The problem is that this is basic decision making that every single football person on earth knows you take the points. This is not graduate level study...
We're down 17-10 at the half if we take those points. Instead, 24-7 and the game was over.
How can you for sure say we would be down 17-10 at halftime? If we had kicked and made the field goal, we would have kicked off to Georgia with over 2 minutes to go in the half and they would've probably driven down and scored a touchdown because that's what they all day long and it would've been 24-10 at halftime. The score was 38-7 early in the third quarter. I don't know why y'all think a field goal with 2:30 left in the second quarter to make it a seven-point game would've been some magic points that made Georgia fall apart and lose the game, when they pushed our schitt in all day long. Lebby knew Georgia was going to score a lot of points and knew field goals weren't going to make a difference, so he gambled on scoring a touchdown. If we get the first down there, we can burn more clock and then score a touchdown with close to no time on the clock, so Georgia wouldn't have time to go back down and score. Then it could be 17-14 at halftime. It didn't work, but it's not the worst decision I've ever seen. There were much dumber decisions made by coaches across the country on Saturday (Clark Lea's going for it on fourth down from the 25 in a tie game with a minute left being the worst), but the people who already don't like Lebby are going to pick apart everything that he does.
You're assuming Ferrie makes that FG. He misses one per game.
I didn't agree with the decision at the time, but I understand why Lebby made the decision to go for it. As stated some people don't like Lebby and are going to bash every decision he makes.
In all three of our SEC losses that we should have won (Tennessee, Texas, and Florida), he missed a FG that ultimately was the difference in the game. All three if them were between 40 and 45 yards and should have been chip shots for him.
Wasn't Texas FG blocked? Florida FG - ehhhh. I will give you Tennessee.
I thought the miss at Tennessee was a bad snap/botched hold? Or am I mixing up that and the Florida miss?
It's hard to coach when you're out talented. If we take the FG, it keeps us in the game longer, and there is a good argument that all you want to do as the less talented team is keep it a game as long as possible and hope a break goes your way.
On the Mullen comparison, I told myself that during the Tennessee game, and then through gritted teeth during the UF game.
This isn't because I don't like or support him - I actually do think he's showing progress. That doesn't mean we can't second guess a bad decision.
You really can't coach thinking he might miss the FG there. You have to make the right coaching call trusting he's going to make it. Then if he missed it, we'd all be whining about Ferrie today, but at least we would have knowledge that Lebby made the right decision.
I agree a million percent. It was colossally stupid to go for it there.
We were on the 23. Regardless, it's a tweener decision where you have bake in what you think the defense is going to provide rest of game. We are the 2nd worst defense in the league (Lebby owns that) - UGA was certainly going to wear us down and put up more than our average of close to 40ppg given up. A FG might have slowed it down just enough to give us a moral victory Sunday morning but that's it. MSU is not beating UGA by the conservative book this year. Just not happening. I'm okay with risk taking against far superior teams. It's the only way to knock them off. Against a closer matched team? Try to grab 3 from 40.
I saw it the other way. Him going for it there seemed like a desperation move to me, and it was way too early for that.
No we didn't. Mullen was a competent coach on day 1. If Lebby wasn't ready for this job on the day he was hired, he was a bad hire.
Maybe I was just being naive, but I was thinking we still had a chance to win being down only 7 at half
Then you simply have more faith in the defense than I do.Maybe I was just being naive, but I was thinking we still had a chance to win being down only 7 at half
I've only been a State fan for 48 years... maybe one day I will learn**
And then didn't he bring Shapen in on 3rd down? That was my WTF moment - why bring KT in for the first two and pull him? You're begging for a sack at that point.
Nah just two off the top of my head were him hiring Torbush as DC was a monumentally bad hire at the time and we all said as much. That cost us a winning season his first year. Then not emphasizing to Tyson Lee to pitch to Boobie on the goal line vs LSU no matter what.
If my memory is correct, late in the 2014 game at LSU, Mullen got POd over something when we had the ball at about LSU's 5 yard line, and went for it rather than kick the field goal. We acted like the game was over and LSU almost came back. Those 3 points ultimately didn't matter, but at the time would have been really nice to have had.
Our broadcast team though also they would just draw offsides or time out and kick. As Matt Wyatt said after the failed attempt, "not making that 4th down is the same as an interception or fumble. No difference"
I think this dead horse has been beaten enough, but one last comment and I promise I'll shut up about it...
