I really, really get the urge to prove to God and everybody that you can pick up a yard when you feel like it.
Sometimes I think it's fine to give in to that, whether you make it or not.
Other times I think that urge must be fought and put in its place.
Not that it really mattered, but the same thing happened to us in the FSU opener. We had goal-to-go from just a yard or two out on 4th down twice in a row, and since it was the first half and we were moving the ball well, I was okay with the decision to go for it on 4th down. However, the bunch formation you mention brought FSU in closer, and the decisiveness with which they stood up our guys was glaring. Maybe a guy fired off too high. Maybe he didn't get the jump he wanted. Maybe the QB didn't get low enough or tried to tunnel through the wrong gap. Maybe this, maybe that. They damn near got knocked backwards.
Next possession it happened again, and we did the exact same thing, with the exact same result. Prior to that call, I absolutely knew we needed to take points. FSU had already proved they can win a bunched-up scrum pile with our guys, so we should've either kicked the easy FG or at least spread them out with a nimble QB who only needs a sliver to squirt by some guys.
I can't honestly say going into the half up 20-14, 23-14, or 24-14, instead of just 17-14--depending on the success of different decisions--makes a difference given how their lines clobbered ours in the second half....and none of that erases Lacy's sudden decision that a WR doesn't really need to catch perfectly thrown balls down the field because hey, punting is fun. But at any rate, it was the same thing....glaringly obvious that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results was Kelly's version of insanity.
