phipps@fortune.UUCP (Clay Phipps) (01/11/84)
I think there are two sides to the two-point conversion question:
o practicality
o honor
For practical reasons, Osborne should have gone for the tie.
This is because the only previously undefeated team in the country,
Texas, had been beaten a few hours before. A tie still leaves
them undefeated, and would certainly get them the national championship.
If you don't believe that lack of losses is important to voters,
consider how high Brigham Young has been in the rankings
most of the year -- the Top Ten, even though they played few teams
of note (only UCLA, as I recall). It's easy not to lose many games
if you don't play many powerful teams. Nebraska didn't play
many eventual bowl teams in the regular season, either.
For reasons of honor, the two point conversion for a win was the only choice.
People would be fully justified in calling him a coward (at best)
if he didn't go for it.
Another consideration is that going for the win restored some class
to a Nebraska team that looked like an obnoxious bully,
running up scores with its first team in in the fourth quarter
much of this season.
The one point conversion isn't certain, either. Ask Southern Cal fans
about how their last play "certain win" touchdown against Florida
this year gave them a tie when their special teams couldn't settle down
from high-fives and other forms of self-congratulation
to kick the winning conversion (the snap was botched, and the kick missed).
But if the decision were mine, it's easy -- go for two and the win.
I was just surprised that they tried the fast-developing play-action pass
to a flag route with the national championship in the balance;
something that gave them more time to get it right, like a triple option
(but a receiver running the same pattern) seems much better, although
it looked like they would have made it if Turner Gill had lofted the ball.
-- Clay Phipps
--
{allegra,amd70,cbosgd,dsd,floyd,harpo,hollywood,hpda,ihnp4,
magic,megatest,nsc,oliveb,sri-unix,twg,varian,VisiA,wdl1}
!fortune!phipps