Playing to win

Okay, how many of you are on the Fort Scott Greyhound bandwagon?

How many of you are waiting until after this weekend?

Just checking.

I've heard a couple of people talk about how the Greyhounds run plays at the end of a game playing, "not to lose."

I don't know about you, but I think there are differing opinions of what "playing not to lose" is.

When the Greyhounds are running plays near the end of a game that seem to be doing nothing because they're only gaining two or three years, step back and consider the big picture.

What's important in a 10- or 14-point game is not so much how much you gain but how much time you can use while doing it. Taking over at your own 40 and running three running plays will consume at least 75 seconds. Add in the times the play themselves take to run, the hangtime of the punt on fourth down and how long it takes to return it and even if you don't move the ball very far, you've still burned a bit more than two minutes.

There's a big difference in giving a team six minutes to score at midfield and giving them 3 1/2 minutes to score from their own 10-yard line.

"Playing not to lose" is when you know your team is overwhelmed and you, as a coach, can't trust the players to make the kind of plays that win games. This is clearly not the case with the Greyhounds when they hunker down.

If you can burn two-plus minutes, then pin the other team back deep against THAT defense, you're definitely showing trust. Trust that your running back and quarterback won't fumble. Trust in your punter to put the ball where it needs to be. Trust in the coverage team and, most importantly, trust in your defense.

That doesn't sound like "playing to lose." At least not to me.

Check the sports poll and make a vote. Let's see what you think.