I will admit that I was skeptical, dare I say less than confident, when Mullen sent Sobes out in Death Valley to try that first field goal. Immediately all of the recent woes went through my mind. Two missed PATs (Sobes and Graves), the missed FG against USM (Graves), even back to last year, when Sobes missed kicks against UM and Bama. How? How were we going to make a kick in Death Valley against LSU with 102,000 coonasses yelling and most of the southeast watching?
But then he banged one home. Then whaddaya know, another. Ok, so we CAN do this after all. Maybe Mullen has been telling the truth all year, that they do look great in practice. Maybe Sobiesk has found his swagger now, and this whole FG thing won't be a disaster waiting to happen.
Obviously that's the line of thinking I prefer, but somewhere gnawing at me is the past. How will I feel if we need a FG from Sobiesk on Saturday? Where is the little green line that denotes FG range going to be? Most importantly, can he deliver again?
It's hard to put this down in stone because so much depends on the flow of the game, how well our offense is working, how successful we are at slowing them down, etc, but in general, I'd be cool with any FG attempt from inside about the 25 yard line (42 yarder). If we're at or inside the 25 and it's 4th and 2 or less, I'd probably also be OK with going for it, again, depending on the situation. I'd also go for it if we are outside the 25 but inside about the 40, as long as the first down is within reason. Put it this way, if we punt from the 40 and Bell blasts it out the back of the end zone, I don't think that 20 yards we gained means much to the TAMU offense. Bout as well take a crack at the first down.
I guess the bottom line on the original point is I went from zero confidence in our kickers to a moderate amount. I would say that I would love to see him knock one through early on Saturday, but I am reminded of what Spurrier used to say, that you could have field goals all you wanted, he was going to be getting touchdowns. Field goals aren't going to beat A&M but if this one is tied late and we need Sobes to win it for us, I now at least have some faith it could happen.
But then he banged one home. Then whaddaya know, another. Ok, so we CAN do this after all. Maybe Mullen has been telling the truth all year, that they do look great in practice. Maybe Sobiesk has found his swagger now, and this whole FG thing won't be a disaster waiting to happen.
Obviously that's the line of thinking I prefer, but somewhere gnawing at me is the past. How will I feel if we need a FG from Sobiesk on Saturday? Where is the little green line that denotes FG range going to be? Most importantly, can he deliver again?
It's hard to put this down in stone because so much depends on the flow of the game, how well our offense is working, how successful we are at slowing them down, etc, but in general, I'd be cool with any FG attempt from inside about the 25 yard line (42 yarder). If we're at or inside the 25 and it's 4th and 2 or less, I'd probably also be OK with going for it, again, depending on the situation. I'd also go for it if we are outside the 25 but inside about the 40, as long as the first down is within reason. Put it this way, if we punt from the 40 and Bell blasts it out the back of the end zone, I don't think that 20 yards we gained means much to the TAMU offense. Bout as well take a crack at the first down.
I guess the bottom line on the original point is I went from zero confidence in our kickers to a moderate amount. I would say that I would love to see him knock one through early on Saturday, but I am reminded of what Spurrier used to say, that you could have field goals all you wanted, he was going to be getting touchdowns. Field goals aren't going to beat A&M but if this one is tied late and we need Sobes to win it for us, I now at least have some faith it could happen.
