I don’t like the call. I hear his reasoning, Ive heard it before, I still don’t like it. The reasoning is too linear.
You not only give your team the knowledge of whether it’s going to be a one or two score game, you provide the opposing club that same insight as well. So, if you miss, you give the opposition a two score lead AND the strategic advantage of knowing it. A strategic advantage that can be used to prioritize working the clock, a strategic advantage that doesn’t exist if you wait.
Secondly, it changes the momentum for a team that feels you applying the noose around their necks. You want them to feel the margin of error slipping away from them. A margin of error you instantly gift them with a miss. Let the enemy feel maximum pressure for a minute, the pressure that only comes with a one possession game to see if they fold. Intangibles are real. Math can’t account for everything.
This doesn’t even address the possibility of another quick score by Atlanta that changes the dynamic completely. What if they kick a quick FG and now you are down 12 instead of 11 with around 4 minutes left. Big difference.
Reasonable minds can disagree, but I’m staying old school on this one.