Playing To Win Or Playing Not To Lose?

It seems obvious that in the final minutes of all these losses when the Hawks were ahead and could have put the opposing team away, a conservative no-risk strategy was adopted and this resulted in constant three-and-outs that gave the ball back to the opposition who took the opportunity and beat us - this is playing not to lose.

The blame and outrage for these final-minute failures has been heaped on Bevell, the OC -- everyone seems to forget that it is the Head Coach who reviews and approves the various strategies and particularly the no-risk approach at the end of games when we are ahead.

Bevell does what PC tells him to do.

John Cooper Ohio State is what this reminds me of.

The defense was sending blitzers and doing their usual base defenses on the back end in the 4th quarter, so I can't fully commit to the playing not to lose idea.

IMO it's a combo of execution, continued communication error, and fire in the bellies, especially the LOB (Sherman).

Teams have figured out some schemes and formations that are giving our D fits right now, and it's not getting fixed, plain and simple.

Kris Richard, you're on notice homey.

Pete has finished hundreds of games. He hasn't forgotten how. We're just not playing well in the fourth quarter, and in the last two weeks, you could see Newton and Dalton coming alive and knew we were in trouble.l