Look, we all know Aaron Glenn is a riverboat gambler who doesn’t coach in fear, but his decision in Baltimore to go for it on fourth-and-two from his own 42, down just 10-7 in the third quarter, turned out to be a dubious move.
The fourth down conversion attempt failed, and the Ravens proceeded to score on a six-play, 42-yard drive to go up 17-7.
“That decision kind of flipped this game,” said CBS analyst Jason McCourty, who was providing color commentary on the game with Charles Davis.
Davis added: “Understand [the decision] based on their record, but not how the game was being played today.”
What Davis was essentially saying was that when a team is 2-8, he understands taking risks like that, but not in a 10-7 game that was a defensive battle, a field-position game up to that point.
There are times to roll the dice and go for it on your own 42, but perhaps this wasn’t one of them.
“There is a fine line between being aggressive and dumb, and that was just dumb,” said former NFL guard Willie Colon on SNY, a Jets media partner.
On the CBS broadcast, it was pointed out that Bill Cowher has been a good sounding board for Glenn during his rookie year, and the legendary coach told the Jets coach there are no mistakes by rookie head coaches, just lessons.
This might be one of those lessons.
“The ebb and flow of the game is very important and you have to have your finger on it,” said former NFL coach Todd Haley on SiriusXM NFL Radio this morning, not about the Jets game, but actually about the job KC coach Andy Reid did in leading the Chiefs to a come-from-behind win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
This might have been a case of not reading the “ebb and flow” tea leaves in an ideal fashion.
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