Having been officiating lots of games this month, I've had plenty of opportunity to observe coaches and how they employ game strategies and manage end of game situations. And in my estimation, there have been some really questionable decisions. Let's enumerate a few... A couple weeks ago I was working a high school football game where the home team was ahead late in the game 14-7. They had just stopped the visitors on 4th down and took over possession in or near the red zone with about 1:00 remaining on the game clock. The visitors were completely out of timeouts and so the logical conclusion is the home team would win by taking a knee two or three times to end the game. Wanna guess what the home team coach decided to do?? He had his squad running a hurry up offense. After the first two downs of the possession, they gained yardage close to the goal line for positioning into a potentially two-possession lead. On the third play, they fumbled the ball into the hands of a defender who raced with the ball down into the opposite red zone. Now only 4 seconds remained on the clock and the visitors had a final offensive play with the chance to pull off a stunning comeback either to tie or win the game! On that final play, their pass into the end zone fell incomplete. The question still remains! Why would a coach not simply "take a knee" and run out the clock for the win?? Again, there was a youth football game I was working about a week ago. There was a similar scenario. The team with the ball in the final minute of play was ahead by two points andin position to win by simply taking a knee. Instead, they pushed to score a touchdown, which they did, and then failed to convert on the PAT attempt. So now they were up 8 points and had to kickoff to their opponents, thus giving them another chance at a tying score. Is this bad coaching or is it just me? Now here's the final game situation... And in my book, this one really takes the cake!! Last weekend, the Steelers had possession, down by two scores (a touchdown and field goal would put them back in the game)! Coach Tomlin elected NOT to go for a field goal with time winding downwhile his offense had put them in range. He even "went for it" on 4th down instead of kicking the field goal. Why not get the points and then give your special teams the chance to recover an on-side kick to put your team in position to tie or get the win?? We're talking about NFL coaching here!? One thing I do know is that this isn't the philosophy of Bill Parcells. He had a similar situation a few years ago and talked about his strategy after the game. Had he not gotten an unexpected touchdown run by Julius Jones in his Cowboys game against the Seahawks, he would have settled for the field goal try to get that first needed score. As it turned out, he got the touchdown and then had the chance for the win after recovering the on-side kick. One thing that seperates great coaches from the rest is knowing how to manage and prepare for end of game situations. Are not the examples given here simply bad coaching or am I missing something? Is it just me?