One of my personal pet peeves with sports, and specifically football - is when a team is down by 10 points, and is driving down the field late in the game against a prevent defense. Let’s say they get down to the 25-ish yard line, and then the defense stiffens up.
Without fail, it seems as if the offense will spend most of the remaining time, trying to score a touchdown first. Even if successful, they often leave themselves almost no time to try and recover the onside kick, and to move down into subsequent field goal range. (unfortunately, no, I don’t have a specific ‘cite’ for any of this - it’s just my general perception)
Please give me an argument against the offense just stopping right there, attempting a 40-yard field goal with 1:00 left, and then trying their luck with the onside kick. It seems to me you leave yourself a better shot than scoring a touchdown with :15 left.
And on the topic of football pet peeves, don’t get me started on special teams who try downing punts on the 1-inch line (and watch the ball creep across the end-line), rather than just settling on the 3-yard line.
If you need a TD on the next drive, you have to go the whole distance. If you only need a FG, you only need to get to the 30 or so, and that takes a lot less time and luck.
You’ll need a TD anyway, so it’s better to do it when you have the time (and the timeouts) than when you’ll need a Hail Mary.
Because you don’t give up downs. TDs are a lot harder to score than FGs, and you may have to settle for a FG on the first drive. Why would you make it an inevitability?
The OP is right, but in the wrong time frame. With two minutes remaining of course you should go for the TD, unless and until you get into a fourth-and-distance scenario.
However, at ten seconds or fewer, you should stop and kick the FG. At that point, there is time for only two more plays. You need to score, recover the onside kick, and launch a Hail-Mary, whether you are down by 3 points or 7. So you might as well take the FG and give yourself a chance.
I believe this is one of the things that competitive Madden players have “figured out,” along with going for it way more often on fourth down.
When the only negative consequence of a decision is a loss, you can make more rational decisions than an NFL head coach. There’s psychology/media/job security associated with the real thing, but these players only want to win.
I believe the strategy is to try for the TD but if the defense puts you in any sort of difficult situation, you kick the figgie and try for the TD next time. There was a game last year where the team stubbornly refused to kick the FG and ended up scoring a TD with no time left on the clock. Well played, coach.
Look at it this way: You need a TD anyways. In which scenario is it easier to score a TD? First and 10 on the opponents 25, or First and 10 on your own 40?