Questionable playcalling on winning drive

[Mista T]

Thanks to Stover and Mason, we pulled it out yesterday at Cleveland on the final drive, overcoming some questionable calls:

- reverse

- passing twice on 2nd & 2 with 33 seconds to go from the 33 and at least one TO remaining.

The reverse seems to be an Achilles Heel for this team. I wonder if there's a stat on how often we have unsuccessfully run it? Even for a good offensive team, the reverse is a high risk, high rewards play, that is not appropriate for a final drive coming from behind.

As to the passing calls: at least one of them should have been a run up the middle. 3 or 4 yards closer would have greatly increased the odds of the long FG. With a TO on the board, there would have been no danger of the clock running out.

[donnaj]

I have to agree! As I sat there watching I was screaming - What are you thinking? Can't we run off tackle to get 3 - 4 yards and as much as I love my fellow demon deacon - a pass to FB Mughelli on 3rd down with 33 seconds left? Huh? Who came up with that one? :bag: :insane:
The reverse - now that one just made me mad - why not try something like that early on in the game? Don't try trickery when you have a time frame to move the ball down field in a hurry - just pass it or run with Jamal, but please not up the middle Flynn and Vincent are not going to make any hole versus 400 lb Washington! I loved the variety of passes we completed in the 4th quarter - where were those plays in the 1st half?:grbac:

[JonG316]

Couple things, the reverse hasn't been that great for us so I agree that call is maybe not the best but I'm sure the Browns didnt expect it. The throws on 2nd and 3rd down I totally agree with however, you are at the very limit of Stovers range, you pass and get it great, you miss it you don't lose anything, if you run however, you have the chance of losing a yard or two and that can be the difference in 3 points and a win and 0 points and a loss. If we are on the 25 yard line or something like that then a run is fine cause even if you lose a yard or two you still in his range, not on the 31 however. And you say that of course we should be able to line up and run for a yard or so but if that was the case why did we lose 2 yards on the 4th and 2 during the third quarter? The two passing plays are a better call in my opinion, your chance of losing yards on those plays is a great deal less then on a running play.

[B-more Ravor]

I really had no problem with either call. I'm not sure I would have called the reverse, but I do understand the reasoning. Teams often run a draw or a delay on the last play before the 2-minute warning, so the theory would be that the Browns would be expecting a pass or draw, but not a reverse. Unfortunately, there was some suspect blocking on the play and it got blown up. There are a lot of people out there questioning the conservative playcalling, but I certainly think that this was an example of aggressive playcalling. It was a boom or bust play, that unfortunately, didn't work out.

As far as the throw goes, I think that is another example of being aggressive (which people want to see, right?) and attempting to get the 1st down in order to be able to run another play or two to get Stover a little closer. There was 24 second left before the 3rd down play and if they pick up the first down - with a TO remaining - they could have used to entire field to get another 10 yards or so to make Stover's kick a little more comfortable. Given our profile and our running history, the Browns would have had to expected a run there.