Let the other team score? Packers should have.

Herman Edwards said it all. “You play to win the game!” Sometimes that involves going against the norm. Yes, time for my kids to roll their eyes since a story is coming.

When I coached softball we made quite a comeback, taking the lead in the top of the 6^th and final inning. But we were up against a clock and had to be off the field soon. I realized that if the home team didn’t get to bat, the entire inning would be wiped out and we would lose. So I had Avery strike out on purpose to end the inning and let the home team bat. Strike three literally rolled across the plate as Avery sheepishly swung half heartedly. We did end up losing, but it was the right thing to do.

Fast forward to last night and Packers’ coach Mike McCarthy was faced with the same kind of situation that I was years ago. Maybe not exactly, but I just like lumping myself into the same category at McCarthy. With the game tied at 17, the Bears had the ball inside the Packers’ 10 with a little over a minute left. With no clock stoppages, the Bears could run the clock down to 8 seconds left and take the lead with a field goal.

So the question becomes, should the Packers just let the Bears score a touchdown? The Bears would be up by a touchdown but the Packers would have over a minute left to score the tying touchdown and try to win in overtime.  The alternative is to try and stop the Bears and hope that either you can block the field goal or they just miss it. This was a day after the Saint’s Garrett Huntley missed a 29 yard field goal in overtime.

While it seems against everything coaches preach, the decision should have been to let the Bears score. That presented the Packers’ with their best chance to win, which is what Edwards reminded us is the reason you play. What’s interesting is that the Bears continued to run the ball instead of taking a knee. If the Packers’ best chance was for the Bears to score, then it makes sense that the Bears’ best chance was to  not score and let the clock run down before kicking the field goal. Once again Edwards plays a role. It was Edwards who picked up a fumbled hand off and returned it for the winning touchdown when the Giants chose to hand off instead of taking a knee with a lead against the Eagles years ago. The Bears could have fumbled while continuing to run plays.