00:00I got this from Rich in Potomac. Rich in Potomac writes,
00:06Kevin, your criticism of Dan Quinn's fourth and one was not, in capital letters,
00:12the first time you've criticized him on game management.
00:15You thought the two-point shovel pass debates was a bad call.
00:20You've done it many times during end of halves when they run plays
00:26rather than taking knees when there's no effort to score.
00:30So not the first time I'm keeping tabs.
00:34Well, thank you for keeping tabs, Rich.
00:37Yeah, no, you're right.
00:38I was critical of the shovel pass as an option on that play,
00:43on that two-point play in Philly.
00:46And, yes, I can't stand when teams unnecessarily run a play at the end of a half.
00:54When, you know, they take over from, let's just say,
00:57their own eight-yard line after a really good punt.
01:00And with 22 seconds left, they've decided they're not going to go to try to score.
01:05Why won't you just take a knee?
01:07Why would you hand the ball off and risk something bad happening, like a fumble?
01:13Or a player getting injured on a play that means nothing.
01:18I mean, they would probably say, well, what if he breaks it for 30 yards?
01:22Well, how about when you do it with, like, six seconds left?
01:26You know, there's the punt down to the seven-yard line, six seconds left, end of half,
01:31and you run the ball instead of just taking a knee.
01:34You see that sometimes.
01:35That makes no sense to me.
01:38Anybody that does that in an organization,
01:42I can't believe with all of the game management, clock management, analytics people,
01:48somebody hasn't said to a head coach that's done that,
01:50but do you really want to risk fumble or an injury if we're not going to go try to score?
01:56I mean, what are we doing here?
01:59Why are we running a draw?
02:03I think, Rich, my overarching point after Sunday's game was that the fourth-and-one decision
02:14was by far and away, based on my memory of two seasons and now four games,
02:21the most critical that I have ever been of Dan Quinn with a decision in-game.
02:28The most.
02:29And what bothered me about it was that I sensed that this was him leaning on philosophy,
02:38him leaning on this is who we are.
02:42We're aggressive.
02:43We err on the side of being aggressive.
02:46We go for fourth downs in this organization.
02:50Did you see us in 2024?
02:51I did.
02:52I did see how successful the team was on fourth downs in 2024.
02:57I also saw a different quarterback on the field for those fourth-down plays in 2024.
03:05I just don't think that that is a way for a head coach to manage in-game,
03:12to err on the side of your philosophy, in this case, the philosophy of,
03:18we're going to be aggressive on fourth downs.
03:21Fourth-and-ones as we approach midfield, that is a philosophical go-for-it situation.
03:29And he said that, you know, he thought it was fourth and a little bit less than one is close
03:36to one yard.
03:37But I think the context, it matters.
03:42Like, you are down to your third-string quarterback.
03:46He is basically in for the first time as an NFL quarterback in an NFL game that matters.
03:53You're probably going to have to limit the playbook a little bit.
03:57And you're in a game in which your defense for the first five drives has dominated.
04:06Five drives to start the game for Indy.
04:10Three punts.
04:12Two turnovers.
04:14Daniel Jones looked like we've seen Daniel Jones at times.
04:17He looked shaky.
04:19Like, he's not sure what's going on here.
04:22He doesn't have an answer.
04:24And so, yeah, I think that at that moment, the reward was first and ten from your own 47
04:34with still the third-string quarterback in the game for basically his first few snaps of his career.
04:40Versus the risk, which was, if you don't make it,
04:44you've now given Indianapolis life and field goal range.
04:50Because the 46-yard line for Spencer Schrader is field goal range.
04:56I thought it was really a decision that was so poor and lacked sort of an in-game feel
05:04and an in-game assessment of how the game's context had changed when the team lost Marcus Mariota.
05:13And then on top of that, to run a play with Craig Reynolds at running back.
05:21I don't understand that.
05:23They just called him up from the practice squad.
05:25And they tried to trick him with a sub-package coming in with tight ends and with Reynolds,
05:30you know, exiting with receivers, and, you know, it didn't work.
05:34I did notice on the play, with some help from my good friend Steve Suter,
05:39that that was not Brandon Coleman's best effort on that fourth and one.
05:44He's been very good as a left tackle.
05:47Suter believes so, too.
05:48But he whiffed on that.
05:50It probably gets stopped anyway, but Brandon Coleman totally whiffed on that fourth and one.
05:57But I just, I didn't see the reward.
06:01The reward literally would have been three more plays and then you're punting
06:05and maybe another minute and a half of the clock.
06:09I would have just punted it, not taken the risk,
06:12and put my best unit at that point in that game back on the field, which was my defense.
06:19And put it up against their, at that point, very susceptible and very, very off, you know,
06:29off-kilter offense with a quarterback that looked completely confused on the first five drives of the game.
06:36In bad field position, hopefully, if Tressway had had a good punt.
06:41So, yes, that, I think Rich in Potomac,
06:46I think that's the most critical since Dan Quinn became head coach that I've been.
06:53And the only reason I say that is it's the absolute maddest I've been in the moment.
07:01I was screaming, don't do this.
07:05Punt it.
07:05What are we doing here?
07:07We're not, we're a fourth down aggressive team with Jaden or Marcus,
07:12but not your third string rookie seventh rounder playing for the first time.
07:18Especially with what the context of the game was.
07:21At that point, I felt like you got to win the game 13 to 10, 16 to 13,
07:25and that should have been in his mind.
07:27Should have been in his mind.
07:29Let's see.
07:29Let's see.
