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Bonehead call may have cost Georgia the game today against Michigan State

In the Outback Bowl today, Michigan State came back to tie Georgia 27-27 to send the game to overtime. In their first possession, Spartans' quarterback Kirk Cousins was intercepted, so all Georgia needed to do was score some points, any points, to win the game. On the first play, the Bulldogs ran the ball for a yard to reach the 24-yard line. On the second play, the quarterback, Aaron Murray, centered the ball and went down. Head coach Mark Richt then sent the kicking team out to attempt a game-winning field goal of a little over 40 yards on 3rd down. The kicker had made just over 60% of his kicks on the season. For every 3 he made, he missed about 2. Yet, Richt played the ultra-conservative card, ran the ball on first down, centered it on 2nd and went for the three on 3rd, in case something wrong happened and they could attempt it again on 4th. It doesn't get much more conservative than that and it backfired. The field goal was missed and Georgia wound up losing 33-30 in triple overtime.

I don't understand why teams get so conservative in overtime if all they need is a field goal. Do with what has worked. This is especially the case if the kicker isn't very accurate. The last thing I'd want in that situation would be to place the game in the inconsistent kicker's hands (leg). The Dawgs offense had been pretty inconsistent in the game and was out of rhythm for most of the 2nd half, but were effective in both the running and passing game in spurts. In any case, their running and passing games were more consistent throughout the course of the season and just today's game than the kicking game. Playing prevent defense, running the ball up the middle constantly or just centering the ball in overtime for a field goal do more harm than good and often times prevent teams from winning football games.
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