Last Field Goal of the Game

[Ramius]

I figured that was an attempt to catch them off guard and possibly score a TD to make it even more out of reach as soon s they caught on trent did the right thing and went down

 

If the naked bootleg works and nets us a first down, you drop your ass to the ground right there and end the ball game. You do NOT score a TD to go up by only 8. If the TD puts you up by 2 scores, sure go ahead and score. But on that last "run out the clock" set of downs, DJ better had been telling marshawn and freddie to hit the ground after getting the first, ala Brian Westbrook a couple seasons ago.

[YOOOOOO]

the naked bootleg was a terrible call....you pound the ball 3 times up the middle....make it a easy FG for your kicker...

[lets_go_bills]

What if, what if, what if.

 

Clearly Jauron has confidence (and rightfully so) in his ST to nail the FG and cover the ensuing kick. And trusted that his D could handle the Jags O, like they did all day. With only a few seconds left, they would have to pass, which is NOT their strong suit.

 

It was the RIGHT call.

[JoeFerguson]

the naked bootleg was a terrible call....you pound the ball 3 times up the middle....make it a easy FG for your kicker...

 

BINGO

[Boatdrinks]

Right call based on the situation...

 

THE BETTER QUESTION: what was the 2nd down play call on that drive with a playaction rollout by Edwards?

 

Was that another short yardage playaction pass (like the one that worked successfully just before that), or was it a naked bootleg? In either situation, I think it was a poor call that added 10 yards to the field goal attempt. NExt time in that situation, I hope the Bills run it 3 times up the middle with Lynch. If he gets the 1st the game is over, if he doesnt we kick a 34 yarder instead of the 44 yarder, with the same amount of time on the clock. I was scratching my head over that call.

 

Any ideas? Not to nitpick, bc the rest of the game was called beautifully... just wondering.

 

I wondered the same thing. Don't think it was a naked, but it could have been. Seemed like a similar play to the Schouman catch, just to the other side. Low risk pass IMO. TE either keeps it or you get a TD. Someone missed the block on the Jags DE and he just blew up the play. TE recognized this and made a smart choice to just cut upfield and minimize the loss. Questionable play perhaps when the time was so critical, as it risked a clock stoppage. But Reed was wide open when they ran it to the other side for Schouman, so I liked the aggressiveness of going for a kill shot.

[San-O]

the naked bootleg was a terrible call....you pound the ball 3 times up the middle....make it a easy FG for your kicker...

 

 

That's what I was thinking, but I'm not a football coach. More like a wannabee G.M.

 

The other thing is, T.E. had 1 rush attempt for -1 yard. Put the ball in Marshawn's hands or run something safe.

 

That bootleg or whatever almost cost the field goal with poor field position for the field goal.

 

D.J. said after the game, as some posters stated that the play was a bootleg for T.E. to be a designed run, or take a sack.

 

I have a hard time believing that.

[Cash]

Ok - great game by the bills yesterday. I'm not here to bash the bills or Jauron or "temper enthusiasm" like I heard in a few other posts. I'm not second guessing coaching or playcall - I want to see what people think about Jauron's game managment strategy in dealing with the fourth quarter field goal.

 

Now the bills were up by one point with less than 30 seconds left in the game - on the 27 yard line. At this point, I'm thinking - with 29 seconds left, we should go for it here. Granted, it was 17 yards, but we probably could have managed a dump off to a running back, picked up 8-10 yards. Jacksonville would get the ball back on the 20-25 yard line with 20 seconds left and have to drive almost 50 yards to have a shot at a 40-45 yard field goal.

 

Now we all know what happened - Lindell came in and boomed a 43 yarder and the rest is history. His field goal put us up by 4 points - forcing JVILLE to score a touchdown if they wanted the win. My concern was WHAT IF he missed? I'm not the most ardent supporter of Lindell (I know I probably should be) but his notable and untimely misses early in his career have forever scarred me (see week 16 against Pitt -Bledsoe's last year). If he missed, JVILLE gets the ball back on the 35. I think either decision would have been good, but I guess kicking the field goal (and knowing it went in in hindsight) was a better choice.

 

It is good to note that the Cheatriots**** had a similar decision to make with 1:56 left on the Jets 29, leading 19-10, with a 4th and 3. Cassel went for it and hit Welker on a slant - game over after a kneel. Obviously these were different circumstances - they had a 9 point lead, more time on the clock, and obviously only 3 yards to make. You could almost argue that the Pats* would have been better off to kick the field goal and be done with it. The Jets would have then needed 2 TD scores. But Bellicheat was probably scared of a block, or he maybe wanted to shove it down the Jets throat even more.

 

Either way, we won the game and I'm proud that Lindell made the kick.

 

If it had been a much shorter distance to convert (maybe 5 yards or less) I'd have advocated going for it. However, given how unlikely it was to make it, I think the higher percentage play was to send out your kicker for a FG he makes about 85% of the time. Making the FG pretty much wraps up the game, as long as you don't allow a big return on the kickoff.

 

I agree with those who feel that the bootleg on 2nd down was a mistake. However, it is a defensible one, because it did have a reasonable chance of working. And even though it failed as much as possible, it still kept the clock moving and didn't force us out of FG range. As much as I loved the playaction pass to Schouman on the previous series, Jacksonville is probably too good to be fooled by the playfake twice like that. I'd have preferred a handoff. Don't think it would've made a difference, though, because we still wouldn't have gotten the first down.

 

All in all, I just have to say how pleased I am with that last drive in comparison to similar situations last year. I feel like last year, the philosophy was more about not getting embarrassed than winning. Specifically, I'm thinking of the last-second losses against Dallas and Denver. In both of those games (especially Dallas), our coaching staff basically decided to give the opponent a shot at a game-winning FG and hope it missed, rather than risk giving up a touchdown. I was worried that we'd see a similar move yesterday, where the Bills would run 3 straight times, then punt on 4th and short -- hoping that Jacksonville wouldn't be able to get into FG range in time. Instead, the Bills showed a real desire to put the game away, and if the Jags had been fooled by that bootleg, the Bills would have put it away 100%. As it was, they still did a pretty good job.

[Ralonzo]

My take on why the FG was done, is it took Scobee off the board for the Jags as an option. With his leg, they might not have even needed to get in Bills territory to give him a shot at a miracle kick.