There was a slightly easier way to win that game. Castell shouldn't have run the second interception back for a touchdown. He should have run it to close to the goal line and then downed the ball. UK had the lead. UK could have then just run the time out with victory formation without Oklahoma ever getting the ball back to have a chance to score. I realize this is nitpicking. Basically impossible to make decisions like that in the heat of the moment. Also, it ended up not mattering. Just a now meaningless observation. Also, also, completely open to someone telling me why I might be wrong.
Something no one pointed out about the OK game
- Thread starter KYAnywhereEverywhere
- Start date
Castle said he was going for the td or nothing.. Downing was not an option..
They had two tos. Dont think we could've ran it out, but close. Now had we kicked that fg and went up 4 - yes.
That was such an easy return he made the right call. That was a layup return and put us up 8 while their offense did nothing all fourth quarter.
That was such an easy return he made the right call. That was a layup return and put us up 8 while their offense did nothing all fourth quarter.
There was 1:17 left when he scored. Downing it at 1:18 instead and then two 40 sec play clocks would have ended the game.
The INT TD gave OU the best chance to score, but it was more fun as a fan to watch the pick six
We couldn't have just taken knees and run out the clock if Castell takes a knee at the 1.
OU had 2 TOs left. If Castell takes a knee at the 1 with 1:18 left. Here's how it plays out with your strat:
1st and Goal kneel down: OU takes TO #2 with 1:16 left.
2nd and Goal kneel down: OU takes TO #3 with 1:14 left.
3rd and Goal kneel down: we run off about 42 seconds.
4th down we've got to hike it with about 32 seconds left. So we'd either have to kick a FG with our shaky as hell kicker, or try to score (when we could've just scored and taken an 8 point lead when Castell was strolling towards the EZ).
Either way, OU gets the ball back.
Taking it to the house was the right call.
OU had 2 TOs left. If Castell takes a knee at the 1 with 1:18 left. Here's how it plays out with your strat:
1st and Goal kneel down: OU takes TO #2 with 1:16 left.
2nd and Goal kneel down: OU takes TO #3 with 1:14 left.
3rd and Goal kneel down: we run off about 42 seconds.
4th down we've got to hike it with about 32 seconds left. So we'd either have to kick a FG with our shaky as hell kicker, or try to score (when we could've just scored and taken an 8 point lead when Castell was strolling towards the EZ).
Either way, OU gets the ball back.
Taking it to the house was the right call.
I believe Coach Stein said that he wished he would’ve stopped and went down before he scored.
They had two timeouts and we were up one to move it to 8. Really either way he plays it is ok in that situation. I don’t blame him at all for ruining it in though, those plays are far and few between. I was screaming, run baby run!!
.
But then we wouldn’t get to pick mateer off for the 3rd time.
In this case, I really don't think the player could be expected to be thinking that they have 2 TO's and there is only about 1: 20 left so if I go down on the 1, we can run out the clock, etc.
Having said that, I always wonder why the defense catches the ball when the opposing team throws the ball on 4th down instead of knocking it down? I've seen way too many players catch a 4th down throw 10 or 20 yards downfield and go down at the spot.
Always score when you have the chance. This idea of purposely not scoring is stupid and should never be a game strategy.
I understand the running out the clock argument against my opinion, but put the pressure on the other team to match the score.
I understand the running out the clock argument against my opinion, but put the pressure on the other team to match the score.
Against OU, scoring the pick six probably was not a massive issue in the moment due to the fact that OU struggles to push the ball up and down the field. However, imagine we pick sixed against UGA - a team that can get down in a hurry. A lot of nuance into the decision.
To me, this is small potatoes vs. not kicking FG for the 4 points lead.
I thought about that, but OU had 2 timeouts and the Cats would not be able to take a knee and win the game. If they took 4 knees, they could have taken the clock down to under 1 minute and OU would then have an opportunity for a big play and a game winning field goal. They could have ran some running plays and OU's defense would have probably allowed UK to score so same outcome. Or took 3 knees and kicked a field goal under 1 minute left and kicked off. OU could have tried to get in position for a game winning hail Mary. All 3 outcomes are unlikely for OU but until it is time to take the knee just get the points as UK did, so I am alright with what happened.
Stein is all gas, we score when we can.
I thought the same watching it, I also thought we should have kicked a FG when he went for the TD and didn't get it. But he keeps his identity, and I am here for it.
I thought the same watching it, I also thought we should have kicked a FG when he went for the TD and didn't get it. But he keeps his identity, and I am here for it.
It can be an optimal strategy to avoid scoring, but only if your opponent doesn’t have enough timeouts left to keep you from kneeling out the game. In this case, Oklahoma had 2 timeouts left and was still likely to get the ball back regardless, so Castell did the right thing to go ahead and score the touchdown that was wide open in front of him.
It’s a little much to expect a guy in that situation to fall down before running into the end zone. He did the right thing.
Going to over simplify
Castell goes down with 1:18 left
-1st down, TO, no time runs off
-2nd down, TO, no time runs off
-3rd down, victory formation. 40 seconds run off. 38 seconds left
-4th down, 40 seconds run off. Game expires with 2 seconds left on playclock
*Of course some time would have ran off before those timeouts
**I recognize from this breakdown that all of this is all WAY too much to consider in the moment
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After the 4th down play the clock would stop. There would still be 30ish seconds left.
Stein said in a later pc he wanted castell to go down instead. It really isnt the right decision. He also made a bad decision on not kicking to go up 4.
Still an overall a+ job this season. No one is perfect, but i think his position on those two decisions are just clearly wrong.
Yeah he said he would worry about the consequences later lol. It seems pretty obvious that Stein wanted him to go down. Fortunately everything worked out for us.
As a player in real time I probably take it to the house as well. That's a highlight reel play lol.
Pretty obvious Stein regrets not kicking the FG . He's said that a couple of times now. At least we can dissect this question with a W in the win column.
I hadn’t heard that, but I’m glad! I understood before the timeout as they were out of sorts. But, after the timeout you HAVE to kick it there. Points were hard to come by and they had just won with a walk off FG the week before against Texas.
Yeah he has said it a couple of times now and like the fact that he has no problem criticizing himself.
I had to look this up. I was thinking the first timeout would have to come before the first down. That is not true, because the game clock does not keep running before a first down in the last two minutes of a college football game. You know what, upon re-evaluation of my original post, Castell was absolutely right to score the ball. There was no time to think through all of this. Even though I had all the time in the world to think through it, I got something wrong.
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Rare for DBs to intercept and be able to make those types of calculations. That said, if OU had scored and made a 2pt conversion, your comments would have been hard to hear.
If Cassel lies down at the one foot line and then UK has an NC St moment with a bad snap or something giving the ball back … a FG wins the game. Up 8 felt good, while not perfect. Up 11 would have been better. Stein knows that.
I'm not complaining because it worked out but I said to my wife he should go down while he was running it back. Also....I was thinking they only had 1 timeout which wouldn't have left enough time on the clock.
Glad Castell was not using my brain.
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