What Did We Learn?.....Purdue

[Dan_F_31]

12 minutes ago, NebraskaHarry said:

Just because it appears to be the going topic to discuss, I would have went for it on 4th down like Riley did. Not a lot of time left in the game, you play to win the game. Im no Riley apologist but imo it was the right call. My beef with Riley is when he gestured like he wanted to spike the ball to kill the clock with 30 some seconds on the clock with no timeouts when we were within the redzone. Luckily we didn't and preserved that extra play even though it was an incomplete pass. Thats plenty of time to run a play Riley. Come on.

How is kicking the FG not playing to win? There was 3:08 left and 2 TO!  

 

had they gotten the ball back with 1:22 left and 70 yds to go. You only have to go 40ish to be in position to win rather than 70! Which Neb had shown little ability to do BTW.

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by Dan_F_31

[NebraskaHarry]

1 hour ago, Dan_F_31 said:

How is kicking the FG not playing to win? There was 3:08 left and 2 TO!  it failed.

 

had they gotten the ball back with 1:22 left and 70 yds to go. You only have to go 40ish to be in position to win rather than 70! Which Neb had shown little ability to do BTW.

 

Relax man. If they kick that field goal and don't get the ball back at the end i guarantee you'd be singing a different tune, little bird.

[Dan_F_31]

Just now, NebraskaHarry said:

Relax man. If they kick that field goal and don't get the ball back at the end i guarantee you'd be singing a different tune, little bird.

It's about the percentage to win. You are arguing in favor of the option that failed. And had Nebraska stalled on their last drive in the Red zone, as they did repeatedly, then it would sure be nice to. E able to kick a FG to win. 

 

Big bird.

[NebraskaHarry]

Nah. You go for the lead, little bird.

[Dan_F_31]

Just now, NebraskaHarry said:

Nah. You go for the lead, little bird.

Ha ha. Ok man. thanks for the condescension.

[RedSavage]

Going for it on 4th was the right call

[Waldo]

14 minutes ago, Dan_F_31 said:

How is kicking the FG not playing to win? There was 3:08 left and 2 TO!  

 

had they gotten the ball back with 1:22 left and 70 yds to go. You only have to go 40ish to be in position to win rather than 70! Which Neb had shown little ability to do BTW.

 

I didn't mind going for it. The play call was terrible, but field goals are not a guarantee either. 

[NebraskaHarry]

1 hour ago, Dan_F_31 said:

Ha ha. Ok man. thanks for the condescension.

My apologies if you feel that way. That wasn't my intention. You seem a little worked up over this and me using "little bird" wasn't necessary for trying to convey that. My apologies.

[Dan_F_31]

4 minutes ago, NebraskaHarry said:

My apologies if you feel that way. That wasn't my intention. You seem a little worked up over this and me using "little bird" wasn't necessary for trying to convey that. My apologies.

No biggie. Debate is debate. 

 

How is this for something I learned.

 

i live in West Lafayette. Work at Purdue. Live next door to Purdue D-line coach. I'm embedded here. What I learned is how quickly my buddies can turn from gloating  to pissy in about 10 min.

 

and that their excuses for injuries are more relevant than Nebs.

Edited October 29, 2017 by Dan_F_31

[84HuskerLaw]

13 hours ago, RedDenver said:

No.

 

By going for it he gave himself two chances to win: either the TD there or one on the next drive. Kicking the FG leaves only one opportunity to win the game, and that's only if you can get the ball back with only 3 minutes left and 2 TO's.

I see both sides of this question but I would have kicked the field goal as well.  The advantage of the field goal is that if it is made, we and now within a field goal of the win and we don't need to score any TDs which are clearly harder to do that getting field goals.   This game showed that clearly.   The other advantage is that assuming you make the kick, you get to kick off and have a chance, albeit a small one, of getting the ball back with an onsides kick.  This allows the offense to control the remainder of the game and you don't even have to worry about whether or not you are able to prevent the opponent from running out the clock with a first down or two, no matter the time left or time outs, etc.  

 

If you miss the kick, you get to go on defense at that spot and of the field without worrying about a kick off return against you or the time running off for that play or a bad kick out of bounds or something of that sort.  We did have to rely on Brown to make a TD saving kick off return tackle already in the game as well.  

 

Yes, the 4th down attempt would look great if it worked and we went on down and scored the TD and used up the clock in the process but that didn't happen and we were not exactly controlling anything offensively such as the line of scrimmage battle, etc.  Our QB was getting sacked and hit repeatedly throughout the game.  The chances of scoring a TD on a long drive, as we did to end the game, were very low (less than 10%) surely.  You might have an 80% chance of Brown making two field goals kicks and a 10% chance of recovering the onside kick.  If not, you still get to play defense with about the same time and time outs etc.

 

I could also add that the chances of getting TDs was low evidenced by Riley's willingness to shoot the moon early on in the game going on 4th downs a couple times from our own end of the field.   This shows desperation and or misplaced confidence as our O line couldn't block to get a 4 yard gain on a run play for nearly the entire game.     

Edited October 29, 2017 by 84HuskerLaw

[Dan_F_31]

3 minutes ago, 84HuskerLaw said:

I see both sides of this question but I would have kicked the field goal as well.  The advantage of the field goal is that if it is made, we and now within a field goal of the win and we don't need to score any TDs which are clearly harder to do that getting field goals.   This game showed that clearly.   The other advantage is that assuming you make the kick, you get to kick off and have a chance, albeit a small one, of getting the ball back with an onsides kick.  This allows the offense to control the remainder of the game and you don't even have to worry about whether or not you are able to prevent the opponent from running out the clock with a first down or two, no matter the time left or time outs, etc.  

 

If you miss the kick, you get to go on defense at that spot and of the field without worrying about a kick off return against you or the time running off for that play or a bad kick out of bounds or something of that sort.  We did have to rely on Brown to make a TD saving kick off return tackle already in the game as well.  

 

Yes, the 4th down attempt would look great if it worked and we went on down and scored the TD and used up the clock in the process but that didn't happen and we were not exactly controlling anything offensively such as the line of scrimmage battle, etc.  Our QB was getting sacked and hit repeatedly throughout the game.  The chances of scoring a TD on a long drive, as we did to end the game, were very low (less than 10%) surely.  You might have an 80% chance of Brown making two field goals kicks and a 10% chance of recovering the onside kick.  If not, you still get to play defense with about the same time and time outs etc.   

Glad someone can put it more eloquently than I.

 

not to mention, what is the chance of converting on 4th and 6? Has to be less than 25%.

Edited October 29, 2017 by Dan_F_31

[RedDenver]

1 hour ago, 4skers89 said:

The contradictory wording of this post is cause for debate.  He has two chances to win by going for the TD but kicking the FG leaves only one opportunity?

 

I think it comes down to did Riley think they could get the ball back?  He didn't so he went for the TD.  It only worked because we got the last possession.  I think he made the right call.  You kick the field goal and Purdue has a lot more incentive to run out the clock.  They played conservative on offense and took their chances on us scoring an improbable last second TD.

Here's why going for it gives you two chances to win vs the FG only gives one:

Scenario #1: Kick the FG

Huskers cannot win the game by kicking that FG. They MUST get the ball back from Purdue, and then drive into FG range and make another FG (or score a TD). So the only way to win is to kick a FG, get the ball back, and score again; that's just one chance to win on the last possession, and that's only if the Huskers get that last possession.

 

Scenario #2: Go for it

The Huskers can now win in two ways: converting that 4th down and scoring a TD on that possession, or not converting, getting the ball back from Purdue, and scoring a TD.

[jsneb83]

If we knew that was the play call that we were going to get, I would have rather kicked the FG

[RedDenver]

6 minutes ago, jsneb83 said:

If we knew that was the play call that we were going to get, I would have rather kicked the FG

True.

[MichiganDad3]

14 hours ago, Red Five said:

Purdue is a bad football team.  It took a career night from our QB to beat them.

And a career night in passing yardage only produced 25 points!