Navy/Pitt ending

[DevilAlumna]

If I were the Pitt coach, I would have kicked.

What say you -- tie and play another round of OT, or go for the win on 4th and goal (on the 2)?

[hc5duke]

Didn't watch the game, but I thought the conventional wisdom was, at home, you go for the tie if it's a sure thing. Maybe in such an high-scoring game, he felt confident they could get the TD. Not having watched the rest of the game, I would have kicked as well

[YmoBeThere]

Very quickly you can see Dave Wannstedt working his way out of a job. He and Norv Turner, both Jimmy Johnson proteges, fell a long way away from that tree.

[ivduke]

The problem here is their offensive line outweighed Navy's defensive line by 20+ lbs. on average. Teh ran the ball all night on Navy with McCoy picking up 150 yds. and three touchdowns. While doing so he proved himself to be the best player on the field. So what does Wannstedt do? He passes from the 2 yard line on 3rd and 4th down. DUH!!!! I'm not a PITT fan, but his head has got to be on a chopping block after this one (not to mention the last 3 years of agony).

[rthomas]

Bwahahahahahaha!!!

[DevilWolf]

but his head has got to be on a chopping block after this one (not to mention the last 3 years of agony).

Nice use of "chopping block" in a post relating to Navy football :-)

[Olympic Fan]

I was also a little taken aback by Wannstedt's playcalling at the end. I don't think the fourth down pass was so terrible, but if you're in four-down territory and you've been running successfully all night, why not run on third-and-two -- you either score (the probable outcome), get it closer, so that you have an easier run on fourth down (the next most likely outcome) or get stuffed or even lose a couple of yards -- which just means that you have to pass on fourth down -- which is what you ended up doing anyway.

Speaking of end-games involving the academies, I have't see any discussion of the end of the Army-Tulane game from Saturday. Army down by four points, gets the ball at its own 20 with 29 seconds left and no timeouts.

A complete pass to the 40 and out of bounds, an incompletion, a pass over the middle to the Tulane 45 and a spike give them the ball at the Tulane 45 with 2-3 seconds left.

Hail Mary lands in a mob at the back of the end zone ... the ball's tipped sideways and an uncovered Army receiver grabs it as he's going out of the end zone. After a long, LONG review it's ruled a touchdown and Army wins an amazing game.

[FewFAC]

If Wannstedt had kicked, or even run on 3rd and 4th downs, he'd still be an NFL coach. Navy hadn't stopped Pitt all night, so I feel bad for the Pitt kids who were undermined by their coach. But it's not like Navy didn't deserve the victory, either.