in his postgame interview. I didn't hear him or didn't listen closely enough to see if he talked about 4th down at the 32 as well. In any case, he said that if there were 6 mins rather than 8 left, he would have gone for it. He also thought that he could flip the field position there and pin USC deep, which would give the defense a chance to improve the offense's field position once they got it back. He said that he didn't want to take the game out of the kids' hands that early by letting USC score from midfield.
Some people have suggested that he has a problem thinking on the fly but it would seem to me that he's not doing much thinking at all. He's just following in these situations some internalized football coaches' down and distance guide that wasn't well thought out to begin with. The punt assumes that you have faith in your defense to stop them on 4 downs yet you don't go for it on 4th and 2 because you think the other team is going to score if you do? He talks for 15 minutes about how the schemes they ran were sound but that it's hard for a college team to stop 3 first round picks but you give the ball back to them anyway?
These are all signs of someone not thinking about the specific situation and just going by the "book." At least if you're thinking but your thinking is faulty, you might re-consider things the next time around. In this situation, there's no learning process because he's following the received wisdom which goes then unquestioned whether it works or not. In short, don't expect things to change on this front.
Some people have suggested that he has a problem thinking on the fly but it would seem to me that he's not doing much thinking at all. He's just following in these situations some internalized football coaches' down and distance guide that wasn't well thought out to begin with. The punt assumes that you have faith in your defense to stop them on 4 downs yet you don't go for it on 4th and 2 because you think the other team is going to score if you do? He talks for 15 minutes about how the schemes they ran were sound but that it's hard for a college team to stop 3 first round picks but you give the ball back to them anyway?
These are all signs of someone not thinking about the specific situation and just going by the "book." At least if you're thinking but your thinking is faulty, you might re-consider things the next time around. In this situation, there's no learning process because he's following the received wisdom which goes then unquestioned whether it works or not. In short, don't expect things to change on this front.
