Do you agree with the fake field-goal punt call?
 

Chiefs were up 10 with 2:45 left on the clock. Cowboys had no timeouts. It would have been a 52-yard field goal attempt. Obviously, the execution was great, but do you agree with the call?

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I was fine with it

Yes and anyone who doesn’t should kill themselves

I was actually shocked they were going to try a FG. So yeah, I thought it was a great call.

I loved it. I actually turned to the Cowboys fan behind me right before they lined up and called the pooch kick.

What really impressed the hell out of me was the execution level by Butker, Allegretti AND Townsend to get down there and cover it.

It was a perfect play call given the scoreboard, Dallas's relatively anemic offense and their lack of TOs. Once that ball was touched down, the game was over. Dallas wasn't driving 95 yards to score a TD then recovering an onside kick.

Obviously it worked out great but I thought it was a good call with the way the defense was playing.

Definitely the right call. Pinning them deep in that situation worked better for us than the FG, and this was the perfect way to do it.

It seemed nice at the time

I thought it was another fake at first. I guess it was a fake FG, but I mean to try to get a 1st down.

I dunno if you could tell on the broadcast, but the wind was an absolute menace yesterday. It was a steady 15-20 and swirling.

I was fine with it either way. Up 10 with under 3 minutes and them with no time outs. If he misses they have a short field. Pin them back the best you can was the right call.

Wind was blowing towards the east endzone from above the stadium and towards the west end zone from the tops of the uprights. The flags above the stadium were screaming in one direction while the streamers on the uprights were going the other.

It was bizarre.

This is such a rare play that I can't say that I supported it or opposed it beforehand. When was the last time we saw a fake field goal with a pooch punt? I think Cassel did it once out of a third-down formation, but I can't even remember it being run out of a field goal formation.

If you had asked me ahead of time, I probably would have said to go for the field goal since we have Butker, the greatest kicker of all time. But as O.City alluded, if the wind was a factor maybe Butker was concerned and I'd trust his judgment.

Fantastic execution, though.

I'm curious about the play, though. It starts up and Allegretti bursts downfield like a racing ox. Townsend swings out and then downfield.

Five seconds later you see Winchester, who was the long snapper, and then Gray shows up pretty much after the play is dead. So first off, why wasn't Gray hustling downfield? It looks like he fell on the initial block but then just stood there for a while afterwards.

And Blake Bell is the wide guy on the other side next to Allegretti. Why did Bell not hustle downfield? I get that you have to make an initial screen to keep the kick from being blocked, but if the ball is pooched it seems like you'd want guys hustling down as soon as it's kicked. The only two who do so are Allegretti and Townsend. Is that by design?

Yep. At that point scoring more points doesn't get you much better chance to win the game compared to the risk of missing it. We know buttkicker is good from that distance but Dallas had no timeouts and with how hard it is to get onside kicks these days that was a great call. I did NOT want them to go for it and I always want them to go for it. That is good situational football.

You miss the FG you don't get points and they get a short field

You get the FG you get points...

Split the difference, no points and long field

It worked in the long run

We were up 10. 2 possession game.

If we make it, it’s still a 2 possession game. If we miss it, it’s 2 possessions but great field position.

Worst thing we can do in that situation is to allow a quick score. Great call and better execution. With how our defense was playing, they weren’t going to allow many chunk plays. If Dallas can go 98 yards for a TD, it’s going to take some time.

Absolutely, yes.

When I first saw they were lining up to kick it, not gonna lie, it made me nervous. Butker had already missed a couple (XP and FG). And I know the wind was moving that day, so not 100% on him (although he shouldn't have missed the short XP), but still. I generally trust him to make long kicks, but I was not feeling confident going into that one.

So you have to weigh out the cost to benefit ratio of your decision. Kick the FG, make it, still up two possessions versus kick the FG, miss it, give Dallas great starting field position to drive to get one of their two scores they're gonna need to tie. OR do what the Chiefs did. Pooch it, pin em deep and make them drive the length of the field with only 2 1/2 minutes and no timeouts and then onside kick, recover and score again.

On a different day and different circumstances it might be a different decision, but in THIS scenario and taking into account everything we knew going into it, it was ABSOLUTELY the right call. Good call by Toub and hell of a job by Butker to execute the pooch and Nick and Tommy to get down there to cover it.

Kudos all around!

I like the call, although I could understand if someone else didn't, particularly if it rolls into the EZ and the Pokes start at the 20....

But it all worked out just fine, which makes it even better....

Yeah, we're right above the east endzone and the flags above the west jumbotron were right in our face and the FG flags by us were going the other way. It was weird.

I dont care either way because Chiefs D was playing well, I have confidence in Butker nailing long FG's, and DAL was out of timeouts and would've gotten the ball back more than likely before end of regulation.

But they punted it and forced a long field with no timeouts left.

Exactly. All a made FG would've done was take a tie off the table. And frankly, if you blow a 10 point lead in 2 minutes to a team with no TOs, what are the odds of you stopping the bleeding in OT anyway? The FG accomplishes very very little there.

I think the FG he missed was one where he expected the wind to move the ball and it just didn't happen. Granted, I think he missed a little as well, but I think he was aiming at that right upright with the wind blowing in and curling it to the middle. But when he missed right on the upright and then the ball just blasted dead straight through the wind, I'm betting that just caught him completely off guard.

I wonder if the miss a little right also had the ball going more end over end then he expected. If he was trying to hit the ball a little to the outside to pull it towards the upright, maybe the wind actually acts on the ball and pulls it the rest of the way. But by hitting it dead straight, it went directly end over end and with no initial english on the ball, the wind just didn't do anything to it at all.

He just hit the ball way too true for me to think it was an outright miss. I think he was expecting more action on the ball than he got.

I was definitely surprised by it, but you really can't argue with it. The defense was dominating and there was very little time left.

Great call, IMO. No matter what, Dallas needed two scoring drives to win or tie. Instead of gifting them the field position by basically allowing them to start at midfield if we missed, let them use most of their juice trying to get the first score. I liked the time management aspect of it and I liked the idea that the game is over if we stop them just once.

If they had scored even a field goal off our miss, we were probably looking at an onside kick which is an absolute wild card. No doubt the right call. The way our defense was playing there was a good chance it would end the way it did.

no. Butker can hit a 50+ yarder.

This exactly. I should have read the whole thread before l posted. Almost verbatim.

I think they were better off going for it. Just throw the thing up for grabs at like the 10 yard line and hope they're dumb enough to catch it (assuming our receiver doesn't).

A first down wins the game outright. We can drain basically all the time. A field goal or pooch punt gives them the ball back down two scores with 2:40 left regardless of the outcome. A missed field goal is worse field position than an incomplete pass. If a field goal put us up by 3 scores I'd be more for it.

I do think pooch punt was better than field goal. But I still like going for it slightly better.

Yes. With the way the defense Had been playing, that was absolutely the right decision

Well, sure. He absolutely can. However, if he misses the FG, they get the ball on the 42 instead of the 2. That 40 yard spread was bigger than the 3 points, IMO.

Yes.

My answer changes if a FG takes us from up 14 to up 17. Or hell, even from up 13 to up 16 - now they'd need 2 TDs AND two 2-pt conversions to tie.

But going from 10 to 13 just doesn't do much for me. Gimme the field position that is going to burn the clock down to the 2-minute warning before they get back to where we kicked it from. Once that punt was downed at the 2, the game was over. It might as well have been a touchdown.

yes, I thought it was perfect.


whats even controversial about this?

I liked the call. I thought with the wind swirling as it was they assessed the likely hood of a 52 yard FG to be slim.

I'll say this - the applause is probably not as universal if that ball doesn't check up like it does. Harrison cut that one pretty damn close - you can't really count on most punts checking back when they bounce at the 3 like that one did.

If that's a 17 yard gain in field position instead of a 35 yard gain in field position, the responses here may be a bit different.

Execution made it a clear win - but kick that ball 10 more times and you may only see 2 or 3 of them check up like that one did. Luck helped quite a bit there.

My question is, why not just punt it?

TBH, the whole strategy was negated pretty quickly. IIRC, the first play was a big gain.

It was a good idea though.

Balls of steel on that. You have to punt that shit perfectly, and Butker did. It was amazing. At first I was like, we need the points, but after thinking about it, it made more sense to pin them deep with no time outs and a two score lead. Basically in ensured a victory, unless some truly crazy shit happened, namely them recovering an on side kick after scoring quickly.

Good call.

Because you don't want them having a chance to return it.

Yep, pin em deep and they still have to score twice

even if it was a touchback it was ok, still 2 scores right? Its not like a touchback was some deal breaker.

It’s just a play I’ve never really understood, I guess. Not sure why a high punt by a person that practices that play over and over is less likely to field less yards than a fake fg/punt by a kicker.

It was a great play and a good call. Just seems like it is dressed up to be dressed up.

It was a pretty incredible kick, to be fair.

I generally don't like making guys do something out of their comfort zone in a situation like that, which increases the risk of something going wrong (and something going wrong in that scenario is really the only way we could lose).

But Butker clearly seems to have practiced the play judging by his execution of it, so I have no complaints.

I think the answer Id give would be biased by the perfect result.

Yeah, but the ball would almost certainly be inside the ten when fielded. At that point maybe he'd return it anyway, I guess.

I'm one of the handful who said no, and I'm voting based on what I knew at the time. I didn't think of it being windy and it's a great point that the game would still be a two-score game even if he made it. I also didn't know at the time that Butker was a nails punter. Looking at it now with the outcome, it was a brilliant move.

The other thing that we didn't discuss is the tiny probability that a blocked field goal could have produced a quick touchdown. So the punt avoided that as well. Overall, the coaching staff earned biscuit and a pat on the head for this play. It was both smart and clever.

I thought the FG was the right call.... but I liked the punt even better.

I'm sure the PK practices punts in case of an injury to the punter. But yeah, seems like the chance of kicking into the end zone or a shank would be a lot higher.

But tip of the hat to our future HOF kicker...

After watching Nagy snatch defeat for the Bears from the jaws of vicotry at the end of their game with Baltimore, I was relieved by the fake. So well executed.

Special Teams has been playing great. This was a perfect call at the perfect time.

it worked there for it was the right call.

I liked it. It was 52 and he just missed one from 51. I’m confident he’d have made the one from 52 but the game situation I was down.

The way the defense was playing and their offense was playing it was a good move.

Probably more important is it’s on wax. The bigger issue is it might save us 3 points later. If a team has it in their head that they may have to cover the punt they may not rush quite as hard and we might make one that is otherwise blocked.

Double win.

It was a great call, and Butker just nailed it. Makes up for him costing us four points, grr.

What was the point of the trickery? They trust Butker more in pressure situations more than Townsend?

Pin them back and let our defense maul them some more. Obviously.

If it was 41-31 at the time or maybe if the Cowboys had all 3 timeouts left, you would at least think twice about it.... but, the Cowboys had nothing on offense, so it was completely fine for the situation.

It was a great call. The wind was horrible.

Kill yourself reerun!!!!

Irrelevant. Punt, FG attempt, go for it…..the Cowboys were done and they knew it

I actually would have preferred they punted the previous time, when they missed the field goal. Even then, with just over ten minutes left, I thought the smarter thing was to punt them deep. Then, when they lined up for ANOTHER attempt, I really couldn't believe it. Was happy to see it punted.

I agree with those that would have punted except, this call made it harder to block. The cowboys special teams unit had almost blocked two punts. A blocked punt TD would given them a chance. This let us sneak a punt by them.

I was hoping for a safety afterwards get two points and the ball back but Cowboys moved the chains.

Safety after pinning them at the 2 would have been epic.

Execution was amazing. Normally I'd say if you're not going to kick the fg, send out your punter. That's kinda what he's paid to do there, yes?

I've never really seen Townsend try to put any touch on a punt though, he's usually booming those 55+ and our guys down it deep.

This is one of those where your coaches/players know what they can do, and you trust them to go do it. Phenomenal execution that basically ended the game.

Colquitt his last few years used to be so concerned about touchbacks that he'd punt from the 50 yard line and end up having it caught at the 18. he erred too far on the side of caution.

Townsend has actually come a really long way this year in that regard. I honestly don't remember a single touchback from him this season and he's put a shitload inside the 20 (gotta be more than half) and they aren't those cheapies like Colquitt used to give us. He's hemming teams inside the 10.

Townsend was fairly disappointing last season but he's been really good this year. In fact, the only time I'm a little disappointed in him is when he's looking to boom the hell out of one.

The broadcast said the one touchback was the first touchback of 2021. That’s hard to complain about.

Yep I was calling for a pooch punt before they did it. The call I didn't really agree with was when Butker missed the field goal. 51 yarder I believe. I felt we should've just gone for the 4th and 3 there and iced the game.

Obviously Toub had great confidence he could get the ball to check up instead of rolling into the endzone. But even that would have given Dallas the ball on the 25 instead of about the 40 ( don't remember the exact distance). As mentioned earlier, the wind was erratic and may have caused the missed FG earlier. That one looked like he kicked it right and thought the wind would push it left through the uprights. As it was, it quit blowing just as he kicked it.