4th Down

[ASU2012]

Yes it was a terrible decision. I know it's the new trendy thing to talk about but as a coach you have to lean on the analytic numbers. Clark made two terrible decisions in a row that hurt our chances to win.

You 100% punt the football from within your own 40 down 7 points on a 4th and 2
You 100% make then re-kick the kick OOB instead of taking the ball at the 35, down 14

That second one isn't being talk about enough and can only be explained two ways: 1) the coach is in over his head and doesn't realize scenarios that give us a better chance to win or 2) the coach choose to play it safe which given the 4th and 2 a few minutes before, I don't believe is the case

You HAVE to back them up and give you player a chance for a house call and a quick score. Absolute WORST case scenario, you advance the ball to the 30 and lose 5 yards on the exchange.

[asu1988]

It was a horrible call. 7 men on the line vs. 10 men in the box. A play action Tight end dump would've got us a TD.

[Yosef1986]

Do we think there is a bit of arrogance on App - we are APP and your not - and this is how we do things? Maybe we should re-think a few things as we move forward into the rest of the season and the years to come.

[TurfMonkey]

Would have rather seen the QB run 38 yards the other direction and take a safety than that feeble attempt.

[Rekdiver]

Do we think there is a bit of arrogance on App - we are APP and your not - and this is how we do things? Maybe we should re-think a few things as we move forward into the rest of the season and the years to come.

Clark going with his gut instead of his head. He' has to change and I HOPE he can but this aint gonna work another year. My concerns now revolve around skill players leaving....

[Seattleapp]

Do we think there is a bit of arrogance on App - we are APP and your not - and this is how we do things? Maybe we should re-think a few things as we move forward into the rest of the season and the years to come.

Clark going with his gut instead of his head. He' has to change and I HOPE he can but this aint gonna work another year. My concerns now revolve around skill players leaving....

A good point. We didn’t do that against ga state and it kept us in the game.

[hapapp]

I agree that play calling was an issue last night, and it definitely was on the 4th down attempt. I know we want to establish the run, but when they are stacking the box like they did last night and have a KNOWN weakness in pass defense, I don't understand why we can't flip the script. I think we could have thrown for 400 yards on them if we had tried, and it would have opened up the box for running game too.

Several called it early...if OL plays well we win. They didn't and we didn't. We need the OL to find some intensity.

Peoples hardly played. I hope he's not hurt again.

He actually had more carries than any other back (7). We only ran our backs 18 times total.

[Yosefus]

Do we think there is a bit of arrogance on App - we are APP and your not - and this is how we do things? Maybe we should re-think a few things as we move forward into the rest of the season and the years to come.

The definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over while expect different results.

[T-Dog]

When Peoples ran on the field in place of Noel for 4th down, everyone knew where the ball was going.

Hell, I think if Brice pulls it, he gets the first down on either 3rd and 4th.

[WASU 93]

Yes it was a terrible decision. I know it's the new trendy thing to talk about but as a coach you have to lean on the analytic numbers. Clark made two terrible decisions in a row that hurt our chances to win.

You 100% punt the football from within your own 40 down 7 points on a 4th and 2
You 100% make then re-kick the kick OOB instead of taking the ball at the 35, down 14

That second one isn't being talk about enough and can only be explained two ways: 1) the coach is in over his head and doesn't realize scenarios that give us a better chance to win or 2) the coach choose to play it safe which given the 4th and 2 a few minutes before, I don't believe is the case

You HAVE to back them up and give you player a chance for a house call and a quick score. Absolute WORST case scenario, you advance the ball to the 30 and lose 5 yards on the exchange.

I don't recall seeing a single coach have a team re-kick on a kickoff out of bounds. I think you are reaching on this one. Your worst case scenario is they re-kick and you fumble the return. Regardless, this did zero to affect the outcome.

If you go back and watch the 3rd and 1/4th and 2 we are running the ball against 9 people in the box. No motion, tight formation. We never had a chance to convert. The LB who made the play on Cam, just sat behind the line of scrimmage, was unblocked (because we had 8 blockers in the formation) and we had zero push. It's not simply play calling. It is scheme and formation. We ran the exact same formation on third down with Noel in the backfield. Again, we get zero push against 5 down linemen.

[spacemonkey]

NO MISDIRECTION....THE ENDS ARE CRASHING AND HAVE NOTHING TO CONTAIN!!!! Hard to watch.

Chase played a good game...he gave us a chance (with no protection and no run game) in a poorly coached game.

Reading these threads....what I was talking about on the money grab on these season ticket/seat fees. Half our fans are leaving if we start losing. We have tons of bandwagon jumpers right now. I love me some AppState football (SPORTS/SCHOOL) win or lose. Coach Clark seems to be a great guy but he better find a better offensive scheme or he is going to be a short lived head coach.

On a positive note...I love our conference.

[AppinATL]

Can we now all agree going for it on 4th down inside our 40 in a goal line formation is a bad call?

Still can’t believe in that situation that was the call. The Oline pride led to the fall.

I wasn’t happy with the call but going for it in and of itself isn’t that bad. Running it up the middle with your smallest back into the teeth of a defense that is clearly expecting it is atrocious. You have to have either Cam in there or Castle. I can’t recall many times when Castle has touched the ball when he didn’t get at least 3 or 4 yards.

[AppinATL]

I agree that play calling was an issue last night, and it definitely was on the 4th down attempt. I know we want to establish the run, but when they are stacking the box like they did last night and have a KNOWN weakness in pass defense, I don't understand why we can't flip the script. I think we could have thrown for 400 yards on them if we had tried, and it would have opened up the box for running game too.

Several called it early...if OL plays well we win. They didn't and we didn't. We need the OL to find some intensity.

Peoples hardly played. I hope he's not hurt again.

What pushed me over the edge last night was the contrast between the two teams. We have many or more weapons as Coastal. I would argue, ours are better. Coastal was mixing it up and finding creative ways too get the ball into the hands of their weapons in a way to help them succeed. We ran the same 3 or 4 plays over and over and set our players up to fail. Plus, we are not using our talent properly. The wring back in for the situation, etc. and i am sick of this running back rotation. ITS NOT WORKING! When are the coaches going to tumble on to that fact?

[WVAPPeer]

"I don't recall seeing a single coach have a team re-kick on a kickoff out of bounds."

Totally agree and I have watched football for about 100 years

[asu1988]

Coastal outexecuted us 100 to 1. Our line was not physical, so you can't put all the blame on Chase. Why did we abandon the pass in the second half when it worked the first half?

[appstate5]

Who is really calling the plays? It sure seems like a hard-headed ex lineman is doing it.

[AppState89]

Should have come up with a different play on 3rd or 4th down, but CCU just had the ball for a 9 minute drive. Coach was trying to give the D more rest, but it didn't pay off. We only ran 4 plays in the 3rd. Thats two games this year where the other team had the ball pretty much the entire 3rd quarter . That has to change.

[bigdaddyg]

During that god awful 3rd quarter of the Citadel game I commented to my son and the people sitting with us (after they had milked about 9:00) that we had not even run an offensive play. If memory serves we got the PIC and a bomb and never touched the ball again in the quarter. Granted El CID made no effort to win but we simply couldn't get them off the field until they threw the PIC. Defensive intensity and tackling has lacked big time.

[Yosefus]

I have already seen in UNC game 4th and short OB keeper sweep with stacked box for ax1st down. Marshall just now 3rd and short. Guess what, qb sweep with stacked box for a 1st down. Both were off running fake up the middle. Im wondering if we will see all day another team go up the gut with a stacked box 2 plays in a row.

[OldAppPlayer]

Nick Saban just went for it on 4th and 1 from his own 36 yd line down 7 at the end of the first quarter and didn’t get it. SMH