I'm sorry if any of these facts are incorrect but I believe that, late in the 4th quarter, it was Pittsburgh leading 20-14 and pinned back deep in their own side of the field. I think it was on 3rd and 10 that they committed a hold in their own endzone and, therefore, gave up a safety. Hypothetically, if that 3rd and 10 were an incomplete pass, should Pitt have run the ball out of the back of the endzone, intentionally allowing a safety, rather than punt from deep in their endzone? The two points wouldn't matter, since the Cardinals still needed a TD whether they were down 20-14 or down 20-16. But the safety would allow them a free kick without a rush rather than a pressure punt from the back of the endzone. Of course, it was all a moot point since they did end up giving up a safety and then scored their own TD in the final seconds. But since I always find intricacies in NFL strategy fascinating, and I've never seen a team intentionally allow a safety before, I thought I'd pose this question to everyone and see what you think.
There is a very good chance that if the 3rd down play was an incomplete pass, the Steelers would have had Mitch Berger run out of the back of the end zone on 4th down for a safety. The Cardinals blocked punt touchdown in overtime vs Dallas had to have been on the mind of Mike Tomlin. Teams have intentionally allowed safeties in the past. New England did it at Denver on 11/3/03. Denver did it vs Cleveland in the 1987 AFC Championship Game. Jets did it vs Bengals on 11/21/93.
If nothing was open it would have been samrt to take the S as the 2 pts were meaningles at that point and they would ahve been punting from the 20 instead. I was thinking the same thing until they completed that pass.
On that 3rd down play I was thinking that it would make a ton of sense to do that. They were up by 6, so at that point Arizona still would have had to score a touchdown to win it even with the safety. And the Cardinals ended up having to go probably 20-30 yards further than they would have had Pitt just punted it. That didn't bother Larry Fitzgerald though.
The Saints took an intentional safety vs. San Diego in London this year, Brees ran back and threw the ball out the back of the endzone.
I’ve always screamed about people not using the safety when they should…you see it all the time. The colts this year were a classic example. Pinned on the 1 with time running out they had a 3 point lead and decide to punt. You are punting the ball back in field goal range when you do that…you are playing for a tie. I say take the safety, hold on to the 1 point lead, kick that son of a bitch deep and see if your defense has any balls.
The Colts taking a safety in that psot makes little sense since the would ahve given SD 2 pts and a FG then costs Indy the game instead of sending it to OT.
Makes more sense than giving a tie away when your quarterback is Eli?s brother in the playoffs?it?s not like you have a reasonable chance to score any points. I?d rather kick it deep and let the defense try to win it than Peyton (in the playoffs) any day.
