I hate playing not to lose

[PantherBlue]

Not blaming Rivera, pretty much because every team does it, but do you ever wonder why with 5 minutes left in the game your Offense gets the ball and you change your game plan to run only, knowing that the Defense knows exactly what you are going to do. And then 3 plays later the Offense is giving up the ball AND most of the time, the game?

Teams are so afraid of an interception when they are leading at the end of a game that they would rather lose the game by going 3 and out.

That is the exact reason we lost. The Panthers got the ball 2 times in less than 5 minutes and they only got one first down, giving Atlanta every chance to come back and beat us. The reason why we only got one first down? ..because we did not throw the ball. So we lost an important game that could have given the team confidence and one game out of first in our division.

[Matthias]

If I remember correctly, in our first game with the Bucs, when they needed a first down to run out the clock, they threw the ball. The bottom line is, we had that Falcons defense on the ropes. They knew we wanted to run the clock out, so they are pretty much on their heels ready to defend against the run. We could have easily completed a couple of slants or short passes, that would have given us a first down no questions asked. If there is one thing I can stand about a coaching staff, is a coaching staff that goes ultra-consersative in a close game. We need a new staff pronto.

[TheGreatestOfAllTimeCam]

I knew when I saw them run three straight times we were going to lose in gut wrenching fashion... check the game thread for proof.