Rhode Irish
Semi-retired
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Yup
We haven't stopped them much at all. They're built to run. Being conservative much of the game aided in putting us in the position we were in..
Vs.
Our offense has methodically marched down the field in the 4th. We have limited time and are down by 1+ scores. Aggression has worked down the stretch.
Gotta be aggressive there. Then again, if the play calls on that set of downs were better to begin with we may not even be in that position. You QB has been your best running back all day. I'm 3rd and 3, you go empty and he gets sacked.
If they hadn't lost 5 yards on third down I would agree. But in reality, 4th and 7 is a very high risk proposition, to put it mildly. It isn't like just gaining 7 yards on any other play during the game; it has a far lower chance of succeeding than just about any other play in the game, because so much of the field is off-limits before the snap. And the defense had held MSU for (I think) 4 consecutive drives and they were likely to be super conservative upon getting the ball back. The only reason why the strategy didn't work is because Cole Luke just decided not to stay anywhere near his man so O'Connor lobbed a ball to guy with nobody within 4 strides of him. If that play had been covered correctly, he likely throws it into the stands or eats it - they punt back to you and you're right where you started with a new set of downs and 20 seconds having run off the clock.