[81alum]

Within an hour of the end of the game I observed here that I was disappointed that we put the outcome of the game on an extremely nervous freshman rather than in the hands of Andrew Luck.  And while emotionally I still feel that way, some of the excellent analysis made earlier in this thread has persuaded me that the need to leave no time on the clock probably outweighed the 25% chance of a miss--given that a miss only meant a trip to overtime--and given that we won our earlier overtime game. 

Being conservative when the worst possible outcome was overtime is not the same thing as being conservative when the worst possible outcome was defeat.  And we have to remember that the missed field goal at the end of regulation did not cause defeat.  The game was lost in overtime-due possibly  to bad play calling and certainly to bad play execution. 

So Shaw's decision, once we got to that last series in regulation, does now seem understandable to me.  I do wonder, though, if the thought crossed anyone's mind that at some point Shaw  might have used Eric Whitaker, who filled in for Jordan earlier in the year and went 3-3 in the 30 yard range? 

[81alum]

Within an hour of the end of the game I observed here that I was disappointed that we put the outcome of the game on an extremely nervous freshman rather than in the hands of Andrew Luck.  And while emotionally I still feel that way, some of the excellent analysis made earlier in this thread has persuaded me that the need to leave no time on the clock probably outweighed the 25% chance of a miss--given that a miss only meant a trip to overtime--and given that we won our earlier overtime game. 

Being conservative when the worst possible outcome was overtime is not the same thing as being conservative when the worst possible outcome was defeat.  And we have to remember that the missed field goal at the end of regulation did not cause defeat.  The game was lost in overtime-due possibly  to bad play calling and certainly to bad play execution. 

So Shaw's decision, once we got to that last series in regulation, does now seem understandable to me.  I do wonder, though, if the thought crossed anyone's mind that at some point Shaw  might have used Eric Whitaker, who filled in for Jordan earlier in the year and went 3-3 in the 30 yard range?