With a Super Bowl slump in the balance, with eight points lower than the greatest full-back of all time, the presumed MVP below center this year, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has decided to kick a field goal with 2 : 09 left. It was a fourth goal from the eight-yard line.
Why would you kick a field goal to make it a five-point game and give the ball back to Tom Brady and his company? It literally makes no sense. If you kick the field goal and reach it, you still have to come up with a stop / turnover and make an attack to win. If you try it on the fourth inning, you have the chance to level the game. If you’re going to be fourth and not score, you still need the same stop / turn and a test, and you’ll have to pick up Brady on his own eight-yard line.
There is no downside to working for it.
But the blame does not fall entirely on LaFleur’s shoulders. Rodgers scrambled down to third place when he took a shot in the end zone. The rope opened in front of him and it was definitely an option to pull it in and run. Maybe he would not have passed, but if he had brought the ball closer to the goal line, he might have made the decision to make it easier on the fourth, easier.
Of course, they never got the ball back. Tom Brady and the Buccaneers won 31-26.
Regardless, kicking a field goal should not have been an option. To be conservative in such moments is to just try to play not to lose, instead of playing to win. LaFleur will – rightly – face a long off-season to answer questions about the decision.
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