I agree. I think we got pretty dang close to threading the needle. He was trying to get in FG range to win it with no time left. Which should have been doable.
Starting at 2:40:17 in case the link doesn't start at that time specifically.
2nd down, The long TD was there but Jag hesitated just a bit and the pass was late and short.
3rd down, 18 seconds left. I think the plan was to run to get the first, which happened. Then get to the line to run the second play they had queued up, to get closer to FG before burning the second timeout with ~8 seconds remaining and one timeout left.
A quick set and run probably would have got us 3-5 yards. Or a dump off to Bishop instead of scanning the field for 4 seconds and burning that valuable time. Then you probably have 6-7 seconds left on 2nd down to run a quick out to get as close to the 35 as possible.
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Gotta dump it off if you're not gonna take the shot. You can tell Josh was not thrilled. I think he had 3 routes for Jag -- deep if it's there, underneath to get to 35 for the FG, or dump off if you don't see anything. Jag just held it too long and wasted 7 seconds.
I think the lesson there is take the timeout after the first down to make sure everyone is locked in or give yourself a second to reevaluate. I can understand wanting to have those 2 timeouts because if you complete the pass over the middle after converting, boom you burn your timeout and you have enough time for one more quick play if you want to get a little closer.
I think we were one play off from getting into FG range and sealing the deal. If Joey is quicker on the trigger for the deep shot, or makes a quicker decision on that 1st down hurry up pass, I think we win. In the end it all worked out anyway. Thankful they didn't pick the hail mary at the end of regulation.
Hopefully the experience will be helpful later this year.
How Josh envisions these end of game situations, and how they are executed, are a little off.
