I hate to say this, because I was always quick to point out that Herman Edwards wasnt the offensive coordinator, that he was a defensive guy, knew not to get involved with this sort of thing, etcetera, etcetera. But forget about Hackett. The difference in offense between even this year and last year with Heimerdinger is shocking. Obviously things would have been different under Heimerdinger had the entire team not been injured, but the call were talking about here is something that you very, very, very rarely saw with Edwards. And I think its really not as crazy as some of us seem to think, this isnt some ultra aggressive thing; most teams will do this once in a while, because if you ALWAYS run on 3rd and 1, then the other team will ALWAYS go 100% for clogging the run. If theyre aware that you have in the past gone deep in that spot, then they cant play the run as close. Most coaches understand that... I liked Herm, but I dont know that he understands this. And I think it comes as much, if not moreso, from Mangini than Schottenheimer. Id bet money that statistics would show that the Patriots went for it on fourth down WAY more than any other team over the last 5 years, Belichick loves doing that (and Parcells to a lesser extent), and thats something weve already seen in Mangini. Its funny because its one of those things where teams rarely do it, but when your team is the one on defense and the other goes for it on 4th and short, you always feel like theyre gonna make it, and they usually do... but most teams still arent willing to do it very often. Mangini and Schottenheimer are willing to do this. Like I said, I liked Edwards(except his handling of Curtis Martin). But this is a clear difference. Edwards wanted to win with ball control, no turnovers, no penalties, play smart, dont beat yourself. Mangini will take risks when he feels like its the right call.
It definetly was a "Video Game" play of sorts. It's the type of play that is intuitively logical, but because coaches in the nfl are afraid to get criticized for doing something out of the conservative mold, they won't run it. We were on, what, the 40? 3rd and 1, take a shot down field, if you don't get it, punch it through on 4th and 1. Punting in that area is just stupid, you are going to give up an opportunity to score for 20 yards of field positition after your kicker knocks it into the endzone? It's the sort of thing that a 10 year old playing madden can intuitively understand, but it's taking decades for people in the NFL to slowly come around.
How many QBs in the NFL could have actually made that throw? For one I don't think most woud have the confidence in their ability to throw it into double coverage that far down the field, and those that do would probably not hit it as accurately. Most QBs would have either overthrown it away or tucked it in and ran. Add to it the perfect play fake and it truly was a thing of beauty. This is truly a play that showed Chad Penningtons strengths as a QB.
That's the thing, when it doesn't work it kills your drive and you have to punt. We could have iced the Doplhins game and we went long on 3rd and 2, missed it and gave them a chance to tie or win the game. I like going for it at times, but it's not good to get too carried away with it. With that said, these are the new Jets. Pretty soon 3rdAnd15Draw will have to change his name to 3rdAnd2Bomb.
