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AG's Wildcat Report - Dispatches on the Wildcats, from Anthony Gimino

Go for it, Stoops; punting was wrong play in the fourth quarter

by on Sep. 18, 2011, under Arizona football

It was a tough night for coach Mike Stoops. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats trailed Stanford by 20 points early in the fourth quarter Saturday night. Hope and time were running out as quickly as fans were fleeing the stadium.

The Wildcats had the ball, although in the unenviable position of fourth-and-19 at the Stanford 40 after the Cardinal had sacked Nick Foles for the fifth time.

What to do?

There weren’t any good options.

Punting was the worst of them.

But that’s what coach Mike Stoops did when his team was down 30-10 with less than 12 minutes left.

“You go to the end and you go for it,” Foles said. “If I was the coach, I’d go for it. I’d do anything I could to get that fourth-and-20, I don’t care what he says.”

Stoops emphasized in his postgame press conference, referencing missed field goals, about how critical it is to score when you can against a high-powered team like Stanford. Yet, he took the opposite approach in the fourth quarter.

The outcome of the game didn’t really hang in the balance, but punting erased any doubt. There was about 11 1/2 minutes left. Arizona needed three touchdowns to have a possibility of overcoming the lead.

Even on fourth-and-19, take your chance. Play to win. You do have Juron Criner on your team, remember? He might make a play. As former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach always says, “Swing your sword.”

Not fall on it.

Worse, Stoops didn’t really have a good football explanation for his decision afterward.

“I just didn’t want to put our defense in another bad position,” he said.

Which made no sense.

The offense hadn’t put the defense in a bad position all night. The defense had put the defense in bad position all night.

None of Stanford’s scoring drives were cheapies. They weren’t set up by turnovers or bad special teams play: The Cardinal went, in order, 57 yards, 72, 64, 65, 81, 80 and 91 yards. The defense had plenty of time to stop Stanford on those drives … and didn’t.

That 91-yard drive came after the punt, as Stanford drained 6:55 from the clock and went up 37-10, which was the final margin.

Game over.

Down 20 points with less than 12 minutes left is not the time to play the field position game, and punting isn’t a winning message to send to the team. See Foles’ quote: Go for it.

It would have been nice to at least take a chance on fourth-and-19.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 18th, 2011 at 4:25 am and is filed under Arizona football. Tags for this post: , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Mark B. Evans

    You need to put some of Foles comments from this story: Is it October yet, into this story, otherrwise this reads like Foles is calling out his coach.
    Unless he was.

  • Mark B. Evans

    Totally agree with this. That punt was surrender, not strategy.

  • Chris

    Although no defender of how poorly I thought the coaching staff did tonight, Foles needs to look in the mirror too.  There were at least three of his sacks where he should have thrown the ball away to give his team a better shot.  The play before this fourth down was an excellent example.  I certainly see things going south if our players continue to comment like this.

    • Merkin

      He did throw one away, into the ground.  Thankfully the play was blown dead before the ref would have called Intentional Grounding.

  • Tom

    The lack of quality decision making and direction from our coaching staff is becoming painfully evident. We have good athletes and they play hard, but you can just sense the confusion. I know it’s a young team, but there is some experience mixed in as well.

  • Merkin

    Throwing in the towel 4 minutes into the 4th quarter is unacceptable.
     
    The defensive adjustments in the 2nd half was just terrible.  2 tight ends behind the defensive backs?  Either one would have made a touchdown.

  • Fred

    Foles has said a lot recently, but this comment will have him in deep manure next week in practice. The only saving grace of the game was that  Stoops didn’t yell, scream and punch his coaches and players this time. If he had, you can be sure the ESPN cameras would have zoomed in on him. Perhaps the AD tpld him to tone it down????

    • Tom

      I’m not sure what kind of backlash Foles will receive- I think it was his competitive fire coming out. I’m certain that Byrne had something to say to Stoops last week regarding his sideline demeanor. You could see the strain in his face trying to keep it together.

  • Don Cox

    There is far more wrong with the Cats than just this one bonehead play. How about the play where Luck went back to pass and there were two Cardinal receivers down field and NO Arizona defenders? That was classic.

  • http://www.drinkbeeratwork.com Mike B.

    This team is so jacked up that it is pointless to point out any ONE weakness. Stoops needs to make some DRASTIC changes, or he needs to go.

  • LaJollaCat21

    Whatever. If that’s all you can come up with to determine how motivated Stoops is to win–I say you’re reaching.

    The team played hard. The defense knocked out one guy and Trevin Wade played lights out–almost taking Owusu out with a nasty low tackle that flipped him right on his shoulder. The intensity was there, the desire to compete and win was there, the execution was not however, and the defensive coaching and game planning prepardeness(see open TE” and FB’s from VARIOUS formations in critical down and distance scenarios) was insufficient.

    You want to talk what-ifs, then talk about 2 missed field goals, and a horrible offsides on 4th and 3.

    Those were the death blows and this game was OVER long before that 4th and 19.

    Imagine Foles dropping back, needing time to allow his receivers to get open 20 yards down field and then he gets sacked in a nasty collision and has a season ending injury.

    AG, you’re an excellent writer with a deep and illustrious past following Wildcats sports and making excellent comments and  criticisms, but Dude, for real, this time you’re way out of line…much ado about nothing on this one

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