Memo to John Fox
 

Dear Mr. Fox,

When facing Fourth and 1 deep in your opponent's territory, please feel free to make use of your future Hall of Fame quarterback to pick up the needed yardage.

Otherwise, keep up the good work.

Yours,
OCBronco

Yeah, that was an unexpected but very bad call.....then again people have been b****ing about Fox being so conservative.

Best advice is identify your play makers and keep the ball in their hands....and the only one on the team that should be throwing a pass is Manning (barring injury of course)

This required a whole thread?

I think it does. Roll with Manning throwing the ball on 4th down, not Prater.

:giggle:

It really was a terrible time to call a fake.

4th and inches, 53 yard field goal.

If ever there was a time for the Raiders to be alert to the fake this was it, really not a good call.

I agree. Had the raiders put out a decent team instead of a high school caliber team this could've hurt them. Luckily the raiders are among the worst in the league.

Of course it does. Prater makes those kicks all the time, especially in Denver, and if they were really set on going for it, a play with the regular offense was infinitely more likely to succeed. It was one of the stupidest coaching decisions I've ever seen, and definitely deserves a thread.

Here's a question.

Once Prater realized that the Raiders had sniffed it out, could he have punted? Would that be a legal move?

You'd imagine he could have advanced it twenty yards or so down there with a quick kick out of his hands, then the ball maybe rolls down close to the goal line or maybe one of the Raiders even tries to field it in the confusion and ends up turning it back over.

Yes. Any player can punt at any time on any down as long as they are behind the line of scrimmage.

Elway was an accomplished "pooch punter" back in the day.

Yeah, that was a horrible call. HORRIBLE.
4th and inches, freakin stupid to call a fake field goal there.

But, if it worked, he'd be a genius! :~ohyah!:

It was a blown fake, Prater was not supposed to throw it actually. read something on Denverpost.com about it.

we need more data on this one,just haven't seen enough prater throws to know if he should be the one passing on 4th and one or not.

Your first point is exactly right. We'd be talking about how ballsy Fox is if it had been converted. I don't have a problem with it one bit. I like us being a little unconventional, a little aggressive. I feel the same way about the early 4th down conversion we had before that.

Because the fact is, no player or coach in the history of football has been 100% on fourth down conversions. Just because Manning has the ball doesn't mean a conversion will happen. You have to take the bad with the good. I want more of that rather than 3 yards and a cloud of dust, then punt.

To your second point, you're correct. Prater was supposed to run the ball, but when the guy from the Raiders charged at him, he said he wanted to at least give Beadles a chance at it. Actually a somewhat head's up play from Prater, although a pooch punt would have been better.

fox laughed about it in his post game presser and said this one wont happen again for awhile.

"Would've" is the key word here. Would've worked and he'd be a genius. But it didn't work. Why? Cause manning was on the sidelines and Prater was throwing the ball. Taking manning off the field and using a kicker to convert a 1st down is just not smart. Even if it had worked.

If it was 4th and 8 I'd agree.. it was the distance that was the problem. To me you put in Osweiler and run a sneak. Or hand it off and pick up those inches. It was like a foot...

If he'd have punted it wouldn't Beadles have been flagged for illegal man downfield?

if only we had tebow..

OT: I thought it was funny Fox was chatting it up with Manning when Prater nailed that 53 yarder. Fox wasn't paying attention to the kick, and was happy with Manning when Prater nailed it.

Like I've said. Prater is the 1st guy where I can go to the fridge during a FG kick and not even worry about the kick since Elam.

Prater, u da man!

Fair enough. And to clear up my previous point, I'm not saying we should try fake FG's every game. But for me, I'm never going to penalize the guy for being aggressive. Would Manning have been a better option? Yeah, clearly. But in general, go Fox.

prater started off poorly last year didnt he? missed some 40 yarders i believe so his % wasnt great.

When it comes to calling the right play at the right time Fox/MaCoy are no Mike Shanahan.

damn dood, u rain on my parade. I'm happy with Prater.

He missed two 40-49 yards and one 50+ in sept/oct last year.

This year? He hasn't missed a kick.

Tynes just missed a 54 yard FG twice.

Prater would have nailed it.