I didn't remember so I looked it up on the ESPN play-by-play and they punted with 2:36 left in the game, down by two scores. What was the strategy/thinking there? Barring some extremely unlikely events it is almost mathematically impossible to win in that situation. Later last night I saw a Patterson quote when he was asked about it and he said something like "I know how to manage games" but you have to make the 4th down attempt there I think
Post-game studio crew said it showed them he had no confidence in their D to stop us if they didn't get the 1st down.
I was in disbelief when I saw the punt team come out. I had two immediate thoughts. A) He gave up or B) he was so shell shocked by his elite horny toads being dismantled by Texas, I mean we talkin' bout Texas, that he just made a mistake. One thing I will never believe is down by two TD's he made a calculated decision to punt to give his team the best chance to win. I believe he didn't want to lose 38-16 so his best chance to minimize the damage was to punt.....aka quit.
But by punting it's the same thing — asking their D to stop us, just with more favorable field position for them.
Sounded like they thought he had given up. They weren’t defending it, just giving a possible explanation.
Patterson knows most pollsters do not watch the games, they just look at the scores. 31-16 looks a lot better than 38-16 I guess. USC did the same thing last week.
He claimed he was still playing to win. They had TOs left and he wanted to flip the field. That implies he thought they had a better chance of recovering an onsides kick than picking up 4th and 4. That's just the excuse he made up to try to convince his team he didn't quit. The reality is he quit.
