[BostonCard]

I was walking back to my car, so I did not hear the presser (but bear in mind, as always, that we are not the intended audience for the press conference). That being said,  given a choice between a lower probability play that resulted in a touchdown and a higher probability play that resulted in a first down, I would take the first down under the game circumstances.  But as you yourself realized, we really needed to run six more plays (that did not result in clock stoppage), which would have required two first downs, to give Cal the ball back with less time than what they scored in.

I can see Shaw's logic, though.  Given a choice between scoring a touchdown with 2+ minutes remaining and kicking a field goal with 1+ minutes remaining, I think you take the touchdown.  Not saying that was the prospective choice faced by Shaw at the time, but second and short is the best time to take a deep-ish shot, and lets face it, we have been pretty dismal at punching it in.  I'm not saying I agree with the call if it really was to try to score right there, but I can see the logic.

BC

[BostonCard]

I was walking back to my car, so I did not hear the presser (but bear in mind, as always, that we are not the intended audience for the press conference). That being said,  given a choice between a lower probability play that resulted in a touchdown and a higher probability play that resulted in a first down, I would take the first down under the game circumstances.  But as you yourself realized, we really needed to run six more plays (that did not result in clock stoppage), which would have required two first downs, to give Cal the ball back with less time than what they scored in.

I can see Shaw's logic, though.  Given a choice between scoring a touchdown with 2+ minutes remaining and kicking a field goal with 1+ minutes remaining, I think you take the touchdown.  Not saying that was the prospective choice faced by Shaw at the time, but second and short is the best time to take a deep-ish shot, and lets face it, we have been pretty dismal at punching it in.  I'm not saying I agree with the call if it really was to try to score right there, but I can see the logic.

BC