“What are you doing!?!” could be heard across Louisiana in the late stages of the second quarter on Saturday night.
With 15 seconds to go before halftime, LSU used a timeout. Facing 4th and 2 from the 12-yard line, kicking the field goal and cutting the deficit to four seemed like the right call.
But the analytics told Coach Brian Kelly to go for it. On Tuesday, Kelly admitted he should have overruled the analytics department.
“The mistake that I made on that, is that we didn’t have enough time on the clock to get in four plays, so analytics is also looking at how many plays can you get in to make that 4th and 2 worthwhile, even if we got it, with only one time out and the time left on the clock, it would not have given us the maximum opportunity on that go that was a mistake on my part, we should have kicked the field goal in that situation,” Kelly said.
Instead, LSU ran a screen pass to Chris Hilton, who fumbled the ball trying to get upfield. The Tigers went into the locker room down by a touchdown, instead of four points.
But the time management mistake didn’t cost the Tigers.
Barion Brown’s touchdown catch in the third quarter that was ruled an incomplete pass also didn’t cost the Tigers a victory. It appeared Brown possessed the ball across the goal line, but when he hit the ground out of bounds, he bobbled the ball.
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Kelly said the officials correctly applied the rule, but the rule needs to be changed.
“Rules are made to be changed,” Kelly said.
When Caden Durham scored his touchdown to tie the game, the ball came out, but it was after the ball crossed the goal line.
The rule shouldn’t be different for receivers and running backs.