Hue Jackson never considered going for it on 4th-and-inches vs. the Raiders, and he was right this time
Jackson didn’t punt because he was worried about pushing his luck. He punted because it made sense.
When Carlos Hyde’s first-down run late in the fourth quarter was overturned on replay, Browns head coach Hue Jackson had a decision to make. Would he make the bold call to go for it on fourth-and-inches at his own 18-yard line while protecting a 42-34 lead? Or would he punt the ball back to the Raiders and make them march down the field with 84 seconds left and no timeouts for the opportunity to tie the game?
Jackson went with the latter, opting to put the game’s agency in Oakland’s hands. It didn’t work out.
Derek Carr drove his team to a game-tying touchdown and two-point conversion. Three drives and eight-plus minutes of overtime later, Cleveland saw its chance to record its first winning streak since November 2014 sail through the uprights in a 45-42 defeat.
But the 2-33-1 head coach didn’t second guess the risks he took Sunday — which included three straight two-point conversion attempts to start the game and a fourth-and-6 conversion at the Oakland 39 — or the one he didn’t take late in the fourth quarter.
“I was aggressive at the right times early,” Jackson told reporters in his Monday press conference. “I’ve been touching lady luck all day going for 2. I told our team last week, I don’t want to play with our hands behind our backs anymore.”
Jackson discounted rolling that let-it-roll strategy into a potential game-sealing fourth-down conversion deep in his own territory, however.
“No. The ball was at the 18-yard line. We miss it, then there goes. They are going to tie.” When pressed on the issue, Jackson dug in deeper.
“Yeah, but why not punt them down there and make it as tough as you can? It did not enter my mind. You asked, I would not do it.”
But should he have?
Jackson is absolutely right about the risk he never even considered. When he called for the punt team on fourth-and-inches, his Browns had a 94.5 percent win probability. It was either going to take an epic drive or a catastrophic collapse to give Oakland a reasonable shot to escape with a victory. Getting stonewalled on fourth down inside your own red zone would qualify as the latter.
On the other hand, Jackson understood the concerns with punting the ball away. He knew his special teams coverage was a problem, even admitting as much Monday when mouthed a quiet “mmm hmmm” as a reporter called his punt coverage “awful for the past four weeks.”
He also knew Dwayne Harris was capable of returning the ball deep into Cleveland territory. The veteran special teamer had made two fair catches in return duty that afternoon, but his other three returns to that point had gone for 72 yards, including a 49-yarder the last time the Browns kicked to him.
So it wasn’t especially surprising to see Harris scoop up this punt and run it all the way to the Raider 47.
Even then, Oakland still had to cover 53 yards in under 90 seconds, and the club’s previous effort didn’t inspire confidence. The Raiders’ last drive had fallen short when Carr threw back-to-back incompletions on third and fourth down from the Cleveland 9 that weren’t catchable balls. That performance — and a defense that, accounting for turnovers, had only given up 20 points through 58 minutes — only made the decision to punt easier.
So Jackson played it safe, not long after Frank Reich messed around on fourth down inside his own territory and cost his team a tie in the Texans-Colts 1pm game. Knowing what we know now — and how Week 4 just served as a reminder of how heartbreaking the Browns can still be — it’s easy to second guess the decision. But at the time, it made sense for Cleveland.
Which is something you can’t always say about the Hue Jackson era.