, they were against the wind. Putting the game into the hands of whatever backup was in and asking him to throw it into the wind against our secondary? Ouch. I'd have just marched the offense onto the field and tried a play there.

 
HuskerJosh said:
Hagg was waiting for a fake. I think it was stupid, it took them what, 3 plays to score in OT?
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it looked like prince, hagg, and gomes were all ready to defend a fake. i think bo should have called an even safer prevent fg play (or whatever), but it worked. give up the field goal, do not give up the conversion.

 
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