o
In the game thread, I advocated going for it on 4th and inches when there was only 2:39 left to play in the 4th quarter ...... and I did so
BEFORE the fact, not after the Commanders drove down the field scored their game-winning touchdown.
The reason being is that going for it in that situation would have given the Colts 3 chances to win the game ...... as it wound up being, the Colts only wound up with 1 chance to win the game. And again, I stated that I feared that would happen
BEFORE the Commanders went on that 95-yard touchdown drive, not after.
The 3 chances that that going for it on 4th and inces with 239 left to play in the 4th quarter are the following ......
1) Get the first down.
2) If you don't get the first down, keep the Commanders out of the end-zone on a 35-yard field.
3) Even if the Commanders had gotten got into the end zone on that short 35-yard field, there is a pretty good chance that the Colts still may have had some time to get into field goal range on offense.
And while it was great that our punter booted a gem which pinned the Commanders on their own 5-yardline, we didn't know that he was going to do that when the decision to not go for it was made ...... more significantly, whether the Commanders started that final drive from their own 5 yard-line or their own 25 yard-line, the decision to punt the ball in that situation wound up bringing to fruition what I had feared what would happen in the first place ...... it only gave the Colts one chance to win the game (our defense keeping the Commanders out of the end-zone), as there wasn't enough time for the Colts' offense to get into field goal range at that point. And yes, teams have gotten into field goal range with less than 30 seconds left on the clock after receiving a kickoff that late in the 4th quarter, but that is very rare. The Cowboys did it on
Monday Night Football against the Giants in 2003, the Chiefs did it in their memorable playoff game last year in the divisional round in 2021.
https://www.pro-football-reference.c...0309150nyg.htm
https://www.pro-football-reference.c...2201230kan.htm
Those examples of teams getting into field goal range with so little time left on the clock occurred 18 years apart (2003, and 2021) ...... and I'm pretty certain that it very rarely happened much in between.
o