[76lsjumb]

I'm likely to agree with Teejers 99% of the time, but this appears to be that 1%.  So far, in none of the alternative universe endgame scenarios positing how we should have kept moving the ball forward has anyone added in a play where someone -- say, for example, a tight end -- gets called for illegal motion when he slightly jumps the snap, thereby moving the ball BACK another five yards and making the prospective field goal that much harder.  But that could never happen, right?  Oh..., wait a minute, it actually did, and just a few minutes later...  Or the play where Luck hands it off just a little bit high and it gets fumbled and we have no chance to even kick a field goal.  But that couldn't happen, either, right?

As for knowing what your [(1) Lou Groza watchlist, (2) completely healed [per his father], (3) 6 for 7 from 30-39 yards, (4) kicked a kick-off out of bounds only a few yards shy of a perfect kick had it crossed the goal line] kicker is thinking right before he has to kick, I think that's probably the primary responsibility of the Special Teams Coach, rather than the Head Coach, who also has to be thinking about a couple hundred other things at that moment.  I'm interested in knowing the evidence that suggests we have reason to believe that Shaw actually had any doubts about the readiness of his kicker. 

And, after all, it's not like Shaw sent out a kicker who had already missed a 37-yarder this season that would have gotten us into the NCG [that, of course, would have been the "goat" who klicked for OSU].

Forty years ago, John Ralston sent a kicker out to win the game against Michigan who had missed TWO field goals earlier in the game and, just seven weeks earlier, had missed ALL FIVE of his field goal attempts AND an extra point in a loss to San Jose State.  Ralston's decision was completely the wrong choice, of course.  Except for one thing:

From Wikipedia:  "Following the free kick, Stanford held Michigan to a three-and-out and got the ball back on their own 22-yard line with 1:48 to go. Bunce then threw five consecutive completions to take Stanford to the Michigan 17 with 22 seconds left. The Indians ran two more running plays to get to the Michigan 14 with 12 seconds left, and Garcia successfully kicked a 31-yard field goal to give Stanford a 13–12 upset."

My initial reaction when it happened was pretty much the same as Teejers' continuing analysis, but, upon further review, I'm reversing my ruling on the field because there's no indisputable evidence that doing it some other way than it was done would definitely have changed the outcome.

[76lsjumb]

I'm likely to agree with Teejers 99% of the time, but this appears to be that 1%.  So far, in none of the alternative universe endgame scenarios positing how we should have kept moving the ball forward has anyone added in a play where someone -- say, for example, a tight end -- gets called for illegal motion when he slightly jumps the snap, thereby moving the ball BACK another five yards and making the prospective field goal that much harder.  But that could never happen, right?  Oh..., wait a minute, it actually did, and just a few minutes later...  Or the play where Luck hands it off just a little bit high and it gets fumbled and we have no chance to even kick a field goal.  But that couldn't happen, either, right?

As for knowing what your [(1) Lou Groza watchlist, (2) completely healed [per his father], (3) 6 for 7 from 30-39 yards, (4) kicked a kick-off out of bounds only a few yards shy of a perfect kick had it crossed the goal line] kicker is thinking right before he has to kick, I think that's probably the primary responsibility of the Special Teams Coach, rather than the Head Coach, who also has to be thinking about a couple hundred other things at that moment.  I'm interested in knowing the evidence that suggests we have reason to believe that Shaw actually had any doubts about the readiness of his kicker. 

And, after all, it's not like Shaw sent out a kicker who had already missed a 37-yarder this season that would have gotten us into the NCG [that, of course, would have been the "goat" who klicked for OSU].

Forty years ago, John Ralston sent a kicker out to win the game against Michigan who had missed TWO field goals earlier in the game and, just seven weeks earlier, had missed ALL FIVE of his field goal attempts AND an extra point in a loss to San Jose State.  Ralston's decision was completely the wrong choice, of course.  Except for one thing:

From Wikipedia:  "Following the free kick, Stanford held Michigan to a three-and-out and got the ball back on their own 22-yard line with 1:48 to go. Bunce then threw five consecutive completions to take Stanford to the Michigan 17 with 22 seconds left. The Indians ran two more running plays to get to the Michigan 14 with 12 seconds left, and Garcia successfully kicked a 31-yard field goal to give Stanford a 13–12 upset."

My initial reaction when it happened was pretty much the same as Teejers' continuing analysis, but, upon further review, I'm reversing my ruling on the field because there's no indisputable evidence that doing it some other way than it was done would definitely have changed the outcome.