Sports – FiveThirtyEight — Fourth Down RSS



Wait, Was The Green Bay Field Goal The Right Call?

We start with the NFL conference championships. Josh Allen inarguably had a bad day, but there have been a lot of arguments about the Buffalo Bills repeatedly settling for 3 points during their loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Of course, the even louder takes were about the Green Bay Packers kicking a field goal […]

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Some Coaches Shy Away From Risk In The Playoffs. Not Andy Reid.

Late in the fourth quarter of the divisional playoff against the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City head coach Andy Reid was faced with a decision: punt the ball and hope that his defense would hold, or attempt to seal the victory by going for it on fourth-and-inches. If Reid’s all-world quarterback Patrick Mahomes had not left […]

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Scoring Is Way Up In The NFL. Which Teams Does That Help?

If you’ve watched the NFL this season and thought that there’s an awful lot of touchdowns being scored, you’re not wrong. Scoring is up across the NFL. Way up. Going into Week 5, teams had reached the end zone 371 times, the most through four weeks in NFL history. Teams are passing for 1.8 touchdowns […]

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NFL Coaches Are Finally Getting More Aggressive On Fourth Down

The Dallas Cowboys had a friendly home crowd and a prime-time audience on Sunday night — and just about everyone who watched them drop a critical game against the Minnesota Vikings blamed the fourth-down play calling. With less than two minutes left in the game, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott threw to tailback Ezekiel Elliott on […]

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The Cleveland Browns Made History — By Bungling A Fourth-And-9 Play

History was made on Sunday Night Football, but likely not the kind Cleveland Browns fans were hoping for. With 9:45 left in the fourth quarter and trailing 17-13, the Browns advanced to the Rams’ 41-yard line. A first-down run by Nick Chubb and two subsequent passes by Baker Mayfield netted Cleveland a single yard, and […]

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