FanPost

Questioning Neuheisel's Goal Line Call In Tennessee

Neuheisel's goal line bootleg call in Tennessee hurt the team more than Craft, Prince, Chow or any opponent.

To review: Ucla held a 6 point lead in the waning seconds of the Tennessee game but were pinned against their own goal. On third down, Chow called a QB sneak to simply work the clock, with the idea that on 4th down the team would line up in punt formation and take a safety. A resulting free kick from the Bruin 20 would give Tennessee the ball 60 - 70 yards from the endzone needing a touchdown with a handful of seconds remaining and no timeouts.

This is where Rick gave our program a right cross. He overruled Chow on third down and called a naked bootleg pass, intent on picking up the first down and ending the game right then and there. Problem was, it only produced a safety and a broken jaw for our project of a starting QB. We know the Bruins won the game a few minutes later, but the ramifications of the broken jaw would stretch for weeks to come and will hang over the season for months yet.

The offense reverted to Craft, ending all forward progress for Prince and severely limiting the play calling options for Chow. The KSU game and the following bye week might've been ideal development time for a young offense and given Prince a quality start, but instead we got a wasted start and a glimpse of last year's team. The bye week following KSU was also wasted, as Prince could only watch while Craft took the snaps with the first team. At Stanford, the lack of offensive diversity turned a very winnable game into another dull and frustrating defeat. When Oregon came to the Rose Bowl, Prince returned with two days to prepare and it showed. His first pass bounced ten yards short of an open receiver, a bad omen of things to come.

Rick's call in Tennessee had the effect of fracturing the fragile development of the offense under the leadership of a freshman QB. Defeating both Stanford and Oregon with an offense finding it's stride was very plausible. Instead, we dropped those Pac-10 games and the upward arc of the season has been bent downward toward the Blue Carpet Bowl or worse.

Rick's call has Prince, the offense and all of us starting over again---from an 0 - 2 conference hole. We can only wait and hope that rhythm and confidence will soon appear. Had Rick locked his jaw on the sidelines of Tennessee, we may be witnessing it right now.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

In This FanPost

Teams

Trending Discussions