Fisher's Punt Call Blows Chance for Upset

I'd love to hear Jeff Fisher talk his way out of this one. That is, if anyone would seriously question him. 

With about 4 minutes to go, the Titans were down 6, with the ball, on about their own 30. Fourth-and-1. Punt. This was the wrong call.

We had just forced Peyton Manning to go three-and-out -- what were the odds of stopping him again? Not good. 

You'd probably say that you'd hate to give the Colts the ball on our 30. It would basically guarantee defeat.  But if you punt and still allow a score (they had scored on 5/8 possessions up to that point), you not only allow time to run off the clock, but you also have to use your timeouts... and you probably leave the field in  defeat. 

Either way, we needed a TD and to not allow any points. The best way to do that is to keep the ball, not punt it back to Peyton. Either that drive or the next one was going to be our last effort. And presumably a last effort drive is going to require a fourth down conversion. This was fourth-and-1, the easiest of all fourth downs. Why not go ahead and make this our final drive? What's the difference? Fisher basically bet that his defense had a better chance of stopping Manning than his offense did of gaining one single yard. Come on. 

Last year, you might remember, Bill Belicheck and the Patriots were in a similar situation against the Colts. They had the ball around their own 30 near the end of the game. They needed points and faced fourth-and-two. Belicheck chose to go for it. Due to a bad spot (and arguably a bad play call), they didn't get it. 

At first, the football analysts questioned his decision. Then they questioned it some more. We were hearing about that call for the entire week. But Belicheck knew what he was doing. He liked the chances of his offense getting two yards better than of his defense stopping Peyton Manning. Statistics gurus around the web did their thing and validated: Belicheck made the right call. It didn't work, but it was the right call.

If Fisher had chosen to go for it, there's no guarantee we would have gotten it. There's even less of a guarantee we would have scored a touchdown on the drive. But going for it was the right call and no one is going to question Fisher's decision... as usual. 

I mean, Bill Belicheck got criticism for that call. BILL BELICHECK. And that was for making the RIGHT call. What criticism is Jeff Fisher going to get for making the wrong call?

Probably none. 

Because if you've taken a team to the playoffs 5 times in 17 years and have 1 Super Bowl appearance, you must be right. Right?

Thursday Night Musings

1. LeBron is playing in Cleveland tonight. First of all, the fans don't owe him anything. He earned hundreds of millions of dollars playing for them. He earned worldwide fame. He became one of the best players in the league. And then he planned a huge spectacle to tell everyone that he was leaving them. I don't have a problem with any negativity they throw his way all night. He's a professional athlete getting paid millions of dollars. He can deal with it.

In fact, I'm watching just to hear them boo. I want to see and hear the most outrageous coordination of boo-chanting in the history of sports. I have a feeling it will be a letdown in that regard, but that's why I'm watching.

2. The Heat in general have been a letdown. There is a lot of trash being thrown at Coach Spolstra, but I think the issue is that LeBron and Wade are having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that they can't play together. Sure, when they were on Team USA it was easy. No one cared about how many points you scored, you only played a handful of games, and you were playing against (mostly) inferior competition. Oh, and you both knew you weren't the Alpha Dog (that was Kobe and they all knew it), so it was easy for you to accept your roles and play together. But now you're back home in the NBA and things are a little different. And you don't know how to play together.

Maybe they are going to figure it out. I'd be surprised if they've already resigned themselves to thinking they just cannot do it. But they certainly don't want to let people know that's what they're thinking. That after all that hype, they both realize they kinda sort made a bad decision.

Or maybe they'll start winning when Pat Riley starts coaching.

3. Tony Kornheiser offered the explanation that the NFL decided not to suspend Andre Johnson because the Texans' next game was on the NFL's Network and Johnson is basically the only draw to that team. Granted, Mike Vick is also playing, and he's probably been the most talked about positive story in the NFL this year (it's a shame Brett Favre and the Cowboys got more attention for so long). But it's a pretty reasonable point. As Adam Schefter said -- if that fight had happened on the street, they would have been arrested. Andre Johnson was openly pummeling Cortland Finnegan in the face! How is that not a suspension? Didn't Kyle Turley get suspended just for throwing his helmet?

GAME TIME. THE RETURN OF LEBRON!