Carrot vs stick.
You say we have sixty yards and a stellar defense. But no defense can just rest on talent and laurels. The previous however many minutes of the game? They don't matter any more. All that matters is those 11 guys on the field, 1 minute to go, however many yards left.
The carrot is you can ice the game. And that's powerful incentive.
The stick is if you don't - and VT has a stout defense themselves - you get the home crowd roaring, and that VT offense coming out with fire in their eyes. And 3 timeouts.
That is a WORLD of difference from accepting the 4th down and pinning them deep, letting their battered QB come out seeing that long field, and everyone in the crowd feeling their hearts thump in their chests as they hope for the impossible.
Good call in my book.
Forget the situation for a moment.
Imagine Pete Carroll standing on the sideline. Imagine Urban Meyer standing on the sideline.
I know I'm making an unprovable point (but I will not admit that the failed aftermath of the call is proof that it was the right call, either). You want to win football games? You want to prove something to everyone? Then attack.
Get the damn yard. If you don't, keep the sixty behind you untrodden upon. But if you
do, well, how great is thatl? I like football. Football is about aggression every bit as much as discipline and intelligence. Sometimes the right call is the risky call. If it fails, oh well. At least you lowered your pads and went for it.
Worse that boring all of you, I'm now boring myself chattering about this. I have the slight advantage of not knowing whether my call would have worked whereas everyone knows the safe call ended up a disaster by giving the opposing offense a shot. Whatever might have been wasn't. But there's always the What If.....
On to next week––––––>