Raiders Coach McDaniels Scrambles to Defend Himself After Late Field Goal Decision Stuns Announcers and Fans
With perhaps the exception of weatherman, few vocations offer as much opportunity for viewer scrutiny as being an NFL coach.
Generally speaking, you’d give the NFL coach who has been honing his craft for years and is being paid millions of dollars the benefit of the doubt.
Every once in a while, however, a coach makes such a head-scratching decision that viewers can’t help but wonder, “Wait, could I be an NFL head coach?”
“Sunday Night Football” seemed to provide viewers such a moment when the Pittsburgh Steelers, in a road game in Las Vegas, and beat the host Raiders 23-18.
Trailing by eight points with only 2:25 left on the clock, the Raiders had a promising drive stall out inside the Steelers’ 10-yard line.
That left Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels with a tough choice facing a fourth-and-four:
- Kick the easy field goal from the Steelers’ 8-yard-line, and cut the lead to five.
- Go for it on fourth, get a touchdown on the drive, and ultimately try to tie the game with a 2-point conversion.
McDaniels chose the first option — and it left a number of viewers, pundits, and even NBC announcers Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth all wondering if he had made the right choice.
Listen to the shock of Chris Collinsworth and Mike Tirico after seeing Josh Mcdaniels attempt a second field goal. They said what the whole NFL world was thinking #snf #joshmcdaniels #raidernation#PITvsLV pic.twitter.com/z4QWPOYYbI
— DFA Anthony Rendon (@neverwasrendon) September 25, 2023
This was and will be the most sad field goal of the season, Josh McDaniels Galaxy brain pic.twitter.com/eAEtV86jVp
— Alex Micheletti (@AlexMicheletti) September 25, 2023
“This was and will be the most sad field goal of the season,” one perturbed X user noted.
To be fair to the somewhat embattled Las Vegas coach, it’s easy to see what he wanted to happen: The Raiders cut the lead to five, and with both the two-minute warning and all three team timeouts, there were clock stoppages and ample time available to get the ball back.
Well, the Raiders did get the ball back, but with just a mere 12 seconds and no timeouts left.
And instead of the Raiders getting heroics from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, the 31-year-old passer threw his third interception of the game, ending the contest.
Conversely: Had Garoppolo and the Raiders engineered those four yards on that crucial fourth-and-four, they would’ve had four chances to score a touchdown from the four-yard line.
Would attempting to accrue eight total yards and convert a two-point conversion been a better play than kicking a field goal hoping for a stop, then marching the majority of the field for a touchdown?
Conventional wisdom would suggest that going for the first down and eventual possible touchdown would’ve been the right play there (even if the Raiders failed on the two-point conversion, they would need just a field goal if they got the ball back).
And advanced analytics, according to ESPN, actually agreed with conventional wisdom for once.
Going for that fourth-down conversion would have given the Raiders a 15.8 percent win probability, versus a 10.2 percent win probability by kicking the field goal.
“You have two choices there,” McDaniels said after the game, according to ESPN. “You try to make it a five-point game [with the field goal], where you have an opportunity to win it with the touchdown if you get the ball back. Or you try to go for it there. And then if you happen to convert then you’ve got to make the two-point conversion.”
When pressed if the decision to take the field goal was a sign of a lack of confidence in his offense, McDaniels vehemently denied it.
“You’re going to need another possession anyway, you know what I mean?” McDaniels said. “So, it is not a lack of confidence.”
Despite McDaniels’ denial, questions over his confidence in the Garoppolo-led offense will continue to linger at least until next week, when the Raiders travel to face the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
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