Did Denver make a strategic mistake by electing to receive in OT? I think so
 

I believe that Denver won the OT coin toss and elected to receive and I think this was a mistake if you ignore hindsight. Due to the overtime playoff rules, if you believe that your defense is more than likely to give up a touchdown in one possession, then you should receive but in most cases you should choose to kick.

Think about college football OT; when you win the toss you always choose to start on defense so that the offense knows what they need. If the other team fails to score, a field goal wins so you can go conservative and kick once you are in confident range rather than running more plays and risking a turnover. If the other team scores a TD then you know that you are in 4-down mode from the start. This of course does not apply to the NFL but the end objective is still the same.

I know that a TD in NFL playoff OT ends the game on the first possession but if you hold them to zero or a field goal, then you do know what your offense has to do. The difficulty in strategy comes in when you face say a 4th and short at say around the 35. Try the long FG to stay alive or get the first down to try and win while risking that you’ll lose if you don’t convert but that’s a whole nother discussion.

Well less than half of NFL possessions result in a touchdown (anyone know the %?) so it seems to me that the proper strategy is to choose to kick off rather than receive when you win the OT coin toss.

Of course Denver scored a TD on their first possession and won but I'm talking about general strategy that maybe some coaches have not given a lot of thought to but I'm sure BB has.

If this has already been discussed, please delete this thread.

Re: Did Denver make a strategic mistake by electing to receive in OT? I think so
 

LOL no.

In the 2nd half Pittsburgh was driving up and down the field with ease. You said it yourself. And it is different than college football 80 yards>20 yards.

Re: Did Denver make a strategic mistake by electing to receive in OT? I think so
 

I have to say no. Because Pittsburgh outscored Denver 17-3 in the 2nd half and were likely to score another touchdown. I also believe Pittsburgh dominated time of possession in the 2nd half which makes Denver's D slightly more tired.

Besides, I think you always want your offense out there because you never know if you are going to get a stop from the D.

Re: Did Denver make a strategic mistake by electing to receive in OT? I think so
 

Huh? They won the game on the first play from scrimmage - how is that a mistake? Even if they didn't score as they did, they had the opportunity to go down the field first, and if they score, game over. Even if they just kick a figgie, if their defense holds, game over. How can a team take such a chance? If you think your D is good, then elect to receive, at least get a field goal and then let your D hold the other team.

Re: Did Denver make a strategic mistake by electing to receive in OT? I think so
 

I think they proved that receiving is always going to be the better option. When one mistake can end the game, you want the ball first. This isn't college where you're gauranteed a possession.

Re: Did Denver make a strategic mistake by electing to receive in OT? I think so
 

The fact that you can lose in 1 play says you always take the ball first. If you can put up a FG at the minimum, you know you're pretty safe.

I would never choose to give the opponent a chance to beat me before I had the chance to beat them, you are purposely giving them the initiative, you never do that in a battle.

Denver scoring that 80 yard TD pretty much guaranteed that nobody will ever elect to play defense first. You are overthinking and over complicating the new rules in order to develop a new strategy, nothing has changed, only one portion of the 'sudden death' element has been eliminated, and as long as that is the case, I would NEVER choose to be on the defensive side of that battle.

I also think that in most OT games, when a team scores on a first possession, they move into FG range quite easily and probably could have scored a TD if they desired, but never had to. Kicking a FG was just a faster and easier way to finish because there was no need for a TD.

Re: Did Denver make a strategic mistake by electing to receive in OT? I think so
 

Denver made the right decision. You cannot evaluate strategy in a vacuum. Pittsburgh had been dominating the second half. Under the circumstances chances are fairly high that if Denver had deferred they would have never seen the ball again. On top of that Tebow ended the game so second-guessing is pretty useless at this point. We will face Denver next. Prepare accordingly. The Pats should aim to score early and often so it doesn't come down to OT where anything can happen.

Re: Did Denver make a strategic mistake by electing to receive in OT? I think so
 

One other thing to factor in is that by receiving you are giving your defense a little extra time to catch their breath, while at the same time not letting the opposing defense have that time to rest. I think overall the benefits to receiving the ball in overtime outweigh the benefit of knowing exactly how many points you need to score.

Re: Did Denver make a strategic mistake by electing to receive in OT? I think so
 

Ummm......No

Re: Did Denver make a strategic mistake by electing to receive in OT? I think so
 

You always want to be the ones in a position to put pressure on the other team.

If you score a TD or a FG they are under the gun and that's what you want - players feeling the pressure.

Or you can also get a first play 80 yard TD catch and run and win the game outright.