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When is a good time to go for 2 late in a game?


CKS97

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If it's for the win, always. Why take it to a coin toss, trust your defense to get a stop, only to then have to move the ball 50ish yards on offense to possibly set up a 40 yard field goal, when you can just draw a line in the sand and say "if we can't get two yards we don't deserve to win"

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I don't think there can be a hard-and-fast rule about it - it's very context dependent.

If the DL looks gassed and you've got a good play lined up, go for it. If you're QB is tired, or one of your OL is banged up, give your offense a break and let it go to OT. There's also just the gut-trust angle to it, of course. For all the Xs and Os and analytics, coaching is also about instincts. There's also a psychological angle.

A good example is BB in the Superbowl against the Seahawks just before the Butler INT. The booth was in his ear telling him to use the timeouts and/or let them score - and most of the time that's the right call, percentages wise. But Bill was watching the Seahawks sideline and felt like they weren't ready to the big moment. He was right.

The Chargers made the right call on Thursday night, you could just tell. The Chiefs were upset about the penalties and obviously didn't have their minds right after the TD.

Vrabel also made the right call against the Chargers in London, it's just his QB is Mariota, not Rivers, and missed the open man.

That one play could cost the Titans a play-off spot, and could secure the Chargers the 1 seed. That's what's so brutal about coaching in the NFL. There's a rulebook and a gut feeling, and they're both important. Trusting either one too much will get you fired, making the wrong call on a 50/50 shot will also get you fired. You can make all the right decisions, but if just one player makes just one mistake, you look like an idiot...and you get fired.

There's only 32 head coaching jobs, and there are literally millions of people who think they can do your job, simply because they get the benefit of hindsight and you don't.

 

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