S136 Inches from Victory
Inches from Victory
Taken from one of the very few Keanu Reeves movies worth watching...
Pop quiz hot shot! It's halftime, you are in the locker room and you are ahead by 11 points. The other team has planted a bomb of a game plan for the second half, What do you do? What do you do?!
The answer? That's a difficult situation. I would almost rather trail sometimes then lead in a big game. When you are trailing, you can at least see what's not working and try to fix it. But what do you do when your team is less talented and jumps out to a big lead? This may be the toughest position to be in and during the Humboldt St. vs North Dakota St game there were some decisions that needed to be made on both sides.
NDSU was very under ranked coming in with a GUESS ranking of #36. They jumped off to an early 21-10 lead and Humboldt St. found themselves in an unfamiliar situation. One thing that jumped out to me in this one was NDSU (all pass team) had only completed about 40% of their passes. Do you change it up or stay the course?
In the second half, Jaylien1 got his team back in the pushing it to overtime on 21 yard pass to (SR) Wr Donald Reese with only :24 seconds left to tie the game 31-31. Three Overtimes later, NDSU settled with a FG and Humboldt St nailed a 23 yard pass to win the game 47-44.
Next, we move to the great lakes to find Northern Michigan leading 21-10 over Ferris State. NMU is the more talented team here so leading 21-10 would not be from a fluke sim. As the coach of NMU, do you leave things alone or make changes to try and counter what Coachoatie may try to do?
Coachoatie has been able to pull off some big games in the past versus NMU, so it was surprising to see Ferris State this far down. In the second half, Ferris St. kept themselves in reach and in the 4th quarter they only trailed by 5 points after scoring with 11:55 left on a sweep to RB Edward Chambers for 4 yards.
Then something wild happen...
FSU gets the ball on their own 28 yard line and has 2:44 left on the clock. They move down the field on a slow but methodical drive that spans over 15 plays for 71 yards. It's a bit of an odd 2 minute plan when trailing, but it was executed perfectly! On 3rd & 6 with 4 seconds left on the clock, FSU doesn't go to the air?? Instead, they hand off the ball to RB Edward Chamber who rushes for 6 yards on a sweep for the touchdown!! ... toucdown!!! right??
The crowd pauses in silence waiting for the referee's delayed signal... ... ...
No! They didn't make it... Valiant effort and a huge comback but Ferris St. left the stadium just inches from victory.