[Austroturf]

Just curious if anyone can come up with an instance where the Pirate played it too conservatively.
He sure didn't on that last drive against the Ducks last Saturday.

No, but I can come up with at least one instance where Mike Leach's over-aggressive play-calling, late in the game with a lead,
led to an epic collapse and loss: 2013 New Mexico Bowl against Colorado State, where Washington State blew a 15 point lead with less than 10 minutes to go on the clock (interesting parallel with our game against ASU in terms of score/time remaining). Washington State had two incomplete passes, stopping the clock on their first drive to finish off the game, then fumbled on their own 31, completing their ignominous collapse to a Group of 5 team. I can't even imagine the reaction if say, we had lost to SDSU last year by blowing a 15 point lead in the fourth quarter.

And if Leach's WR doesn't make an epic catch on a ball that could/should have been picked with a seven point Cougs lead with ~4:00 to go in their own territory, we might have added last week's game to the all-time list of blown games.

In some respects, Leach's MO also cost his team the game against Stanford in 2015 (though it took a missed WSU FG as time expired for Stanford to escape Pullman with the W).  Leading 28-27 with 3:33 to go in the 4th quarter, WSU had 1st and 10 at their own 45.  Instead of running to bleed time off the clock, the Cougs continued to pass; and the second pass of that series was intercepted by Quenton Meeks, which set up Stanford's game-winning FG.  

When asked by a journalist during the post-game presser whether clock-management had been an issue in the 4th quarter, Leach replied: "What are you, an idiot or something?  Next question".

[Austroturf]

Just curious if anyone can come up with an instance where the Pirate played it too conservatively.
He sure didn't on that last drive against the Ducks last Saturday.

No, but I can come up with at least one instance where Mike Leach's over-aggressive play-calling, late in the game with a lead,
led to an epic collapse and loss: 2013 New Mexico Bowl against Colorado State, where Washington State blew a 15 point lead with less than 10 minutes to go on the clock (interesting parallel with our game against ASU in terms of score/time remaining). Washington State had two incomplete passes, stopping the clock on their first drive to finish off the game, then fumbled on their own 31, completing their ignominous collapse to a Group of 5 team. I can't even imagine the reaction if say, we had lost to SDSU last year by blowing a 15 point lead in the fourth quarter.

And if Leach's WR doesn't make an epic catch on a ball that could/should have been picked with a seven point Cougs lead with ~4:00 to go in their own territory, we might have added last week's game to the all-time list of blown games.

In some respects, Leach's MO also cost his team the game against Stanford in 2015 (though it took a missed WSU FG as time expired for Stanford to escape Pullman with the W).  Leading 28-27 with 3:33 to go in the 4th quarter, WSU had 1st and 10 at their own 45.  Instead of running to bleed time off the clock, the Cougs continued to pass; and the second pass of that series was intercepted by Quenton Meeks, which set up Stanford's game-winning FG.  

When asked by a journalist during the post-game presser whether clock-management had been an issue in the 4th quarter, Leach replied: "What are you, an idiot or something?  Next question".