Braun makes puzzling decision to kick FG in loss at Washington
Head coach David Braun left fans scratching their heads by opting to kick a FG on fourth-and-goal in the third quarter.
Looking at Braun's puzzling decision to kick a FG in the third quarter
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
People might not like it but I can understand if Braun felt he needed to get some (any) O points on the board at that point. Out short yardage O has not been good all year and we were missing the most important pieces, Porter and two OL. That really hurts the options. The O needed to get something, anything. Not getting anything would have devastating.
Braun makes puzzling decision to kick FG in loss at Washington
Head coach David Braun left fans scratching their heads by opting to kick a FG on fourth-and-goal in the third quarter.northwestern.rivals.com
Look I understand everybody's disappointment in the decision. But I can understand how under the circumstances it was necessary. If Porter is there or if the O had shown any ability to get things done, different decisions would have been in order. Why not the second time as well? The necessary O points were there and the game situation was very different but after the failure, you can understand the decision the first time around.
It isn't just QBs we have had trouble recruiting lately. We have also failed to get our A list every down candidates for RB the last few years so that now we only have one even on the roster
This logic is very strange:
“You know, at some point, if we remained down 15, we were going to have to go for two as early as it was in the game,” he said. “Still significant time in the third quarter, thought that getting it down to 12 would allow us to, instead of chasing a tie, go get two touchdowns and go win the football game.”
Basically, I don’t want to be down 17-8, because then we’ll have to either take the two here, or on the next one (assuming we hold them scoreless the rest of the way).
Oh well, NU didn’t even belong on the same field as that team. Thankfully, the nine-team Big Ten West will never exist.
“You know, at some point, if we remained down 15, we were going to have to go for two as early as it was in the game,” he said. “Still significant time in the third quarter, thought that getting it down to 12 would allow us to, instead of chasing a tie, go get two touchdowns and go win the football game.”
Basically, I don’t want to be down 17-8, because then we’ll have to either take the two here, or on the next one (assuming we hold them scoreless the rest of the way).
Oh well, NU didn’t even belong on the same field as that team. Thankfully, the nine-team Big Ten West will never exist.
Braun needs to tell his boy wonder OC to stop running pistol/shotgun inside the 5. It makes zero sense.
Pistol makes a ton of sense. The RB is set closer or the same depth to the line then they typically are in the single back and I form and they have every downhill option available to both of them.
They just need to practice under center exchanges. It's amazing to me that the most basic and standard way of starting every play could become a "lost art." They have a bye week so I'd say it's worth it to burn the whole week working on snaps and short yardage packages.
If he had said, "We really needed to get some O points on the board at that point", would it have set better with you?
You may recall a guy named Clayton Thorson that converted about 100 short yardage plays from under center.
To be clear I 100% agree they ought to be able to cleanly execute some QB sneaks, even with a decimated interior - although I understand hesitance to do so with a new center midgame - but it’s not a panacea to just say GO UNDER CENTER on the goal line. The pistol is a modern, downhill spread formation that is very balanced and good for power play.
He was built for it and likely the center of that OL was better suited to it as well
A) Lausch is a tank b) all we ever did was complain about the OL back then. C) Seems like you could put 1 or 2 of our 12 tight ends right behind him.
Our tight ends would probably somehow manage to drop a pass while trying to block
Terrible decision to kick the field goal.
Lou said it perfectly. "You gotta go for it there, no? You might never be anywhere close to the goal line again."
Exactly. The offense was flailing and this was a great chance to get within one TD.
You have to assume Washington will probably score more points.
YOU HAVE TO GO FOR IT.
But don't be a jackass, run the football straight ahead until you score.
Call timeout, fire up the troops and punch it in - like Fitz would have done.
The play-calling on the subsequent "first and goal from the 1" was even more horrifying.
If you can't score down there, forfeit.
Lou said it perfectly. "You gotta go for it there, no? You might never be anywhere close to the goal line again."
Exactly. The offense was flailing and this was a great chance to get within one TD.
You have to assume Washington will probably score more points.
YOU HAVE TO GO FOR IT.
But don't be a jackass, run the football straight ahead until you score.
Call timeout, fire up the troops and punch it in - like Fitz would have done.
The play-calling on the subsequent "first and goal from the 1" was even more horrifying.
If you can't score down there, forfeit.
Recruits don’t want to play for a program whose offense can’t score and can’t move the ball. Unfortunately it looks like we may be in a death spiral that is reinforcing itself in that front across multiple regimes and OCs now and it won’t get any easier. Let’s pray we can get Gronowski to come over next year to help break the cycle.
