Quote Originally Posted by vince View Post
I won't speculate on the reason for your continued blind spot here PB, but the downside was mitigated by the play call despite the "downward" outcome of the individual play. The larger downside of attempting a pass play it in that situation can only be mitigated by refusing to acknowledge its existence.

Also, it can't be any more clear given the actual results that the loss of a few yards in that situation didn't "affect the kick" as your revisionism suggests.
This is why I prefer to look at this with numbers. With a 50-55% chance of a FG, I would love to know the relative risk of the choices between a 51 yard FD (kneeling), a 56 yard FG (run wide left) or a play action pass.

I think you have done a very good job of explicating the risk of a pass here. I think its easy to figure out a FG here is no sure thing and a 5 yard longer FG is a worse option. But this is only the risk side of the equation. We don't know the upside of a completion, the likelihood of it being made multiplied by its effect on the game situation.