Wilber Marshall 58
The Cheerleader
I remember when we had teams that fans called for us punting on first down and getting the defense on the field... the likelihood that we would score on defense (get a turnover or kick a fieldgoal) was higher than us driving the ball and getting a score on offense.Ball on the 50 4th and 5. Why punt and guarantee we "defer" possession. Facing a feeble offense, or having a stellar defense, yeah sure punt all day. That used to be the norm no matter how good an O or D was, as we all know. Any coach going for it was crazy. Well guess what, if they don't covert the defense is on a short field and won't get gassed playing soft bend dont break all the way down the field. Our offense, will get out there that much sooner. Vs sitting getting ice cold watching a 99 yard drive on our D. We have all seen teams facing bend dont break move down field easily in 9 yard chucks before the DC actually tries to shutdown the OC. Why punt knowing youre going BDB conceding to where you punted from? Punt if you are going to be aggressive on D.
Instead, its us gunning for 99 yard drives using ALL 4 DOWNS wisely. Finally. We have a good QB. Why bench him for the... punter and a passive D? Teams defer as a rule now to try to eek out 2 consecutive possessions yet happily punt 4 times in the first half without a 2nd thought.
Seriously analytics are STILL catching up on this stuff.
Now, we want the ball... we know that once the ball is at half field, the punter is not going to show up. It is four down ball...


