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4th and 1

cclarkblues said:
ISU had 6 kicks blocked this year, you could smell the fear from the kicker. They had a stud running back to carry for the first down. To me it's a bad coaching decision.
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Against a defense that had been out there the whole second half. ISU had TOP of essentially 23 minutes of the 29 minutes to that point, 271 yards and 21 straight points. They needed 1 damn yard.
 
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Simple question to answer now and I was screaming at the TV when they sent the kicker out. ISU had grinded MSU's defense down to a version of itself and Rittenhouse and Dawson were both smoking hot! If you get the 1st you continue to grind clock and have a shot at points. If you don't get it the result is the same as the missed kick. Illinois State was playing with house money the whole playoff after going all in with a pair of deuces against NDSU to stay alive. Why not go all in against MSU?
 
It’s tough to say what the right call was in this situation — the fact is, whatever call ISU’s coach made in the situation was going to get him second-guessed if it didn’t work out. The hard truth is that ISU’s kicking game was a glaring weakness, and that weakness forced ISU’s coach to make a tough call. Teams with glaring weaknesses don’t usually win championship games against teams as good as MSU.

Congratulations to the Cats on a great season. I hope we can make the right changes to get back in the mix next year.
 
You play football to win, you play to score TDs. You dictate the game.

When you don't play that way you get the L like Illinois State settling for FGs.

I would rather lose going for it on 4th down than having a kicker decide the fate of the game
 
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Illinois State had 4th-and-1 at Montana State’s 21, tie game, under a minute left. They kicked a 38-yarder. It got blocked. Game went to OT. They lost.

Should they have gone for it? Absolutely. Analytics were screaming “GO!” Convert and you can milk the clock, set up a chip shot, maybe punch it in. Kick it and—even if you make it—you’re basically saying, “Here, Montana State, have a minute to ruin our night.” Spoiler: they did.

Lesson? 4th-and-1 late, deep in enemy territory? Don’t get cute—just go for it. Playing it safe isn’t safe.

This was a simple call. Spack crumbled in the moment.
 
406football said:
Illinois State had 4th-and-1 at Montana State’s 21, tie game, under a minute left. They kicked a 38-yarder. It got blocked. Game went to OT. They lost.

Should they have gone for it? Absolutely. Analytics were screaming “GO!” Convert and you can milk the clock, set up a chip shot, maybe punch it in. Kick it and—even if you make it—you’re basically saying, “Here, Montana State, have a minute to ruin our night.” Spoiler: they did.

Lesson? 4th-and-1 late, deep in enemy territory? Don’t get cute—just go for it. Playing it safe isn’t safe.

This was a simple call. Spack crumbled in the moment.
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In my opinion kicking is almost always the right call but all 3 people involved in the operation goofed up as well as whoever was supposed to block the Cat player off the edge.
 
406football said:
Illinois State had 4th-and-1 at Montana State’s 21, tie game, under a minute left. They kicked a 38-yarder. It got blocked. Game went to OT. They lost.

Should they have gone for it? Absolutely. Analytics were screaming “GO!” Convert and you can milk the clock, set up a chip shot, maybe punch it in. Kick it and—even if you make it—you’re basically saying, “Here, Montana State, have a minute to ruin our night.” Spoiler: they did.

Lesson? 4th-and-1 late, deep in enemy territory? Don’t get cute—just go for it. Playing it safe isn’t safe.

This was a simple call. Spack crumbled in the moment.
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They had a chip shot in OT and fucked it up. That's why I made the point last night that going for it on 4th down would've done absolutely nothing for them if their process wasn't gonna be cleaned up. You can't risk going for a TD there either. That's just unrealistic and no coach thinks to do that any way when you can just bleed the clock and kick.
 
Griz til I die said:
They had a chip shot in OT and fucked it up. That's why I made the point last night that going for it on 4th down would've done absolutely nothing for them if their process wasn't gonna be cleaned up. You can't risk going for a TD there either. That's just unrealistic and no coach thinks to do that any way when you can just bleed the clock and kick.
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It is absolutely not unrealistic to bleed the clock with .58 seconds to go and should've been the call. That was a poor call. Still giving the cats another opportunity to tie or win. Cats clearly showed they could move the ball in quick fashion as evidenced by the ending of first half. Win it with your offense or lose trying, but that was a weak call.
 
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