Fleck on his decision to punt late in game

[Replacement Gopher]

This just all seems like nonsense to me. I am pretty sure if one of the analytical sites looked at this situation it would be a clear "go for it". Fleck: "You hope for a turnover, three, and out , use the timeouts"
1. You kind of need two three and outs at this point if you don't get a turnover
2. What is more likely converting a single 3 yard play or getting consecutive 3 outs (or a 3 and out plus turnover) sandwiched between a must score from your offense?
3. Fleck teams have been incredibly inept running any sort of hurry up offense for his entire tenure. How many times have you seen Fleck teams fail to even record a single first down when given the ball say sub 2 minutes and needing a TD to win or tie? How many times have they even made it to midfield?

It's not like it's the biggest issue coming out of the game, but it is just concerning that Fleck seems to struggle with decision making on 4th down consistently. Going for the 4th and shorts inside his own 30 against Bowling Green and Purdue in the first half, attempting 50 plus yard FG's with unproven/backup kickers at Iowa twice. Not going for 4th downs in other siutations like yesterday or at home against Wisconsin in 2019 (I am sure others just off the top of my head). It just seems like it's a random wheel of decision making instead of a more data or logic driven approach...and in the past it's frequently lead to wasting timeouts to come to said random decision too.

Post of the day!

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I like PJ and think he's a good coach, but he occasionally makes terrible in-game decisions. That was the wrong decision.

Analytically, it was the wrong move. You can't assume the negative consequence (we won't get the first down). If you assume the negative (not getting a first down), then you should never go for a first down on 4th in any situation, ever.

I'm not even one of those people who thinks you need to use analytics as a bible. The clear flow of the game (IMO), felt like he had to go for it there. We needed a score on that drive and it just didn't feel like there would be enough time in the game to stop them twice and score twice.