Going For It On 4th Down- Was It The Right Call ?

[InTheBuff]

I think CU was up 31-17 at the start of the 4th....It's 4th and 1 on the OSU 43 and CU goes for it.
The tv announcer thought it was the right call but I didin't. It was at this point of the game I thought
"Oh **** we are going to lose this"

Maybe it was the right call but not the right play call ?

 

[cu3x]

on koa they commented like, "with osu's momentum, they don't want to risk giving them the ball back again"

 

[InTheBuff]

personally would have rather seen a punt inside the 15...
instead we got another ****ing run up the middle...

 

[slider]

Worse was not running McMillian at all during OT.

 

[Uncle Ken]

I think CU was up 31-17 at the start of the 4th....It's 4th and 1 on the OSU 43 and CU goes for it.
The tv announcer thought it was the right call but I didin't. It was at this point of the game I thought
"Oh **** we are going to lose this"

Maybe it was the right call but not the right play call ?

Four dives in a row on that set of downs. I felt as though coaches were trying to break OSU’s will, but couldn’t. Going for it felt right, play selection frustrated me.

 

[leftybuff]

Right move to go for it. That situation is why you should have a competent OL who can impose their will at crucial points in the game. Year 6 and MikMac doesn't have it. 2 lousy yards against the worst p12 team and CU wins. That, to my mind, was the turning point in the game. And don't tell me 3 freshmen, if recruitment of OL were up to snuff, CU would not have been in that position.

 

[Daaah]

Did we see the wildcat at all?

 

[Uncle Ken]

Right move to go for it. That situation is why you should have a competent OL who can impose their will at crucial points in the game. Year 6 and MikMac doesn't have it. 2 lousy yards against the worst p12 team and CU wins. That, to my mind, was the turning point in the game. And don't tell me 3 freshmen, if recruitment of OL were up to snuff, CU would not have been in that position.

My assessment as well.

 

[dio]

I thought it was the right move because the secondary was getting destroyed. The extra yardage probably wouldn't have mattered.

 

[Johnny Juzang]

Yes

 

[b3buffs]

It was the right call, and they should have gone for it on 4th in the 3rd quarter when Nixon was ruled just short of the marker near midfield. You go for it and get the first with a QB sneak and break the will of the opponent as well as a new set of downs to run down the clock. We win last week if Washington doesn't go for it on 4th down multiple times.

When MM opted to punt in that situation I got pissed because I feared exactly what happened. Guy has no "step on the throat" mentality that winning coaches have.

 

[leftybuff]

It was the right call, and they should have gone for it on 4th in the 3rd quarter when Nixon was ruled just short of the marker near midfield. You go for it and get the first with a QB sneak and break the will of the opponent as well as a new set of downs to run down the clock. We win last week if Washington doesn't go for it on 4th down multiple times.

When MM opted to punt in that situation I got pissed because I feared exactly what happened. Guy has no "step on the throat" mentality that winning coaches have.

Stepping on the throat isn't nice.

 

[WarBuff]

It was the right call, and they should have gone for it on 4th in the 3rd quarter when Nixon was ruled just short of the marker near midfield. You go for it and get the first with a QB sneak and break the will of the opponent as well as a new set of downs to run down the clock. We win last week if Washington doesn't go for it on 4th down multiple times.

When MM opted to punt in that situation I got pissed because I feared exactly what happened. Guy has no "step on the throat" mentality that winning coaches have.

And Nixon needs to understand that this isn't Texas high school ball. He isn't going to cut towards the middle of the field running backwards and have much success in turning it up-field for a big gain. He needed to head up-field immediately and get the first down. Too interested in getting ESPN highlights and not about getting a win.

 

[BuffsRising]

Fourth and more than one is a bit of a stretch unless you are going to throw the ball, or run the qb on a naked bottleg.

Play action should have worked, with kd nixon over the top and winfree dragging underneath him.

The punt would have been the best play. You make the other team go the length of the field because it takes more time, and because they have more chances to make a mistake. And considering that they only scored a field goal on the ensuing posession to make it 31-20, its likely that we stop them without scoring if we punt the ball, which would have been game over.

 

[BuffByMarriage]

I think it was the right call, but you can’t have any confidence in CU in short yardage situations or the red zone right now. But punting and forcing them to go a few extra yards against the secondary didn’t make any sense either, that’s just a throw at Wigley or a couple Udoffia penalties.

Honestly, as much as it “shouldn’t” matter against OSU, so much of CU’s success in general is predicated on these short yardage conversions. Shenault earlier this year, and Liufau in 2016. They really hid some of the deficiencies with the o line. It sucks that Montez can basically only scramble, he can’t read a block to save his life. That over time run where the right side of the field was wide open and he ran straight into the backs of his linemen was maddening.

 

[Creebuzz]

KD Nixon played great but I thought one of the more pivotal moments was when he had the first down catch late in the game, but ran slightly backwards to try to break it big. That’s ok on first and second down, but sometimes you need to just move the sticks. He ran backwards, was short a yard, and CU punted.

 

[The Alabaster Yak]

Worse was not running McMillian at all during OT.

Pretty sure they did once they had 1st and goal inside the 5. Thought that sequence was McMillian run, Montez run, incomplete pass, incomplete pass, misery.

 

[Dorn09]

KD Nixon played great but I thought one of the more pivotal moments was when he had the first down catch late in the game, but ran slightly backwards to try to break it big. That’s ok on first and second down, but sometimes you need to just move the sticks. He ran backwards, was short a yard, and CU punted.

Agree, cost us 1.5 minutes of game clock. 1 first down was the difference between winning and losing.

 

[b3buffs]

And Nixon needs to understand that this isn't Texas high school ball. He isn't going to cut towards the middle of the field running backwards and have much success in turning it up-field for a big gain. He needed to head up-field immediately and get the first down. Too interested in getting ESPN highlights and not about getting a win.

To quote the great Keith Jackson "keep dancing like that and they're going to give you a tutu."

 

[fwbuff]

It was the right call, and they should have gone for it on 4th in the 3rd quarter when Nixon was ruled just short of the marker near midfield. You go for it and get the first with a QB sneak and break the will of the opponent as well as a new set of downs to run down the clock. We win last week if Washington doesn't go for it on 4th down multiple times.

When MM opted to punt in that situation I got pissed because I feared exactly what happened. Guy has no "step on the throat" mentality that winning coaches have.

And Nixon needs to understand that this isn't Texas high school ball. He isn't going to cut towards the middle of the field running backwards and have much success in turning it up-field for a big gain. He needed to head up-field immediately and get the first down. Too interested in getting ESPN highlights and not about getting a win.

KD Nixon played great but I thought one of the more pivotal moments was when he had the first down catch late in the game, but ran slightly backwards to try to break it big. That’s ok on first and second down, but sometimes you need to just move the sticks. He ran backwards, was short a yard, and CU punted.

All of these above are spot on. Nixon giving up the first down he already had, followed by the punt, was the turning point of the game in my mind.

Also, Nixon has speed but no elusiveness. Every time he caught it in front of a defender, he made a couple head fakes then ran right into the guy.

 

[Ralfie]

I don’t know, I think Nixon was pretty much the only bright spot in this game. Although he nobly blamed himself in the postgame presser, he basically got us to 31 in the first place. He’s off the hook in my mind, the rest of the team is deep in the doghouse in my opinion.

 

[4BienemyTDs]

Montez QB Sneak? Is that not in the playbook. I did notice that Montez cannot even take a snap under center properly without fumbling. Is that possibly the problem?

 

[Creebuzz]

I don’t know, I think Nixon was pretty much the only bright spot in this game. Although he nobly blamed himself in the postgame presser, he basically got us to 31 in the first place. He’s off the hook in my mind, the rest of the team is deep in the doghouse in my opinion.

Oh, I agree. KD played very well. My comments are constructive criticism for a young player. You have to have situational awareness. He ran a good route, had the first down, just go straight ahead. On 3rd down, no dancing.

 

[Ralfie]

Oh, I agree. KD played very well. My comments are constructive criticism for a young player. You have to have situational awareness. He ran a good route, had the first down, just go straight ahead. On 3rd down, no dancing.

That’s more cognizant than I’m currently able to think right now through my deep disappointment. But you’re probably right.

 

[manhattanbuff]

Oh, I agree. KD played very well. My comments are constructive criticism for a young player. You have to have situational awareness. He ran a good route, had the first down, just go straight ahead. On 3rd down, no dancing.

He did make an improvement on the next drive. Similar type catch, except he turned it up field for a 1st down and nice YAC.

 

[Medford M.]

Going for it on 4th and one there was the right call. Punting on the other couple 4th and ones was the WRONG call. MM does not coach aggressively enough. Though that has been beaten to death at this point.