Texas – Nebraska Post-Mortem: Special Teams

You kick the FG and try to end the game. There could have been bad consequences with anything else anyway! What a horrible call.

I think the staff feared a potential blocked FG, which with some of our other special teams fiascoes this year wasn’t out of the realm of possibility by a long shot.

With that said, going ahead with the called play once they saw a returner back there was pure idiocy. Call a TO and get Gold in there to hang one high.

I have no clue if Gilbert can pooch punt the ball five yards without hitting a lineman in the ass, but I’d spend the next couple of weeks practicing since this kind of situation is likely to come up again. The QB pooch can be a fine play when the D has to honor your regular offense.

I’d love a more aggressive mindset/approach overall, but baby steps I guess.

I run the offense out there with two options — (a) pooch punt if they roll out the regular D; or (b) run a real play if they don’t (you could even pass it since an incompletion is no worse than a failed conversion running the ball (I think). A FG try would work too.

I still think the punt return was freakish and lucky, but it was still not a “safer” call than just trying the FG and hoping it doesn’t get blocked. Hell, even if it did get blocked, most blocks don’t get picked up and run all the way back.

If you pooch punt with Tucker, he HAS to kick it out of bounds. Worst thing that can happen is he kicks it out of the endzone instead.

Re: kicking the field goal, was the wind in our face? I know it was windy, just don’t know the direction on that play. If it was in our face, I can agree with a decision to punt/pooch punt OUT OF BOUNDS. If not, kick the field goal all the way. I don’t go for it on 4th and 4 because its still our offense.

I probably pooch punt it with Gilbert to give the huskers the most difficult road possible to a score. I don’t necessarily hate a FG attempt here, but I would just play it a little closer to the vest given our ability to fuck it up. The FG pooch punt was idiotic at best…but the absurdity of seeing 300 pounders chasing around a return man was at least somewhat amusing.

mr horn -
 
A team with a returner going against your slowest athletes is never lucky or freakish. It’s borderline probable.
 
It was the least safe call possible with the worst possible positive yield.
 
A total fail of Game Theory.

Texastough -
 
Tucker does have to kick it out of bounds, but look at what is being asked of him. You’ve got NU guys coming off of the edge hard for the block – you have to put it on your foot very quickly or risk a block or tackle and fumble.
 
Gilbert pooching from shotgun has all day, because Nebraska sure as hell is playing contain after the way our draws destroyed them early. And they can’t play a return man. Their DBs aren’t going to run down a pooch and bring it back when our WRs all release past them to cover. Deion Sanders couldn’t do that in his prime. They’re concerned about coverage.
 
Like I wrote, I go for it. It’s the clear winner in probability, IMO. The downside is almost nothing and the upside is game over.

Fake FG or throw deep on 4th down. Or a fake FG that throws deep….I dont know. Go for the jugular or go home.

Scip—

If it was a regular-distance punt, I would agree, but the thing only went about 20 yards in the air giving everyone plenty of time to get down there. Of course, when they did, they stood around and watched, but it was still freaky. Agree that it’s not a chance worth taking though.

For my money, the least safe call would be a quick 5-yard out to the wide side. A pick-6 waiting to happen.

I punt it in the endzone there. A missed FG gets the crowd more pumped.

KO return has a fallen off a cliff for this team. I can’t remember a single good return this year, vs 3 TD’s last year. Same returners. Mack’s been saying guys are missing blocks. Is it the same blockers?

Great job by Goodwin on the onside. He did the safe thing but it looked like he had a crease to take it to the house.

Nice write up. Thanks for the admonition about all the negativity.

Here’s what Mack said about the pooch in his presser today. Surprisingly he said he took the most conservative option and that it might have been the right choice but it wasn’t executed well, though he then says he should have had Tucker kick it out of bounds. Re GG pooching it, he thinks it would be riskier IF there was a blitz called. I don’t know if that’s true, or if they even blitzed that much… but anyway, here’s the quote:

“The one blunder was the pooch kick at the end of the game. You’re sitting there with three-plus minutes left in the game and you’ve got four or five decisions you can make. They’re my decisions. You can go for the first down. If you make it, the game is over. If the ball is tipped up, they run it back. Something like that happens like it did against Baylor in ’99, I think, when they were going in to score against UNLV and they ran it back for a touchdown. All those things can happen. It didn’t look like Nebraska was going to be able to score a touchdown. You can pooch punt with your field goal team, which we’ve been very successful [with], because Justin has the great touch. You can pooch punt with your regular offense. Garrett Gilbert has done well with that. Now you’re spreading people out. There’s a better chance of an all-out blitz and someone blocking the punt. You didn’t want it blocked. You can try to kick a 50-yard field goal. Sometimes the trajectory is a little lower. That could be returned for a touchdown. You can rocket punt with your regular team. Your regular punt team usually doesn’t punt from that far in. It’s tougher for them. Or you could fake the field goal.

Going back and looking at it, WE TOOK THE MOST CONSERVATIVE APPROACH. PROBABLY THE DECISION WAS OKAY, OUR EXECUTION WAS NOT. We should have had Justin kick it out of bounds. If he kicked it out of bounds at the 10-yard line or even the 20-yard line, we would’ve not gained much yardage but it still would’ve put them back. We got greedy and we tried to put them down at the one or two-yard line. Obviously we should have tackled him. We had guys there. We did not execute it well. We think in that position we still might do the same thing, but we would tell him to kick it out of bounds.

Things we need to improve – I laughed about it after the game, but it wasn’t funny. It was only funny because we won. We’ve got to improve the execution of that pooch punt if we continue to do it. We’ve got to get guys that can tackle. Their guy [Eric] Hagg did a great job of running back and making a play very much like Quan [Cosby] did a couple years ago against [Texas] El Paso. Usually the guys covering aren’t the best tacklers. We’ve got to continue to improve our kickoff return and continue to be creative with our punt team. We’ve got two outstanding punters. We’ve got two or three different ways we can punt now. Field position with punt returns is huge and stopping them from that [is huge].

I admit it. I googled Elizabeth Bathory.

Does the ball get spotted at the spot of the kick in college? I thought that was only the NFL, but I could be very wrong on that.

Either way I would have kicked the FG. I was certain once we got to the 33 yd line that we would ice the game by going up 3 scores with 3 minutes to play. When you are unranked, playing a top 5 team, on the road, and have a chance to play for the win; you play for the win.

I could continue with the play to win angle, but I think that goes heavily into generalized rant territory.

This staff has had some great clock management at the end of some halfs/games, and then they go braindead last weekend. To run the pooch and not call TO was inexcusable once Neb dropped a returner back. Hell, if we just kneel the damn ball the game is over. That game had been over for a long time – the minute they pulled TMagic.

Of course, this staff also screwed up horribly in the Tech game 2 years ago. Run just a little more clock and Gideon never becomes the goat, and Crabtree never even has time to make that catch.

Maybe one day we’ll learn, but I doubt it.

I loved the call until I saw a NU guy come out of the end zone into the TV shot moving towards the ball. That’s when I thought, “Uh oh.”

The whole concept of the pooch depends entirely on the premise of everyone moving in the same direction – away from your goal line, towards their goal line. The moment a return guy gets into the picture, it becomes a bad call. And the return guy was there because it was a 50-yard attempt, and everyone knows field goal units don’t include many guys who can tackle. Yes, you risk losing field position, but clearly NU by that point was willing to gamble the risk of lost field position for the reward of a scoring opportunity with the Texas D off the field.

So this is all football SOP – everything except the part where either (A) someone sees a return guy and calls a time-out, or (B) the field goal kicker has been coached ahead of time to make sure the thing goes out of bounds if the other team has a return guy back. B is, in my opinion, a bridge too far in that situation.

I agree with Scip on this one — you can blame execution, but the play call essentially put guys who excel at blocking in the position of becoming a kick coverage unit. You see the return guy, you call time-out. I just don’t think anyone noticed. Big difference between this “Les Miles” moment and the real Les Miles – in this case, you know the lesson was learned.

The pooch kick from the FG formation was absolutely a stupid decision and reflects everything I find infuriating about the coaching staff. It was a dumb call. No one recognized the deep safety and, thus, called a time out.

Further, have some damn balls. We are Texas. Act like it. Go out there on fourth down and run a play. Dare Nebraska to stop us. If we don’t make it, then fine. We play defense. What is the issue here?

FG, first choice. Tucker’s got the leg and the eye.

Go for it, second choice… but wait… Mack sez: “You can go for the first down. If you make it, the game is over. If the ball is tipped up, they run it back.” Say what? …go for the first down on 4th-and-4 is automatically a pass in his mind? Please tell me he didn’t really say that.

The pure karmic spirit of Roll Left would have compelled me to go for it. It’s a total back-breaker, and while other teams may have failed to break our backs with it (see Bowl, Rose, ca 2006) that doesn’t mean we couldn’t have caught them looking for Cody up the middle, let Garrett roll out and have a run/pass option.

“Say what? …go for the first down on 4th-and-4 is automatically a pass in his mind? Please tell me he didn’t really say that.”

In fairness to Mack, the very next sentence he referenced the Baylor bebacle with UNLV, which was a run play. Guess he meant tip (fumble).

debacle, even

^^^^^^All of this.

The call arguably tarnished what would have otherwise been a perfectly executed football game by the Longhorns and the staff. Except for maybe all the after play jive acting. These guys ought to be coached to channel that energy into the next decap.

Thanks for that quote, Canuck.

Don’t know how Mack views the pooch out of FG formation as the most conservative option. Seems like most conservative is punt formation, John Gold punts it as high and as far as possible, Nebraska gets the ball on the 20. Or maybe even going for it. Hope someone can tell me how I’m wrong, because that sort of statement makes me less confident in Mack’s judgement.

Didn’t Tucker have a long attempt blocked early in the season? I might be remembering things wrong, but I thought there was a kick against Rice or Wyoming where it looked like he hit it well but didn’t get the ball up soon enough. If so, hard for coaches not to worry about a potential block.

Curtis dropped another punt. Just because the coverage was nowhere near him yet doesn’t make it acceptable.

After reading all the replies, I have to agree. Roll Left would have been the best possible call. Talk about rubbing salt into a wound. Plus, it had the best chance of success with the least downside.

If we would have rolled left I would have lost my sh!t. That would have almost made up for the last two games.

The one time I would have taken a 4th and whatever WR screen or 3 yard pass to Greg Smith from GD (not saying it’s his fault, it wasn’t) and we don’t get it.

Oh well, a win is a win is a win and we’re still in it.

Scipio,
Definitely should have just punted from either the regular punt formation or poop punt by Gilbert pretending to go for it. The fake FG/punt was the worst choice, but going for it outright would have been a pretty poor choice as well.
I don’t think the D would have suddenly gone to sleep seeing as how they hadn’t moved the ball at all save Lee’s one drive. But if we had gone for it and not gotten it, Nebraska would have still been left with decent field position and, probably more importantly in that situation, they would have regained some of the momentum following their "stop" of the Horns on 4th down (even though I concede it wouldn’t have big a true momentum shifter). Again, still remote but maybe that mojo gives their receivers the slight bit of confidence they need to finally haul in one of those long passes. No reason to give them any edge at all and a punt ensures that they won’t have any.

UTIceberg -
 
Going for it is not a poor choice.
 
And contrasting the worst possible outcome of going for it with the best probable outcome of punting it isn’t very useful.
 
The most likely result of punting it is Nebraska’s ball on the 20. The most likely result of going for it and failing is Nebraska’s ball around the 30 with another 35 seconds off of the clock.
 
The second most likely event of each is pinning Nebraska deep vs. 1st and 10 Texas Longhorns, game over.
 
Compare and contrast.
 
Game management is about playing percentages, pure and simple.

Except, of course, in 1996 we had receivers who could catch the freakin’ ball!

What position does Elizabeth Bathory play? She sounds pretty tough.

“If you see a return man back there, Justin, kick it away from him and out of bounds.”

Problem solved!

I’d have kicked the field goal. Then, have Gilbert try to draw them offsides before calling time-out and straight-up punting (out of bounds!). Then, go for it. Then, fake FG/pooch punt. But any of those four would have been fine and dandy as long as they were properly executed by the players and anticipated by the coaches.

I contend that Pelini’s decision to onside-kick was the dumbest special teams call of the game.

1. Kick the field goal. The successful outcome is an immediate game winner and probably a higher percentage bet than going for it. The failure outcome is probably only 15 yards worse than the failure outcome for a punt or pooch punt. Very low probability for a catastrophic outcome.

2. Go for it, preferably with Gilbert on a designed roll with a run/pass option. The successful outcome here is also an immediate game winner. I think it’s less probable than a kick, but I’m willing to listen to arguments to the contrary. The failure outcome is 10-15 yards worse than a failed punt or pooch punt. Very low probability for a catastrophic outcome.

3. Standard punt or pooch punt with Gilbert out of the shotgun. The successful outcome does not contain an immediate game winner, but it does gain 25 or so yards of field position. The failure outcome is slightly better than the failure outcomes for the first two options. Very little chance of a catastrophic outcome since Nebraska cannot have a returner or we have our actual coverage unit.

4. Mack’s choice. This has the same outcomes as Option 3, but with significant risk of the catastrophic scenario. In other words, it forfeits any chance at an immediate game-winning outcome (Options 1 and 2) in exchange for more risk of a catastrophic, potential game-losing outcome.

Scipio,
I agree on the playing of percentages, but when you take into account that our play in 4th down would have likely been conservative (low percentage) compared with the alternative that Nebraska gets the ball with likely the crowd back in it seeing as how they would have just stopped us vs a punt where we might pin them deep (see our outstanding punting on Sat) which had a decent chance of occurring (less than half, but almost certainly higher degree of likehood than getting the first down outright) vs having them start at the 20, I still think that’s the better play for a team that really needed this win and the ensuing confidence boost. Anyway, I can see your perspective and am not losing sleep either way

IIRC, Tucker had the wind at his back.

Mack suggested another option at his news conference — run Roberson from punt formation. I’d have sent in that personnel set, shifted a player or two and taken the delay. Then, punt OOB around the 15. Or go for it. Neither hurts you and neither helps the other guys.

Punting on the field of play was stupid. If you’re too chicken to go for it — out of punt formation or the spread — and fear a big play on the FG block, punting to a return man is just as dangerous. With that little time left, the only way you lose to to hand them seven points. Which is exactly what we did. I think sometimes Mack, and GD, get a little too full of themselves.

Actually, as Mack Brown mentioned, the possibility of returning a missed field goal is almost as likely as returning a pooch punt. Exact same personnel on the field.

I’m not sure why he felt the pooch kick was less risky. That doesn’t make sense to me.

he was not going to miss a field goal there by coming up short. have you watched him kick?

Scip, you said you think Curtis is the man, but are you not afraid of his catching ability? That was him that dropped the first punt before making something out of it, wasn’t it?

Yeah, he can’t catch. But what he can catch, he can bring back.

Kick the FG. Easy decision, imo.

Justhookit:

I’ve watched better kickers come up short from 50. The current NFL record holder in Mile High Stadium for one. It was returned for a TD too.

Besides we were up by two TDs All we had to do was play the clock make them drive the field. Lee was not going to torch us for a quick TD

My vote is shotgun, QB choice to pooch or go based on if they drop a returner or not.

Scipio, you wrote:

“A failure means Nebraska starts with mediocre field position firmly on their end, clock running, while you sport a two TD lead.”
and
“The most likely result of going for it and failing is Nebraska’s ball around the 30 with another 35 seconds off of the clock.”

Doesn’t the clock stop on the turnover on downs still? If so, you only get the 4 or 5 seconds it takes to run the 4th down play off the clock (or 12 or so seconds if we run the Colt roll right and try to kill the clock when you still need to kick a fg play). Even at that, it’s still a better choice than the one they made.

I’m struck that in that quote Mack didn’t mention playing straight punt and letting Gold punt it through the uprights, that’s the most conservative play.

Fortunately the boneheadedness of the pooch was offset by Pelini’s decision to onside kick. I’m still in awe of that one.

I would have gone four wide and called a QB draw. Nebraska stopped the QB for less than four yards exactly one time the whole game. In addition Pelini had been bringing a lot more pressure starting in the 3rd. I’m guessing the combination of blitz + our OL pushing their DL’s shit in all game long would have equaled a game ending first down.

“But if we had gone for it and not gotten it, Nebraska would have still been left with decent field position and, probably more importantly in that situation, they would have regained some of the momentum following their "stop" of the Horns on 4th down (even though I concede it wouldn’t have big a true momentum shifter)”

So your argument is that going for it on fourth down and not getting (thus giving NU the ball and less than 3 minutes to score two touchdowns) would have given them the momentum more than them taking a pooch punt back 95 yards and in the span of 15 seconds turning it into a one score game? Guess I just don’t see it that way.

who was the big guy that flwe from right to left past the ball carrier running to the edge?

Was that Whaley?

He is BIG if so

Bad call. I was amazed. Bad result. Lets move on.

This sparked a big debate with my buddy while we were at the game. The correct play was to attempt the field goal. If you are so afraid of the blocked kick, I think you don’t mess around with anything other than a regular punt. A pooch with Gilbert would not have fooled anyone and thye might have put a special block in for it. Additionally you are counting on the snapper and GG executing a play they rarely do. And you have your regular offense tryign to cover a kick

If fear and conseravatism is driving your decision, then don’t mess around with anything cute and just punt. Make them go 80.

In defense of Pelini- If he kicks away, he needs to pin Texas around the 20, use his two TOs, and have Texas punt the ball with about 2 minutes left in the game. He’d get the ball around his 35 or 40 yard line.

He tried an onside kick. If he had been successful, he would have the ball on his 40 with 3 minutes left. He wasn’t successful. If his defense had stopped Texas and he used his TOs (just like he would need to do if he kicked away), he would get the ball anywhere from his 1 yardline (worst case scenario) to his 20 (best case scenario) with 2 minutes left. Basically, he traded an option for 30 yards of field position for a chance to start from his 40 yard line with an extra minute.

The onside kick move failed because Cody Johnson ran 24 yards more than for any other reason.

“Our ability to flip field position in the punting game is an underrated aspect to our win. "

Yeah, so underrated that Tucker was named Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week.

Geeze, can any five-year-old blog on this site?

“What position does Elizabeth Bathory play?”

Let’s get serious guys. Bathory has been dead for hundreds of years. We could use Susan Wright however. Her favorite position? On top.

Run a play. Spread the field. Cody through the 3 or 5 hole. We were blowing those gaps open all day.

I got a kick out of Tucker in pursuit. That cat isn’t all that slow. If he needs to hit the edge on a fake field goal attempt he might be able to get it. If we need two yards, not four.

dood, you palindromic faggot, write a blog and post it in the forum.

The end of the first half really didn’t bother me…The whole time I kept saying just keep this lead, don’t screw it up, the way our passing game has been, and as amazing as nebraska’s secondary is.. I don’t like the chances of throwing it up and being agressive in that situation. We held all the momentum and didn’t allow a freak play to switch mojo for them.

I guess it’s because I still can’t shake the championship game and that crazy ass pick 6 before the half. I was very pleased with 17-3 and getting the ball to start the 2nd half. To many times this offense gives up points while our defense watches from the side, don’t let that be another example.

On 4th and 4 I would either trust my scholorship kicker to hit a big time kick, or I would go for it. Stop trying to be cute or out smart everybody just keep it simple when your defense is playing the best game I’ve seen in who knows how long.

Scipio:

I’m perfectly fine with going for it or kicking the FG, which is exactly what I thought was happening until the pooch. I would not have punted.

Not to piss in the cornflakes of an otherwise great win, but this was vintage Mack Brown “playing not to lose” in the 2nd half. It wasn’t just a matter of being too conservative of a call for the situation, but it was a poorly conceived play as well.

Whaley was a smashing success on coverage – he screams ‘spin-down’ to me. Like to OG.

Don’t knock the virtues of bathing in virgin blood. It’s kept me looking fresh and youthful for over a hundred years.

Best not, since you were advocating running out the clock at halftime in the open thread.

I would’ve gone for a first down in the situation under discussion, though.

Mack Brown, throughout his tenure, has shown himself to have a very poor “feel” for the clock. I don’t mean he is terrible at clock management, like Les Miles, but rather, he doesn’t seem to sense how much time is left once you start accounting for calling plays, length of the play itself, getting up after the tackle, getting reset, etc.

This has expressed itself most clearly over the last few years in not instructing Colt to take a little more time calling plays and snapping the ball from the very beginning of the second half when sitting on a defensible, but smallish lead. If you start running the clock from the very first snap of the second half, you can shave over 3 minutes off the clock by simply not snapping until 3 seconds are left on a play clock with a running game clock. We routinely left anywhere between 12-18 seconds on the clock for years when we had a 10-14 point lead that we should have been trying to burn to shorten the game (and thus the number of plays the other team would have an opportunity to run).

The end of the Nebraska game was a similar lack of feel for the game, whether you go for it or attempt a coffin corner (which is very difficult to execute), Brown would leave a team with a weak passing attack under 3 minutes with a need for two touchdowns. This was going to be a horrific timing push for Nebraska under any circumstances and would only work if UT failed to recover an onside kick after Nebraska’s first theoretical TD.

 I would have gone for it and let my defense help Nebraska drain the clock if the attempt failed.

If you like Lawrence Welk and Hungry Man dinners, this is the choice for you. I won’t even mock you for it.

There might be a reason why those Hungry Man Dinners seem so appealing. Where’s my glaucoma medicine?

I’m a little surprised to not see this on the thread already, but I thought the pooch punt mistake could be traced back one more play to the 3rd and 5. We had been setting up the reverse/end around play to Goodwin all day, and used it in a good situation, but ran the play to the short side of the field and out of bounds.

You either push ahead with CJ one more time and set up a manageable short 4th, or run that same end around to the wide side and make sure Goodwin knows to stay in bounds if he can’t get the first. Forty seconds is far more valuable to Nebraska than 13 yards of field position regardless of the final decision you make.

I still don’t agree with the FG or the pooch punt. While unlikely, the FG also could have been blocked/returned or caught in the end zone for some sort of crazy 109 yard type score…there’s just no real reason to risk anything there when you know their QBs can’t go 80 mainly through the air on our defense. Minimal changes in field position don’t really matter all that much with three minutes to go and down two scores, just make sure your decision doesn’t allow the other team to get a quick 6.

Kram, the clock only stopped for about 6 seconds to reset the ball on teh out of bounds. It only stops within 2 minutes in college. So going out of bounds there was not the catastrophy many thought it was. They were trying to run a play that had potential to pop for more than 5 yards. I like the play call actually, it just didn’t work.

I’m going to disagree with the statement that “Mack Brown, throughout his tenure, has shown himself to have a very poor "feel" for the clock”

Texas wins way more close games than we lose under MB. The stat which I’m too lazy to look up is startling. The reason is that we are generally pretty good at clock management.

The one glaring example of supposedly bad clock management of course was the Big 12 Championship game. I realize the importance of this game overshadows most of the other situations, but we actually did have enough time left on the clock to win the game, so you can’t call it a failure. In fact, I’ll argue we couldn’t possibly have managed the clock any better. I have the win on my side, thanks for playing.

In Nebraska, I disagree that you start running clock from the beginning of the second half. If you allow the clock to run down on every play the defense knows when the snap will be, they know when to start their blitz or move so the QB can’t read mofo or moco can’t count defenders in the box etc. You also take away the QB chance to audible to get out of a bad play.

Play conservatively to minimize turnovers certainly, but don’t start running clock in the beginning of the 2nd half.

“We routinely left anywhere between 12-18 seconds on the clock for years when we had a 10-14 point lead that we should have been trying to burn to shorten the game (and thus the number of plays the other team would have an opportunity to run). "

How many of those games did we lose? Two?

One without Colt in the game. You can’t blame the MNC on bad clock management.

Except for maybe all the after play jive acting. These guys ought to be coached to channel that energy into the next decap.

This, for certain sure.

Don Schlitz said it best: There’ll be time enough for countin’, when the dealin’s done.

We also tend to let some teams hang around needlessly when the offense is misfiring (namely Tech). It’s a minor gripe for MB, and one I have with lots of coaches. I think teams cause themselves needlessly heartache late in the 4th quarter by not being more efficient in clock use. You can still do all the stuff you need to do on offense, you just don’t set the line with 20 seconds left on the play clock.

Game management is about playing percentages – as applied to the current game context – pure and simple.

Fixed it fer ya.

Fear,

My mistake, you’re right on the clock starting back up, that rule still throws me off.

Also, I might not have been clear but I really like the play call there, I thought it was a great time to run that play and ice the game. I just think you should run it to the wide side of the field and let Goodwin use his speed to outrun anyone who hesitated on the ball fake.

Without having re-watched the game yet, there might have been other situations that dictated running it the way we did (hell, I might even be wrong about the short side of the field), but live it looked like we should have run that play the other direction.

Having said at the time that I would have kicked the FG, I see no reason to back off on that at all, also having reviewed at the time the cost of a block and return for a touchdown.

I don’t know what they would have run to try to gain the four yards, given that Gilbert had not completed a pass since early in the third quarter, but I would have been OK with the choice.

The pooch punt was by far the worst choice. No chance to score, bad execution.

Woody: I thought the onside kick was a decent choice, given that they had not been able to pass effectively all day. Scipio argued that they had the receivers open — obviously true. But for NU suddenly to two-minute drill its way down the field through the air seemed unlikely to me. It must have seemed unlikely to Pelini as well.

I was calling for the kick to seal the deal… If I recall correctly, Tucker showed he had the leg against Rice for a ~55+ yarder… I would have taken the shot without hesitation.

In these situations, I figure out what we should do by asking myself if the roles were reversed what do I dread the other side doing. For example, back in the Rose Bowl when we stopped USC on 3rd down, I was deflated when I saw they were going for it on 4th down as I just wanted to get the ball back regardless of whether VY had 60 or 99 yards to go. The fact that USC went for it on 4th and it did not work does not make it the wrong call any more than busting by hitting a 16 against a dealer’s face card is the wrong call- they took their highest percentage chance to win and it did not work out.

Were I an NU fan, I would have wanted punt, then FG, and lastly Texas going for it. The thought of kicking it to a speedy return man covered by 8 linemen, one fat tailback, a kicker and a holder, while vastly superior from a Husker viewpoint to all of the above, would have been so far outside the realm of possiblity I would not even have considered listing it as an option.
Kind of like when your wife asks what you want to do tonight and you include wild threesome with her hot friend as one of the options along with dinner, movie and hanging out with the in-laws.

If you are terrified of a blocked kick, then just take a knee. Can’t get safer than that.

Louis, Scip – people hate math, including probability and percentages. That’s the only way to explain poor choices like this. At the time I had a tough time deciding to either kick the FG or to punt it with the normal punt team. Looking at the numbers:

Kick the FG 80%, best case game over 18% ball on the 40 2% disastrous TD
Punt outofbounds 40%, best case ball within 5 59.5% ball on the 20 .5% disastrous TD
Go for it 60%, best case game over 39.5% ball on the 30 .5% disastrous TD
Pooch w/returner 5%, best case ball within 5 75% ball ~ on the 15 20% disastrous TD

I would love to see real numbers on missed FGs/pooches getting returned, so I am guessing on that one. But if you look at the numbers, you can only conclude that we had a major brainfart due to our comfortable and calming lead.

The other 3 options are all gold with a dominating D and 2 TD lead. The numbers above tell me going for it would have been the best call, but due to emotion playing it’s role, I would have punted it to the corner at the time.

We need to do a better job teaching math to the youth!!!

As an aside, I think we have had great clock management by Mack and Co. over the years save the Tech game. THAT lack of running down the clock on our way into a score cost us a shot at a national championship. Gideon, Earl, and Curtis all made bad plays after that, but they were young and not paid decision-makers. That was a lack of execution in my book!

I’ve watched better kickers come up short from 50. The current NFL record holder in Mile High Stadium for one. It was returned for a TD too.

Elam came up short from 57 with a slight breeze in his face at sea level (or around 30 feet altitude). He mishit the kick and McAlister caught it 3 yards from the back of the end zone. Tucker would have been kicking from 50 with a healthy wind at his back at over 1,100 feet of altitude. Not close to the same situation.

I would have punted it through the goal posts and let NU try to score twice with 80 yards in front of them and three minutes left. Maybe I am scarred by the first five games of the season, but I felt like it was time to leave the table with some chips in hand.

Better math?

You would punt for a likely 13 yard change in field position? That is you would risk a bad long snap, and a punt block (there is a reason no one kicks to the coffin corner anymore) for a likely 13 yard change in field position i.e. touch back? That my friend is the definition of bad math.

It would be better to run a dive. Worst case we get stopped for a two yard loss, or fumble on fourth down. Best case we get the first down and end the game.

Punting is a bad decision from the 33 yard line.

Right because perhaps the best NFL kicker in history is much more likely to mishit a ball than a junior in college.

After re-re-re-reviewing the choices, I like:

(1) Roll left, option run/pass

(2) Inscribe a ball with Magic Marker with the words Husk THIS, Suckers, and punt it forty rows into the end zone seats.

Nada mas.

Right because perhaps the best NFL kicker in history is much more likely to mishit a ball than a junior in college.

For one thing, Elam isn’t close to the best NFL kicker in history. More importantly, the differing facts between the two situations imply that if Elam had mishit the kick in the exact same manner but had been in Tucker’s scenario the ball would have easily cleared the back line of the end zone.

Odd. I have hemophilia. Good thing I can’t swim.

Yeah, I don’t see how anyone can say clock management has been an issue with Mack throughout his tenure. Way, way, way too many huge combacks (the reason for needing to come back so often is another topic for debate) and last second wins in his tenure to not be good at clock management.

The most cited example is the ’08 Tech game. Sure, they could have dicked around and killed some clock and then hoped that they could punch it in with just a couple of tries. But when your offense got its ass kicked for the first half only to turn it around and take the momentum, you keep that momentum going and grab the chance to take your first lead of the game. And keep in mind that that game was the only time in the Mack Brown era Texas fought back from a huge deficit, took the lead and lost.

Any strategy or game theory should have been formulated on first down from the forty to dictate play calling. For instance, you don’t run a reverse to Goodwin on 3rd and 4 if you’re in 4 down territory.

That typed, I’m overly conservative when playing a team that has yet to score an offensive touchdown and has pulled its Heisman candidate for ineffectiveness. Coffin corner that mother fucker.

Also, as an aside, watch the second down play if you’re wondering why we ran a reverse on third down. The fake to Goodwin showed ZERO contain from the end and safety on that side of the field and would have gone for big yards had he gotten the ball. The other side of the field played the play much better as it turns out. That side was disciplined and stayed at home to force MG out of bounds.

But I understood what Davis was doing there and would have done the same thing.

I can’t think of too many times when they, um, dropped the ball, on clock management.

(rant) My pet peeve in this regard is watching teams sitting at the opponents’ 40 or farther out that let 20 to 25 seconds run inside the last 75 or so seconds because they don’t want to “waste” a timeout. Teams will get lined up just fine in 10 to 15 seconds, but then it will take another 10 for the QB to decide something critical… if you can’t go in five seconds after you get lined up, you might as well call time. (/rant)

“But I understood what Davis was doing there and would have done the same thing.”

Dude, you end all of your offensive minded posts the same. We get it. YOU LOVE GREG DAVIS. Sheesh.

WWLD

“Elam isn’t close to the best NFL kicker in history” Isn’t close as in not in the top 5 or isn’t close as in not in the top 20? Let’s see, tied for longest field goal in NFL history; sixth on the all time scoring list; Most seasons of 100 or more points in NFL history; 2nd most consecutive games scoring; third most 50 yard plus field goal in history. I might give you Morton Anderson, but Elam has a better percentage of field goals made. I suppose Gary Anderson is in the discussion. Who else is even worth talking about?

So, once again, the likelihood of a TOP 5 NFL kicker mishitting a ball is much greater than a college junior who’s longest field goal is 51 yards.

Roach – math is my point. At that moment I would have choosen stratight forward punt based on a conservative emotion, not math. But the math does say that any of the above is better than what we did. And yes, I am not too worried about a bad snap or punt block with our normal team out there and a quick kick to the corner or end zone.

Horncasting – great points. I have always thought we had great clock management and comeback potential with Mack and Greg Davis. Always except that drive in Tech. Your “dicking around” language makes it sound like there was a more logical, conservative approach to punch it in. The fact of the matter is that we had a 1st and goal with at least one timeout (can’t remember if we had more) and 1:30 or so on the clock. Don’t dick around with the ball. Just line up and hike it with 5 on the clock instead of 30. You can run the same plays either way. We would have just left 40seconds or so less on the clock. I was screaming at the TV at the moment. Right before I literally bit my flip-flop with the dropped pick. And just right before I sprinted out of the house and down some blocks barefoot before flopping out on some grass pissed, depressed, and unable to handle the emotion of the moment. I still have the teeth mark on my favorite flip flops.

I love the Longhorns. And that was one awesome beatdown of a game they just gave Neb.

WWLD? Flea ficker with field goal personnel?

Balltastic – maybe my memory is hazy, but I seem to remember the offense going to the hurry up on that play to catch the Tech defense before they had time to get set. And assuming my memory is correct, the strategy worked.

Also, remember that the defense had shut Tech down in the second half, only allowing a 40+ yd field goal.

I still like the decision to score when given the opportinity (and advantage using the hurry up) and then put the game on Muschamp’s defense. I can certainly see both sides though.

Hell for all we know, Mack and Davis had zero confidence McGee was going to score on the first play anyway……….I know I did.

Good point. I don’t remember the hurry-up strategy there. I just remember thinking we had 3 tries to get it into the endzone and although we had been holding them down, I just didn’t think it was a good idea to give their passing game that much time.

KB: Mack missed a great chance to use Les’s “flip it over the holder’s head” play.

Personally, I would have loved to see us try the roll left play. Had it worked, it would have been epic; a nice bookend to the Nebraska time in the Big XII. Had it not worked, it would have still screwed with thier heads.

My choices:

If going for it is a 13 yard difference from punting out of the stadium, then go for the jugular with a call that fits the situation and is not risky since the end game is to try to put it away but not give it away. IMO, the FG try is the third best option because although it puts the game completely out of reach but is a long kick and could be blocked and/or returned if it stays in the end zone with the same coverage team out there, so there is some element of the give it away factor there.

The second best option, which no one has mentioned and which has worked welll for us in the past is a fake punt with Roberson taking the direct snap. Little or no risk, no “tipped ball” for a TD (what the fuck, Mack?) and if you don’t make it they still have to score two TD’s, with little option if any of being able to run the ball, from no better than 67 yards out. If Zac Lee absolutely has to put it up and Boom’s boys know it, there is no fucking way they score another point on us! In fact, I think a pick or even a pick 6 is probable. I’m confused by all the confusion here?

You line up in punt formation inside the opponents’ 35 and you don’t think they’ll be looking for a fake?

Sure, but it’s less risky than the other two options and it’s at least an attempt to put it out of reach. Notice I didn’t say it was the best option, which I think is going for it with a play that is appropriately safe but has some schematic/strategic chance of succeeding.