Monday Night Football musings
Sep. 14th, 2009 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glisharaSo, people will be talking over that Leodis McKelvin fumble for the rest of the week, obviously, but despite all the second-guessing that will be going on, I absolutely think he made the right call by attempting to run the kick out of the end zone. It ended up going very badly for the Bills and thus really well for my team, obviously, so I'm biased, but even before the fumble, as he scrambled, I was saying, "Smart." I assumed the game was pretty much over by then.
I mean, obviously, there's a chance for something to go wrong on any play, but the Bills were in an odd uncertain position there. There was 2:06 left in the game, and the Pats had all 3 timeouts remaining. If McKelvin took the knee in the end zone for a touchback, the Bills would have had to make a play before the 2-mintue warning. If they ended up going three and out, then, the Pats could have forced them to punt with well over a minute and a half on the clock, and a timeout left. By running it out and extending the kick return for 6 seconds of gametime, he put the play beyond the 2-minute warning. 4 plays (with the punt) would have eaten up all the Pats' timeouts and probably given them the ball with barely 1:30 left. If they'd managed a first down on the first play, and then had to punt, they could have given it to the Pats with 0:50 to go and no timeouts, in that scenario. By running the ball out, he was trying to take a timeout away from the Pats, and very nearly succeeded.
Now, once he was hit, he should have GONE DOWN. Fighting to stay moving like that is an invitation to strip the ball, and that's exactly what happened, and at the worst POSSIBLE time for the Bills. But his error wasn't in choosing to run for it. It was in fighting too hard at the end.
I mean, obviously, there's a chance for something to go wrong on any play, but the Bills were in an odd uncertain position there. There was 2:06 left in the game, and the Pats had all 3 timeouts remaining. If McKelvin took the knee in the end zone for a touchback, the Bills would have had to make a play before the 2-mintue warning. If they ended up going three and out, then, the Pats could have forced them to punt with well over a minute and a half on the clock, and a timeout left. By running it out and extending the kick return for 6 seconds of gametime, he put the play beyond the 2-minute warning. 4 plays (with the punt) would have eaten up all the Pats' timeouts and probably given them the ball with barely 1:30 left. If they'd managed a first down on the first play, and then had to punt, they could have given it to the Pats with 0:50 to go and no timeouts, in that scenario. By running the ball out, he was trying to take a timeout away from the Pats, and very nearly succeeded.
Now, once he was hit, he should have GONE DOWN. Fighting to stay moving like that is an invitation to strip the ball, and that's exactly what happened, and at the worst POSSIBLE time for the Bills. But his error wasn't in choosing to run for it. It was in fighting too hard at the end.
