Was Sean Payton deciding to go for it on 4th down the wrong decision?
Yahoo Sports host Andrew Siciliano, senior NFL writer Frank Schwab and betting analyst Ben Fawkes react to Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton's decision to go for it on 4th down in the AFC Championship against the New England Patriots. Check out the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
I, I wanna talk about the third and fourth down if we could.
Because I just find it fascinating, and I, I think I'm one of the few people who I'm not gonna get caught up in hindsight here.
I thought it was totally fine to go for it on fourth down.
I was with you.
I, I understand his reasoning.
I'm with you.
Totally.
Right, like after the Yeah... Like, as soon as Stidham made that run, and he's about a yard short.
I immediately thought, "Oh, he's gonna go for it."
I didn't really think about the field goal there.
Maybe I should have, I don't know, but the people who were like, "Oh, you had to know the weather was gonna..." I, I guess, even if you know the weather's gonna come in, you don't realize that in the second half, you're basically not gonna be playing the sport.
Of football anymore.
That, it- what we saw in the second half On Sunday, was not even football.
Like, you couldn't play.
Like, it, it's just impossible.
I don't think that Sean Payton's forecasting skills are that good, that you could know that.
So that's a lot of hindsight, and I think in the moment what Deshaun said was totally reasonable.
He just says, "You know what?
My defense was playing great.
We had all the momentum.
I felt like going up 14 there was huge.
And it, it's fourth and one.
It's not fourth and five.
It's not.
Now, I, I like the decision.
I, I was fine with the decision.
I thought it could've gone either way.
I'm not gonna rip him for the decision, although I thought the play call sucked.
And what he said afterwards was, "We had a run called."
We expected them to come out in this look.
They came out in a 6-1.
A six-down lineman, basically."
Yeah.
"So we got out of the run.
We went to a pass.
I ha- I hated that.
Even he said afterwards, "It was a jailbreak."
... "The, the, the initial run we called-" Oh.
Yeah, he's like, "The initial run we called was the better option."
So I think he'll regret that, but the decision itself, we can't do this in hindsight all the time.
It, we've seen plenty of teams score touchdowns on those kind of drives.
You pick up the yard, you run it, you push, push, whatever.
You go up 14, the, you- the same argument that's being made, Well, you gotta take the points there.
There's not gonna be many points scored, same argument could be applied to, "Yeah, there's not gonna be many points there.
So, seven's even more valuable.
Exactly!
Going up 14 there.
Yes.
Yes, going up 14 there.
That, that's my point, too.
Would've been a huge advantage at that point.
When people say, Oh, you should have known the snow was coming," maybe his thought was.
If, as you say, it's gonna be a disaster, not even football in the second half.
Then 14 points right now wins this game.
Right.
14 points wins the game.
So, like, go for it.
And, and if Jarrett Stidham doesn't- if Jarrett Stidham just takes a sack; they win that game.
