http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=pasquarelli_len&id=1625436 A football caper Lots of backbone demonstrated Sunday by Houston coach Dom Capers, who with the ball six inches from the goal line and trailing by a field goal, opted to eschew a tying field goal and run a quarterback sneak for the win. David Carr barely nudged the ball over the plane of the goal before having it knocked away. But this rhetorical query: If Capers wasn't the coach of a second-year expansion team, and still on a honeymoon of sorts, how much testosterone would have been coursing through his veins? That's not to knock Capers or his decision. It was a great call and he is to be congratulated. In 1995, when he was the head coach in the first season of the Carolina expansion franchise, he displayed some of the same daring. In their first-ever game, the Panthers scored late, to pull to within one point of the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome. Capers kept his offense on the field, to attempt a two-point conversion, for the win. Alas, an offensive lineman jumped, and was flagged for a false start. Backed up five yards, Capers sent out the kicking team, and sent the contest into overtime with the extra point. The Panthers lost to the Falcons in the extra session. This moral, about morale, kind of: When you're the head coach of an expansion team, at least in the first couple years when the ticket patrons are still enamored by the novelty, you can coach a little bit different. Just ask Dom Capers. Would you have made the call to go for it or for the FG?
I'd have gone for it for the same reasons Capers himself has given: "We had the ball down there with inches left and I just felt that we had a number of people down._ I felt confident, with our guys upfront, with our quarterback and his athletic ability I felt like we could have made it._I felt like if we couldn’t make two or three inches we didn’t deserve to win the football game." Given the injuries on defense, the Texans were in no position to stop the Jags from moving the ball at will. Remember, they only got the ball back in the first place because Leftwich didn't protect the ball on a scramble. If the Texans lose the coin toss, they pretty much lose the game. Also, it was just six inches. Carr is a pretty quick, buffed-up dude. Behind the our center, he should be able to muscle six inches.
Man, what a call. I am so glad it worked out. It would have been a horrible blow if we were stopped, but it also is a great moral booster for the team. Good call, Great job of executing the play. The O-line was damn near perfect knocking down the D-line for Carr to go up and over. Capers is getting quite a bit of love from ESPN.
I like the game, it was a great call, but I be ok if they went for the field goal and expect what happens in the OT. Go Texans!!!!
That about sums it up right there. Proof that it was the right call. It woulda been the right call even if we didn't make it. -- droxford
Similar rhetoric comes from all great coaches that already know they are, and aren't trying to prove something. Bum Phillips said about the famous missed call vs the Steelers in that AFC championship game that the Steelers were a better team anyway, and that "they would have found a way to win any way." I think if you deserve to win, you will. And I'm glad our coach believes in "earning" it. Plus, I hate OT... until the playoffs, if you've made it that far.
you gotta go for it...the more i think about it, the more i think it's not only the gutsy call...but the logical one as well.
