Should the Texans have kicked the 52yd field goal?

If the Redskins kicker is 19 yards closer on his attempt, the Redskins win the game. Field position matters. FACT.

 

last i checked ... he does not make in game play calls.... when the texans win its inspite of kubiak and when they dont do what they are supposed to its bc of kubiak ... its not his fault the texans couldnt move the ball on that last possession .. same thing at the end of half.. its not his fault schaub got sacked and then the texans failed to pick up a first down .. im sure kubiak didnt say ok matt dont throw the ball long lets go to overtime ...
yes its true he ran on the third down .. but really with 23 sec left and a 3rd and 6 .. at you own 32 with one time out what can you really do? chances of a mistake being made are ALOT higher than not .. and btw it needs to be mentioned his approach got us a win ..despite his players blowing it a couple of times ... for example.. turks kick was not even close to being able to be pinned.... antonio smith giving them 15 yards and a first down instead of it being 2 and long

 

ALL THINGS OPTIMAL- kicker in good health, good weather conditions/domed stadium, etc - yes you kick the FG.

It seems like all things were NOT optimal though. Internal things that don't come across on TV like health of the kicker, how he looked in pre-game warmups, weather conditions, confidence in defense, etc..

Then there's the punter's historically good ability to "pin 'em deep". Perhaps they had a 70% chance of punting inside the 15 with Matt Turk.

The issue that I barked out loud in that situation was why get a new kicker if you're NOT going to TRUST him? I thought thats why you brought him in But all kickers have a maximum range.

 

my point exactly .. those 19 yards were the difference in the game .. this should come as no surprise to us .. we knew that kris brown had the better leg in terms of distance (i m thinking if brown was brown of 2008 .. we would be kicking a 52 yarder)

this was more him not having faith in his kicker and faith in his defense than being conservative

 

That's a very good point. We won the toss. Don't you think WAS is going to make us kick into whatever wind there was? Granted it may have only been a non factor 4mph. But I'm not confident my kicker, who nailed the crossbar in a preseason 52 yd make, had a strong enough leg to overcome 52yds and 4mph.

 

I think you 2 misunderstood that post.

Kicking it in the endzone gave us 19 yards extra of buffer space. But if you add the Smith penalty on top of that, they got to start their drive at the 34 which is only 4 yards farther than the 38 yard line which is where we punted from

 

Yeah not sure why people would want to go for it on 4th down there. If you have 2 moves that are 50/50, might as well do the one with the chance to win the game. (Though if you DO go for it on 4th and don't convert, you're no worse than if you miss the FG. PLUS, the 1st down yard marker on the field is ABSOLUTE FG territory, and absolutely keeps the ball in your possession. You don't give yourself sudden death when you keep the ball)

I would have liked a conservative run call on third down on that play if they already knew they werent in FG range. Perhaps a couple extra yards woulda brought made a FG try more assuring.

That they went for a pass play on 3rd down makes it seem they were not comfortable at all in a 50+ yarder. So maybe they actually were thinking plays ahead instead of coming up brain dead

 

why do you say foolishy, he did make the first kick, so if Kubiak didnt call the timeout, Washington foolishly made the winning kick.

So if you were a redskins fan, would you blame shanahan for trying the FG?

 

Well yeah, but assuming a missed field goal leads to probably the same play calls from both teams whether it's at the 20 or 42 right there, the sack and penalty still probably occur and that 15 yards moves them from the 42 to just outside field goal range rather than just to the Redskins own 30ish yard line.

 

exactly, and since when was a 52 yard field goal so absurd?

 

You're right, foolishly was probably a poor choice of words. I don't know what Id have done if I were the Redskins. Giving the Texans red hot offense the ball back would be a recipe for disaster either way, methinks. And I don't know anything about their kicker, not sure if he has a big leg or if he can consistently kick from there in practice. But it's still really at best completely risking the outcome of the game on a 50-50 proposition, which Im not a big fan of.

So, I guess Ill say no I wouldn't blame Shanahan for the loss and he MAY have done what gave his team the best chance to win the game. But Ill stand by my statement that Kubiak DEFINITELY gave the Texans their best chance of winning the game by punting it away.

 

My reasoning for going for it over kicking it was because I looked at the field goal as a significantly less than 50% chance with Rackers kicking.

But I completely agree about running it on 3rd down, Id have tried to get it closer for the field goal or atleast looking for an easy 4th and short. My guess is that Kubiak expected a loaded box and figured a play-action pass (did they even go PA? I can't remember) would catch them off guard and be an easy first down. Sean Payton I think called a similar play on 3rd and 3 or 4 against the Vikings last week and it sealed the game.

 

Actually no he didn't. His call led to the missed kick which led to a short field and, ultimately, a Texans' win. The difference between Washington starting from the 20 and the 42 was the difference between a Texans' win and loss.

Say Shanahan makes the same decision Kubiak made. What if (yes, dangerous words) Washington buries Houston deep? Do you think Schaub drives the team the 60 or 70 yards it might have taken to get into FG range? Who knows.

Really, it all comes down to your faith in the Texans' defense. Apparently Kubiak (and I) have more faith in it than a lot of other people on this board.

 

Yep, at the moment I want it the FG, but looking back, Kubiak maybe made the right call, because wanted to pin them at least in the 10 yard line, and he didnt knew that antonio smith was going to do that stupid penalty.

the penalty, was a mood changer, the redskins look more comfortable after the penalty, and if they dont have the penalty, they have to get more yards to get the 1st down. I dont remember if was going to be 2nd or 3rd down.

So seeing right now the whole picture, if the redskins won, I maybe would blame more Antonio Smith for the penalty than not going for the FG.

 

I think both kubiak and shanahan made the right call.
It was the right call for kubiak bc the texans defense had held washington to 7 points, washington on their last series looked bad and lost their starting LT making things that much harder

on the other hand .. washington gave up 17 points to houston in the second half and were clearly having trouble stopping them .. he had less reason to trust his defense.. ...

consider this .. ever since frank bush has taken over on D .. texans usually dont get beat defensively in 2 halves... if they are getting beat badly in the first, they usually come out in the second and stop the other team .. I didnt really research this point but from my memory I think this is correct .. and they proved that in this game by giving up 20 in the first half and then holding them to 7 in the second half and overtime.. including 3 of their 4 fourth quarter possessions resulted in 3 and outs..

 

I think the sack would have put them at 2nd and 15ish range .. and they were not going to run the next two downs ....

 

This is the NFL. A pro kicker should be able to make a 52 yarder in decent outdoor conditions.

Their kicker missed it but I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about us and it's disappointing that Kubiak doesn't believe that Rackers can make that kick.

I think he goes for it next time if a similar situation presents itself.

 

Rackers is 19/39 career with kicks 50+ yards which comes out to a 48% average. I think he should have went for it with a chance to end the game right there.

 

But he is trending downwards. The last 4 years he is 5-16.

 

After a night of thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that Kubes made the right call. At the time I was pretty upset because if your kicker can't nail a 52 yarder in a pressure moment then maybe he shouldn't be the kicker, and that may still be the case, but I believe Rackers can make that kick if needed. The problem with going for a kick of that length is the variables around the situation like a bad snap or Romo like mishandle, if anythings goes wrong then Rackers misses the kick or may not even get a chance to kick it at all we're screwed. Does that show a lot of confidence in Rackers, NO, but like Fisher said with VY yesterday...he wasn't concerned about his feelings only about winning the game.

Kubiak is a good coach but is conservative, think Marty Schottenheimer, and that is okay but my concern is 1) Can Rackers make a long FG when needed under pressure not just in the low pressure situations? 2) Will Kubes conservative nature cost the team late in the season or in the playoffs when taking chances is part of game?