Washington players bail out their boneheaded coach

[JE Corbett]

Kalen DeBoer's decision to pass the ball on third down when a chip shot field
goal was going to give Washington a 9 point lead with a little over 2 minutes
allowed Texas to keep both their remaining timeouts. That proved to be crucial
when Washington recovered the onside kick with 1:15. At that point the game
would have and should have been over if Texas only had one timeout. Because
they had still had two, Washington couldn't take a knee and run out the clock.
The end result was Texas had four cracks at the game winning touchdown
from the Washington 12 yard line. Fortunately for DeBoer, his players stepped
up and bailed him out. Otherwise he would be getting crushed today and he
would deserve it.

How can coaches who make millions of dollars a year make such boneheaded
decisions when the right call is so obvious?

[Eric Ramon]

Post by JE Corbett
Kalen DeBoer's decision to pass the ball on third down when a chip shot field
goal was going to give Washington a 9 point lead with a little over 2 minutes
allowed Texas to keep both their remaining timeouts. That proved to be crucial
when Washington recovered the onside kick with 1:15. At that point the game
would have and should have been over if Texas only had one timeout. Because
they had still had two, Washington couldn't take a knee and run out the clock.
The end result was Texas had four cracks at the game winning touchdown
from the Washington 12 yard line. Fortunately for DeBoer, his players stepped
up and bailed him out. Otherwise he would be getting crushed today and he
would deserve it.
How can coaches who make millions of dollars a year make such boneheaded
decisions when the right call is so obvious?

a bunch of boneheaded moves, including running Johnson over and over, at 2 yds a pop, resulting in field goals when a touchdown would have put the game out of reach. If they were going to run him at the end of the game they could have taken a knee with the same result and run off another 40 seconds but lost that when he got hurt.

[bern]

Post by Eric Ramon

Post by JE Corbett
Kalen DeBoer's decision to pass the ball on third down when a chip
shot field goal was going to give Washington a 9 point lead with a
little over 2 minutes allowed Texas to keep both their remaining
timeouts. That proved to be crucial when Washington recovered the
onside kick with 1:15. At that point the game would have and should
have been over if Texas only had one timeout. Because they had still
had two, Washington couldn't take a knee and run out the clock. The
end result was Texas had four cracks at the game winning touchdown
from the Washington 12 yard line. Fortunately for DeBoer, his players
stepped up and bailed him out. Otherwise he would be getting crushed
today and he would deserve it.
How can coaches who make millions of dollars a year make such
boneheaded decisions when the right call is so obvious?

a bunch of boneheaded moves, including running Johnson over and over,
at 2 yds a pop, resulting in field goals when a touchdown would have
put the game out of reach. If they were going to run him at the end of
the game they could have taken a knee with the same result and run off
another 40 seconds but lost that when he got hurt.

That won't work against Michigan. Michigan as a group is very
determined and Washington can't give them an inch or they will wind up
like Alabama, wondering what could have been.

[JGibson]

Post by JE Corbett
Kalen DeBoer's decision to pass the ball on third down when a chip shot field
goal was going to give Washington a 9 point lead with a little over 2 minutes
allowed Texas to keep both their remaining timeouts. That proved to be crucial
when Washington recovered the onside kick with 1:15. At that point the game
would have and should have been over if Texas only had one timeout. Because
they had still had two, Washington couldn't take a knee and run out the clock.
The end result was Texas had four cracks at the game winning touchdown
from the Washington 12 yard line. Fortunately for DeBoer, his players stepped
up and bailed him out. Otherwise he would be getting crushed today and he
would deserve it.
How can coaches who make millions of dollars a year make such boneheaded
decisions when the right call is so obvious?

That's coach of the year Kalen DeBoer.

[JE Corbett]

Post by JGibson

Post by JE Corbett
Kalen DeBoer's decision to pass the ball on third down when a chip shot field
goal was going to give Washington a 9 point lead with a little over 2 minutes
allowed Texas to keep both their remaining timeouts. That proved to be crucial
when Washington recovered the onside kick with 1:15. At that point the game
would have and should have been over if Texas only had one timeout. Because
they had still had two, Washington couldn't take a knee and run out the clock.
The end result was Texas had four cracks at the game winning touchdown
from the Washington 12 yard line. Fortunately for DeBoer, his players stepped
up and bailed him out. Otherwise he would be getting crushed today and he
would deserve it.
How can coaches who make millions of dollars a year make such boneheaded
decisions when the right call is so obvious?

That's coach of the year Kalen DeBoer.

He still made a boneheaded decision with the third down incomplete pass that allowed
Texas to keep two timeouts. He didn't need a touchdown to make it a two score game.
They were already in position for a chip shot FG. What was to be gained by risking a pass
play. He made a bad situation worse after they recovered the onside kick. Had he taken a
knee three times and punted the ball, Texas would have had 80 yards or more to score
a touchdown with less than 20 seconds on the clock. He played the last two minutes in
the only way he could have lost the game. He is very fortunate Texas couldn't convert
with four cracks from the 12 yard line. This wasn't quite as boneheaded as Mario
Christobal blowing the Georgia Tech game when all he had to do was take a knee, but
it's pretty close to that bad. It is inexcusable for a head coach to lose a game that his
player's have already won.

[michael anderson]

So I agree about the 3rd down pass. But the next possession is a *little trickier*. I agree that if you're not going to kneel, you should at least run outside or do something different than just have the rb dive into the line. I mean c'mon you're not going to get the first down like that, so why try.......so it's kind of like the worst of both worlds there. Of course a run play that gets a back or wr on the edge is also more likely to draw a flag, which also stops clock.

I think given everything I probably would have kneeled in that situation, just because I'm more afraid of a holding call or something than an injury. But injuries happen. If washington was smart they immediately would have picked up whats going on and had several guys haul his ass off the field and look at him on the sideline. I also don't like that rule....I don't believe the offense when they are leading like that should be punished for an injury(a penalty is different one could argue), and there would be a way to put distinctions on the rule to apply in different situations. the whole thing just seemed like artificial drama that never should have happened. Dont like that rule....

But the washington coach was in a tough spot. It's not quite enough time to run it out, and then what if texas takes over at like the 25 yard line with like 18 seconds left, has a 25 yard pass to the 45, and then has a few hail marys into the end zone and one hits. He would have taken shit for that as well. But obviously with the injury that changed everything, and texas went from like a 0.4% chance of victory to probably like a 15% chance of victory do to the injury with 50 seconds left(maybe 20% after the punt penalty).

but I think kneeling and punting is probably the right move. Usually I am all for teams getting aggressive to get a 1st down to win the game(and I think thats what you do if texas had 3 timeouts and not 2), but with only two timeouts and needing a td had they just kneeled they could have gotten it down to such a point that their chances of winning were 99%. Of course the probably was the washington coach didn't really do either- he didn't play it safe by kneeling and also didn't really try to get the 1st. Worst of both worlds.

Also I've heard some say "well they just should have had penix run backwards and then sideways for like 7 seconds each play to get the clock to zero". No....this is a terrible idea. Maybe try to do that for 2-3 seconds each play(which maybe gets the clock down to 14 or so), but if you do it too far it is bound to draw a penalty like a hold or block in the back. And that of course would be a killer too(just like the injury was).

It was just not a good situation for the washington coach to be in......much different situation than the miami/two creams disaster earlier this year where that game was 100% over.

[JE Corbett]

So I agree about the 3rd down pass. But the next possession is a *little trickier*. I agree that if you're not going to kneel, you should at least run outside or do something different than just have the rb dive into the line. I mean c'mon you're not going to get the first down like that, so why try.......so it's kind of like the worst of both worlds there. Of course a run play that gets a back or wr on the edge is also more likely to draw a flag, which also stops clock.
I think given everything I probably would have kneeled in that situation, just because I'm more afraid of a holding call or something than an injury. But injuries happen. If washington was smart they immediately would have picked up whats going on and had several guys haul his ass off the field and look at him on the sideline. I also don't like that rule....I don't believe the offense when they are leading like that should be punished for an injury(a penalty is different one could argue), and there would be a way to put distinctions on the rule to apply in different situations. the whole thing just seemed like artificial drama that never should have happened. Dont like that rule....
But the washington coach was in a tough spot. It's not quite enough time to run it out, and then what if texas takes over at like the 25 yard line with like 18 seconds left, has a 25 yard pass to the 45, and then has a few hail marys into the end zone and one hits. He would have taken shit for that as well. But obviously with the injury that changed everything, and texas went from like a 0.4% chance of victory to probably like a 15% chance of victory do to the injury with 50 seconds left(maybe 20% after the punt penalty).
but I think kneeling and punting is probably the right move. Usually I am all for teams getting aggressive to get a 1st down to win the game(and I think thats what you do if texas had 3 timeouts and not 2), but with only two timeouts and needing a td had they just kneeled they could have gotten it down to such a point that their chances of winning were 99%. Of course the probably was the washington coach didn't really do either- he didn't play it safe by kneeling and also didn't really try to get the 1st. Worst of both worlds.
Also I've heard some say "well they just should have had penix run backwards and then sideways for like 7 seconds each play to get the clock to zero". No....this is a terrible idea. Maybe try to do that for 2-3 seconds each play(which maybe gets the clock down to 14 or so), but if you do it too far it is bound to draw a penalty like a hold or block in the back. And that of course would be a killer too(just like the injury was).
It was just not a good situation for the washington coach to be in......much different situation than the miami/two creams disaster earlier this year where that game was 100% over.

The decision to try for the first down after the onside kick is a debatable one. If you kneel three times, the other team is going
to get the ball but barring a special teams disaster, it will be deep in their own territory with very little time and no timeouts.
What isn't debatable is the decision to pass for a TD before kicking the chip shot field goal. Had they taken a knee and forced
Texas to use a timeout, there would have been no decision to make after recovering the onside kick. Texas could only have
stopped clock once so Washington could have easily run out the last 75 seconds by taking a knee. Kalen DeBoer should get
the Mario Christobal Award for boneheaded game management.