Why not try to draw offsides on last 4th and 1

H

HuskerForLife

Walk-on
Hate to beat a dead horse, but I just signed up to post and was wondering something about the VA Tech game that I have not seen discussed.

When we had it 4th and 1 toward end of game, why not line up to go for it and try to draw the offsides. I know it doesn't work very often, but a 5 yard penalty woud have not hurt our punting.

 
HuskerForLife said:
When we had it 4th and 1 toward end of game, why not line up to go for it and try to draw the offsides. I know it doesn't work very often, but a 5 yard penalty woud have not hurt our punting.
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Va Tech tried that a couple possessions before that, didn't they? I wonder how often that actually works.

 
captain obvious said:
HuskerForLife said:
When we had it 4th and 1 toward end of game, why not line up to go for it and try to draw the offsides. I know it doesn't work very often, but a 5 yard penalty woud have not hurt our punting.
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Va Tech tried that a couple possessions before that, didn't they? I wonder how often that actually works.
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I'd say it would have to be pretty low percentage wise, but with the crowd being so loud towards the end they may have gotten their guys with high motors to jump off-sides in anticipation?

 
Generally, when teams know they are a yard short going into a 4th down they have a dummy call where they line up very fast and start barking out the cadence, either to get the defense to call timeout (which probably would have won the game for NU, if VT only had two timeouts left instead of 3 when NU got the ball with 2:19 left) or you hope to draw them offsides.

I think Bo is a great coach and that the staff is great, I just think they should have used this idea at one point during the game.

 
I thought the same thing at the time. As in most losses, hindsight is 20/20 and the players and coaching staff have things they learn to improve on. Games over. Time to move along.

 
There were probably 20 different things we could have done, or tried. Agonizing over every one of them isn't going to make us feel better.

We got beat on a fluke play, on a day when we dominated a good opponent in their house for 95% of the game. It happens.

Football isn't fair. It can be cruel and it can be heartbreaking. But you have to have a short memory as a player and a fan, and go back out and play/cheer hard against your next opponent.

 
captain obvious said:
Va Tech tried that a couple possessions before that, didn't they? I wonder how often that actually works.
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The Dolphins hard-counted the Colts offside five times last night.

 
HuskerForLife said:
Hate to beat a dead horse, but I just signed up to post and was wondering something about the VA Tech game that I have not seen discussed.

When we had it 4th and 1 toward end of game, why not line up to go for it and try to draw the offsides. I know it doesn't work very often, but a 5 yard penalty woud have not hurt our punting.
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Orrrr....we try the hard count and one of our guys get penalized for a false start.

 
HuskerfaninOkieland said:
HuskerForLife said:
Hate to beat a dead horse, but I just signed up to post and was wondering something about the VA Tech game that I have not seen discussed.

When we had it 4th and 1 toward end of game, why not line up to go for it and try to draw the offsides. I know it doesn't work very often, but a 5 yard penalty woud have not hurt our punting.
Click to expand...
Orrrr....we try the hard count and one of our guys get penalized for a false start.
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No big deal, we'd be taking a penalty anyway. Sometimes I think the best way to draw them offsides is for someone on the line to flinch, and hope the defense sees and jumps and the ref misses the flinch.

 
VA Husker Fan said:
HuskerfaninOkieland said:
HuskerForLife said:
Hate to beat a dead horse, but I just signed up to post and was wondering something about the VA Tech game that I have not seen discussed.

When we had it 4th and 1 toward end of game, why not line up to go for it and try to draw the offsides. I know it doesn't work very often, but a 5 yard penalty woud have not hurt our punting.
Click to expand...
Orrrr....we try the hard count and one of our guys get penalized for a false start.
Click to expand...
No big deal, we'd be taking a penalty anyway. Sometimes I think the best way to draw them offsides is for someone on the line to flinch, and hope the defense sees and jumps and the ref misses the flinch.
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They didn't miss it any other time during the game

 
I would have tried to fake drawing the other team offsides. I would have lined up with about 15-20 seconds left on the play clock and tried the hard count at first. Then, have the QB look to the sidelines like they are getting some signals (like the QB usually does when they are trying to draw the D offsides). Keep trying to draw them offsides and with about 7 seconds left on the play clock, have Zac look over to the sidelines again, but this time when he goes back under center, actually hike the ball and QB sneak behind Williams and Hickman.

This probably would have caught the D offsides after they figured you were just trying to draw them offsides and they would not have had that great jump off the ball. Might have worked, and at this point in the program, I think it was worth a shot.

But I'm not sure why we keep revisiting "why didn't we do this" or "why didn't we do that". It is what it is. I have come to terms with the loss and all of you should too. There's no point in revisiting what happened because it is over. Nothing can be done about it. We are now 2-1 now and we still have nine games left to play, which includes eight conference games - which is what really will define our season.

Please, let it go!

 
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Michael said:
I would have tried to fake drawing the other team offsides. I would have lined up with about 15-20 seconds left on the play clock and tried the hard count at first. Then, have the QB look to the sidelines like they are getting some signals (like the QB usually does when they are trying to draw the D offsides). Keep trying to draw them offsides and with about 7 seconds left on the play clock, have Zac look over to the sidelines again, but this time when he goes back under center, actually hike the ball and QB sneak behind Williams and Hickman.

This probably would have caught the D offsides after they figured you were just trying to draw them offsides and they would not have had that great jump off the ball. Might have worked, and at this point in the program, I think it was worth a shot.

But I'm not sure why we keep revisiting "why didn't we do this" or "why didn't we do that". It is what it is. I have come to terms with the loss and all of you should too. There's no point in revisiting what happened because it is over. Nothing can be done about it. We are now 2-1 now and we still have nine games left to play, which includes eight conference games - which is what really will define our season.

Please, let it go!
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If only there were message boards in 1984.......................................................

 
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