Should We Stop Going For It On 4th Down?

[NoMoreChillies]

Herbert takes the blame for 4th and 1 fail. Parham was coming open with a huge mismatch in size. I understand the pass rush hurried Herbert, but he didnt even look at Allen / Parham / Guyton.

Did he? I mean it was Herbert’s decision to go to Palmer.

He put Palmer on the field and gave him that short pattern. IMO, we needed Guyton, Williams and Allen if we were using a 3 WR set. Palmer does not yet have good in game chemistry with Herbert.

[Xenos]

And that is such an important distinction. I think Staley made the call. But I think Lombardi made the wrong play call.

Did he? I mean it was Herbert’s decision to go to Palmer.

There was no reason to believe in the defense at the time. I have no problem with the call. Maybe not so much the play call (though it should have worked), but they needed offensive juice if they wanted to have any hope of coming back. Just wasn't there today.

And that is such an important distinction. I think Staley made the call. But I think Lombardi made the wrong play call.

[northerner]

swiss cheese defense is the problem. i would have like to have been closer to midfield, but he felt that the game was getting out of hand already.

if we were within one score at the time, i would feel much differently. one thing for sure, when you blow the 4th down play, it really stings.

[PhilaBoltster]

Thank god people here get it.

[Boltjolt]

Look. It was a bad game. I was expecting one with a new coach and system etc. Sooner or later. Mr. Staley meet Mr. Harbaugh. Learn something and stop yapping so much. Your team is soft and thats why the Ravens whipped us plain and simple.

What is your inspiration message for that? We are still tied for first. Its a long season. We can win this division. But we need to get more physical by playoff time. I saw the hero number 33 standing around on a lot of tackles. WTF...

WTH......yapping, soft?
the sky isn't falling. We weren't going to win every game. It's how you finish that matters. Let's just hope the defense gets better as time goes on while still getting some wins.

[Boltjolt]

The call today...on our own 20...in the beginning of the third quarter...I have never seen anything like that....I can see it at the end of the game in desperation time, or when we are out of field goal range but past the 50...and our kicker is suspect....but not on your own 20. It borders on insanity. Especially with the way the Ravens defense had been playing. Why would the Raven defense be any less effective on a 4th down? We got very lucky with a field goal on that one. Seriously....the honeymoon is over...Telesco needs to have a talk with the coach.

I no longer think Staley is almost perfect. He has a flaw.

C'mon man.....we all knew at some point the conversions won't work. Nothing is fool proof.

It was the right call, and I'll take them working 3 of 4 games over not trying to win at all and just punt.

Doing that gives you a Anthoney Lynn chance of winning. Instead of finishing with a win at the end, you lose in the last minute of games.

[richpjr]

Lol. Going for it on 4th down had a huge hand in 3 of our wins and in a game we lost by 28 it gave them 6 points. I’ll take that every single time.

[Heatmiser]

I agree with the 4th downs, although I was expecting not to make them. We all now know what it looks like when Herbert has an off game and what it does to the rest of the team. The whole team looked off, but Herbert is the focal point and magnifier.

I think this team, this young team, with a brand new young HC that suddenly has been winning and reading about how great they are and what the darlings of the NFL they are maybe just maybe let it go to their heads a bit. This game against an outstanding coaching staff and a mature roster showed them they cannot do that. It was a good, early lesson that I hope and expect they will learn from.

TG

[Critty]

No.
If they converted them, then they would have gave themselves some momentum and a chance to win in a game they were getting outplayed.

[UglyTruth]

I don’t have a problem with it. You can’t enjoy it when they convert and then complain when they don’t.

Their not going to convert all the time but as long as they convert at a very high rate then it’s worth it.

Like others have mentioned, this defense is trash so punting it away and bringing them back on the field wasn’t doing much. It was worth the try.

Needed a better play selection though imo.