WTF 2:20 left 2 pos down and we punt?

[Dale Rich]

Did Bob concede defeat?

Then with time expired and down by 9, we pitch the ball all over the field. Did these guys think they could score 9 on one possesion?

[snuballer7]

I was shocked as well. We gave up. I never would have guessed that we would ever do that.

[misplaced_sooner]

Total bull**** and not sooner football. Throwing in the towel is unacceptable.

[SOONER44EVER]

I was shocked as well. We gave up. I never would have guessed that we would ever do that.

We didn't give up. Stoops did. I was hoping for a good pass call on 4th down. Not a punt.

[Tear Down This Wall]

A whole series of stupid decisions, beginning with going for two points instead of kicking the PAT.

And, yes, the pitching the ball all over the field was dumb. There is no nine-point play...and, you risk an injury with your starters running around like morons out there tossing the ball around.

Stoops escaped some stupid coaching decisions earlier in the season. They caught up with a vengeance tonight.

[OU-HSV]

I don't know what shocked me more, the fact that we punted that...or the fact that the next possession we DIDN'T simply take a knee. I mean wtf. Geeze

[SOONER44EVER]

A whole series of stupid decisions, beginning with going for two points instead of kicking the PAT.

And, yes, the pitching the ball all over the field was dumb. There is no nine-point play...and, you risk an injury with your starter running around like morons out there tossing the ball around.

Stoops escaped some stupid coaching decisions earlier in the season. They caught up with a vengeance tonight.

Couldn't have said it any better. Good jorb!

[StoopTroup]

Looked like he put it in the hands of the players...I didn't see any of them give up. Madu's run was awesome!

[Dale Rich]

I love this coaching staff, but I don't know what to say about things like this.

[cyclonesooner]

Better coaching decisions tonite could have been made by a cosmetic salesman.

[Dale Rich]

Traber is ripping Stoops for this. Good for him.

[OU-HSV]

A whole series of stupid decisions, beginning with going for two points instead of kicking the PAT.

And, yes, the pitching the ball all over the field was dumb. There is no nine-point play...and, you risk an injury with your starters running around like morons out there tossing the ball around.

Stoops escaped some stupid coaching decisions earlier in the season. They caught up with a vengeance tonight.

You're dead on

[Tear Down This Wall]

Traber? Lord...even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

[No1Better]

Sooners should have never punted. Worst call by a college coach in years...I'm disgusted.

[oumartin]

yep, it was a give up call. maybe he thought venebles could redeem himself on that last Mizzou possession. LOL

[PMKMDJ]

I stared at the TV in disbelief...I couldn't believe he gave up. Does it matter if you lose by 9 or 16? Seriously, that made me sick.

[Dale Rich]

Did anybody assume that we were running some ridiculous fake punt?

[SOONER44EVER]

Did anybody assume that we were running some ridiculous fake punt?

After he went for 2 a few minutes earlier I wasn't too surprised.

[meandmybutt]

Total bull**** and not sooner football. Throwing in the towel is unacceptable.

Agree. Not acceptable.

[TrophyCollector]

Stupid call even if we had not pissed away two timeouts already. Horrible coaching.

[rainiersooner]

Better coaching decisions tonite could have been made by a cosmetic salesman.

I was particularly disappointed with the coaches' decisions to let Missouri score on the opening kick off, miss an easy field goal, turn the ball over twice in the red zone, and miss tackles in the open field. We pay them enough money for them to call better plays than that.

[soonercastor]

yeah that was kind of a p***y move to punt there. What type of message does that send to your players? You go for it, unless you're down by A LOT.

[TrophyCollector]

I was particularly disappointed with the coaches' decisions to let Missouri score on the opening kick off, miss an easy field goal, turn the ball over twice in the red zone, and miss tackles in the open field. We pay them enough money for them to call better plays than that.

Teams reflect their coaches and so it should be no shock that our player lose their minds on the road.

[SOONER44EVER]

yeah that was kind of a p***y move to punt there. What type of message does that send to your players? You go for it, unless you're down by A LOT. It sends this message: "I QUIT"

[Dale Rich]

It sends this message: "I QUIT"

You play to lose the game.

[Sooner98]

As usual, our players and coaches completely forget how to play tackle football in the fourth quarter, if they don't already have a huge lead. We simply give up and punt the ball when there are over two minutes to go? Really?? This is what we are paying Stoops millions of dollars to do? Completely unacceptable. I want to hear some of the staunchest Stoops defenders try and defend this one.

[TUSooner]

Losing is losing, Fact of life and big time college FB. SO there. Let's win the next one. BUT there's still no explaining away the complete stupidity of how Bob managed the end of that game. It made no sense, and that scares me

[Pricetag]

There were some dumb calls there at the end, but I don't see how making Landry run for his life one more time before throwing an incompletion (at best) and giving Missouri the ball when they would have scored with a single running play would have helped.

[jumperstop]

Maybe he was thinking about the pollsters knocking him more for a 16 point loss. That's all I can think. It's a stretch but we could have won if we went for it, not a chance in hell to win when we punted though. I'll take the chance to win every time.

[SoonerNation20]

FML

[yermom]

FML

this.

[cccasooner2]

As usual, our players and coaches completely forget how to play tackle football in the fourth quarter, if they don't already have a huge lead. We simply give up and punt the ball when there are over two minutes to go? Really?? This is what we are paying Stoops millions of dollars to do? Completely unacceptable. I want to hear some of the staunchest Stoops defenders try and defend this one.

Surely there must be someone. I'm just not staunch enough. :O

[stoopified]

:(

[colinreturn]

Surely there must be someone. I'm just not staunch enough. :O

same here. the sad thing as i thought i was the staunchest. but then yesterday happened.

[nighttrain12]

FML

Fire Mike Leach?

[TXBOOMER]

Losing is losing, Fact of life and big time college FB. SO there. Let's win the next one. BUT there's still no explaining away the complete stupidity of how Bob managed the end of that game. It made no sense, and that scares me

Bob's game management in close games has been a little strange. All of last nights BS, BYU clock management, fake field goal and not putting a body deep at texass come to mind.

[85sooners]

fire venables!!

[En_Fuego]

Fire Barry Switzer.....Oh wait this isnt 1988....

[jkjsooner]

Playing the contrarion role a bit, how often are we up by 42 points late in the 3rd quarter and the opposing coach punts the ball to us. His only chance to win is by scoring on every possession.

Every coach out there will concede the game at some point and start punting the ball. Let's be real here, coaches (and fans) have egos and at some point they would prefer a respectable loss over a blowout while going for that .05% chance of winning the game.

Additionally, for better or worse, the perception of how bad of a loss it was plays a role in the BCS standings. It might not matter for the championship race (I believe we're all but out of it) but it could matter for whether we get chosen for a BCS bowl if we don't win our conference championship. Let's say we lose to NU in the championship game and it's between us and Missouri to get an invite, a 9 point loss on the road is a lot easier to explain than a 16 point loss.

[Pricetag]

Yep. The decision to go for two after the TD was a bad one. The decision to punt was a good one. We had our chances to win that game. They had passed by the time it got to fourth-and-ten.

[proudsoonergal]

I'm just not staunch enough. :O

Ahhh.........that's what she said.











:D

[Crucifax Autumn]

We were trying to run the "punt returner drops the ball on the return" play, but this time Winchester missed his assignment.

[Pricetag]

We shouldn't try to go to that well more than once per game.

[OUmillenium]

A whole series of stupid decisions, beginning with going for two points instead of kicking the PAT.

And, yes, the pitching the ball all over the field was dumb. There is no nine-point play...and, you risk an injury with your starters running around like morons out there tossing the ball around.

Stoops escaped some stupid coaching decisions earlier in the season. They caught up with a vengeance tonight.

Yes. I would amend to say "Stoops and staff..."

[OUmillenium]

Teams reflect their coaches and so it should be no shock that our player lose their minds on the road.

Wow, be careful about posting logic like that on this board!

[KantoSooner]

One of the reasons I personally never liked playing team sports was the aspect of trying to get everyone psyched at the same time. This game looked to me like a giant clusterphuque from the get go. Nobody was ready to play, mentally. Mizzou won this game, credit to them, they were ready. But our team can and has played so much better time and again this season. It was just a mental collapse. I have no idea how to fix that, but we certainly are not going to be worthy of being a top five team until such time as we do.

[goingoneight]

I am a Stoops supporter. I offer no explanation or excuse for the punt in hindsight, as I'm sure he doesn't either. OUr fourth quarter problems and OUr special teams problems AND our interior definsive problems this year finally cost us the way many realists like myself feared they would. I was hoping ISU was one of those "turn-the-corner" kinda games where we'd round out the season with a bang, but Missouri exposed problems that are still there. We're good, and we're young... but we're not good enough and smart enough to win a National Championship. Not this year. A BIG 12 CCG berth would be a good coaching job to be honest.
Again, the punt call was mind-boggling. Somebody, somewhere must have thought we'd force a turnover either on the punt or on Missouri's possesion if that decision can be explained at all as anything rather than throwing in the towel like Mack did in the Cotton Bowl with still time and hope for the win. If Boise State can score in ten seconds, you should bet your paycheck (aka, the fourth down) on trying to convert and stay alive.

All that said... Special teams cost us 10 points... we lost by nine. Ugly as that game was... that's one way to look at it. A clean game and we're sweating out another fourth quarter nailbiter. Instead, now OUr foolishness and lackadaisical attitudes at times have burnt us. Under the best ideal conditions (winning out), this is a scar that will haunt this team forever. Hopefully, they wake up and can win the BIG 12 for a small dose of redemption.

[Husker In Oklahoma]

coaches (and fans) have egos and at some point they would prefer a respectable loss over a blowout while going for that .05% chance of winning the game.


And one could make an excellent argument that the chances were even lower than the .05% odds you list. You are exactly right on. And to think, he could have eliminated this issue with one, simple, extra point.

[SoonerBorn]

I'm having trouble reconciling the punt (aka "giving up") with what happened on the final kickoff (aka "the pursuit of the magical 9 point play"). The two don't seem to go together.

[Dale Rich]

I'm having trouble reconciling the punt (aka "giving up") with what happened on the final kickoff (aka "the pursuit of the magical 9 point play"). The two don't seem to go together.

We should have just downed it with 1 second left and let Stevens take a shot at a 70 yard field goal.

[slh1234]

I love this coaching staff, but I don't know what to say about things like this.

Bull****. You don't love anything about this coaching staff. In the past, I've seen you accuse them of taking a top notch program and bringing it down to 3 stars because they don't want to deal with the personalities of the more talented players, and that is just as a start. You're on their case all the time, and there is never any positive balance to any of it. Don't come on now and claim love for them ... too many of us have memories. Including memories of sock puppets.

[Sooner98]

So, Stoops just admitted today in his press conference that he thought the game was over with 2 minutes to go, and down by 9, and that's why we punted. He was worried about how the pollsters would interpret a bigger loss than nine points. I'm not kidding, he actually said this.

WTF? Did anyone ever think they'd hear something like this from Stoops? I wonder what the players think of this.

[KBoomer11]

So, Stoops just admitted today in his press conference that he thought the game was over with 2 minutes to go, and down by 9, and that's why we punted. He was worried about how the pollsters would interpret a bigger loss than nine points. I'm not kidding, he actually said this.

WTF? Did anyone ever think they'd hear something like this from Stoops? I wonder what the players think of this.

I love Stoops. But this was like a stab in the heart. What has happened to Bob Stoops?

[Rickety_Syd]

Playing the contrarion role a bit, how often are we up by 42 points late in the 3rd quarter and the opposing coach punts the ball to us. His only chance to win is by scoring on every possession.

Every coach out there will concede the game at some point and start punting the ball. Let's be real here, coaches (and fans) have egos and at some point they would prefer a respectable loss over a blowout while going for that .05% chance of winning the game.

Additionally, for better or worse, the perception of how bad of a loss it was plays a role in the BCS standings. It might not matter for the championship race (I believe we're all but out of it) but it could matter for whether we get chosen for a BCS bowl if we don't win our conference championship. Let's say we lose to NU in the championship game and it's between us and Missouri to get an invite, a 9 point loss on the road is a lot easier to explain than a 16 point loss.


That is what I've been telling people.

The game was over. For all practical purposes, it was over. yeah, I know ... get a first down, march it down the field, score a TD, kick onside, recover onside, kick a field goal to win. What are the chances? Pretty freakin' slim (especially since we can't kick field goals).

Go for it on fourth and 10 and fail ... Set up Missouri first and goal with 2 minutes to work with, they run it up the middle and score (because they are NOT taking a knee, I don't care what anyone says) and make the score 43-27. What are the chances? Pretty dam good.

In a sport where a champion is decided by votes, and it is impossible for every voter to see every game, perception means something. A 36-27 loss on the road to an unbeaten team doesn't look that bad. A 43-27 loss looks like we were never really in it to someone that didn't watch the game. Kind of like when we get accused of running up the score after a big win, when people who watched the game know that it isn't true.

You think we would have dropped further in the polls if the final was 43-27? Maybe. Right now, we're No. 9 in the BCS and still within striking distance, so maybe Stoops knows what he's doing.

[Sooner98]

I have a real hard time believing that seven more Missouri points would ultimately be the difference between playing in the national championship game, and the Fiesta Bowl. It's not guaranteed that MU would have even scored a TD there, anyway. Maybe our defense could have stopped them.

Also, if he felt the game was over, then why did we run that ridiculous multiple-lateral play on the last play of the game? What if someone had gotten injured on it?

[IslandSooner]

the muliti-lateral play was probaly more of the players doing, than an actual called play by the coaching staff