Last Weekend's Coaching Decisions, Who got 'em right?

Over the weekend there were some questionable coaching decisions, let’s take a look.

Saturday night in the Iowa-Ohio State game both Jim Tressel and Kirk Ferentz had opportunities to win the game late in the fourth quarter but both decided to play it safe and take it to overtime. I think Tressel made the right call, he has a defense that’s full of NFL caliber players and he probably figured that giving the ball back to the Hawkeyes who are being quarterbacked by a redshirt freshman wasn’t going to hurt them. And he was right in the end.

Kirk Ferentz on the other hand made the wrong call in my opinion. You’re on the road in front of 100,000+ people and your offense just scored to tie the game. You’re redshirt freshman quarterback has played well the entire game and you only have to go about 40-45 yards to get it to a field goal to win. You have to realize matching score for score with the Buckeyes was going to be difficult in overtime, so take your chances and go for the win. I know Ferentz said that he’s made many coaching mistakes this season and that’s why he chose to play it safe but when you’re on the road in the toughest place to play in the Big Ten, you need to take a shot when the opportunity is available.

The other coaching decision is the one getting a lot more press. Bill Belichick’s decision to go for it on 4th and 2 from their own 28-yard line was no doubt a decision that required a lot of manhood. There is no doubt that there are many people out there slamming Belichick, but he made the right choice. It’s been talked about at nausea on ESPN the past two days but the Patriots have an offense led by a Hall of Fame quarterback who can make plays, so going for it on 4th down was the smart choice, they make it, it keeps Manning on the sidelines and gives the Patriots to win. And to those who keep saying that this decision was disrespecting the Patriots defense give me a break. Belichick’s decision showed me that he must have a ton of respect for his defense, he had to know that there was a huge risk in going for it and he obviously felt comfortable with the fact that if they didn’t pick up the first down, his defense was given 30 yards to work with to stop Manning from putting the ball in the end zone. And if you’re a defensive player (cough, Tedy Bruschi, cough), you should relish the opportunity and challenge that it is to stop an offense like the Colts with so few yards to work with.