Where was Deuce?
It is 1st and goal and you are inside the 2 yard line. Deuce is standing on the sidelines. You fail. You fail on 2nd and goal as well. Now you have 3rd and goal with inches to go. Still standing on the sidelines is Deuce, the man who can move a pile foward a yard and muscle his way into the endzone. So why not play him?
It is 3rd and 1 with about 2 minutes left to play. You need to make a first down so you can try and get a closer field goal. Deuce still stands on the sidelines. Why?
I like Pierre Thomas, but he was the wrong choice for those plays when you have a tank in Deuce available.
Coach Payton says:
I think we would have been hard pressed to put Deuce in there when he hasn’t carried and say, “go get us a yard.”
Couldn’t have ended up worse than how it did… could it? I mean, getting stopped on 4th and goal and having to settle for a 48 yard field goal when Deuce probably could have stepped up. And if you are not going to put Deuce in, how about running a bootleg or two?
Oh, and I had to say that it seems like the gold pants didn’t work this week and Reggie Bush, even with his giveaway, did a good job with 148 total yards and 2 TD.