1070 The Fan: Ballard’s Spin-to-Win Rewards Arians’ Aggressiveness
1070 The Fan's Conrad Brunner believes Bruce Arians made the right call being aggressive near the end of the game. Brunner doesn't focus on the 4th down conversion right before the tying score so much as he does on the overtime decision that may have been overlooked by some. Indianapolis won the toss. The wind was horrendous. The conservative thing to do would be to defer so they could force the Titans to play into the strong winds. The Colts chose possession of the ball instead. Great call.
Among the many lessons a team can learn from a game like this, the most important came from the sideline.
One coach played not to lose, and lost.
One coach played to win, and won.
Arians wanted his offense on the field to win the game. Forget the wind (and there was a lot of it). He was rewarded with an overtime victory.
I think the smart choice in any situation is always to take the possession. In college, you're guaranteed another possession. Not so in NFL. Always guarantee yourself a possession.
@Kyle Rodriguez yeah, it really should be a no brainer to go with possession. I'm glad Arians didnt follow up his smart 4th down conversion call by taking the wind and sending out his defense in OT.
After Ballard's 360 at the end (or whatever that was), I didn't even pause to appreciate Arian's playcalling ... and yet, it was the most not-Jim-Caldwell thing he could have done. For that alone, I give him credit. Good call with the link.
@LouPin thanks. I didn't really think about it either. But, I'm thinking with Caldwell at the helm, we would be talking about a loss, and listening to him defend a couple game-killing conservative decisions.
