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... doesn't wash. Typical, conservative No Fun League (NFL) logic ...

From today's DMN notebook (and props to Kate H. for asking the question):

"Jones elected to kick the extra point and tie the score after Mitchell's 10-yard touchdown pass to Aldrick Robinson against Navy with 1:35 left in regulation. He said because SMU was at home, he went for the tie. If the game had been on the road, he would have gone for two."

Huh?

Playing at home does not give you any built-in advantage in overtime (like it does, say, in baseball, where you bat last). In fact, Jones even elected to play into the open end of the stadium, where there were as many or more Navy fans, plus the Navy band. True, he did choose to play with the wind, which makes sense. But, if there were some homefield advantage in overtime, it would be with the crowd, a luxury we do not yet enjoy.

The more logical choice would have been to go for two, because Navy had gained over 300 yards in the second half on its way to scoring 28 points in two quarters and would have had only 1:35 left in a run-oriented offense to try to win the game down by a point -- against the wind, no less. Navy completed FOUR passes all night. If SMU had missed the 2-pointer, it still had all three timeouts, an onside kick attempt and the wind at its back. And, SMU would have needed just a field goal, perhaps the same field goal they missed in overtime.

Three yards to win the game? After blowing a 14-point lead and not stopping Navy the entire second half? I will take that chance -- especially at home.

The "play for the win on the road, the tie at home" adage has been around for awhile.

What I don't understand is the end of the field selected. No idea why we didnt choose the close end of Ford, where our students are. I remember watching an LSU-Auburn game that went to OT a couple of years ago, and Les Miles afterward said "man was there any question which end of the field we'd pick? There's no way I'd take it to the opposite end away from our students" or some such. Granted, those students are a bigger presence than ours. But so were Navy's.

wind?

ponydawg wrote:wind?

it's not like we play in Lubbock.

He did say at the luncheon, he picked the side to play with the wind, which I have to respect. Our group was asking the same question Sat night though. Plus, given the outcome, that 43 yd kick would have looked a lot worse if it were into any kind of wind at all.

actually several in our section noticed before the kick a pretty good cross wind east to west on the kick which sailed west of the west cupright

If there had been 30 seconds left, I might agree. However, there was more than 90.

There was a 1:35 left on the clock and Navy had (I think) 2 timeouts, which is plenty of time in college football, even for Navy. If Navy had been trailing, we might have seen a very different offensive strategy from them on their last drive in regulation.

I wonder if June's decision to kick was based in part of his realization that the offense was not doing well. By going to OT the offense only had to move the ball 25 yards and not 50 to 70 yards. If our offense had been playing well then perhaps the decision would have been different.