4th and 1 on Buffalo's 21

[AceBoogie]

If there is one decision that will get Rivera fired it has to be this one. The offense drives down the field and take nearly 6 minutes off of the clock.

It's 3rd down with 5 yards to go and the call is to run it with Tolbert out of the shotgun. This play call tells me the decision had already been made to settle for a field goal.

With Buffalo calling their last time out, 1 yard wins you the football game. Once again Rivera played not to lose the game instead of playing to win the game.

But why? The offense was at full strength and had just moved the ball 59 yards down the field. You have Cam Newton and Mike Tolbert, two of the best short yardage runners in the game. When this secondary is healthy it isn't good and now half of them were in the locker room. Surely you wouldn't trust them to hold.

Yet Rivera takes the ball out of Cam Newton's hands and places it in the hands of EJ Manuel. He obviously lacked faith in both.

He was wrong

[Fiz]

fresh take

[mbarbour21]

I agree with this completely. Even if you miss the first down, you are still up. Have to go for it there.

[TANTRIC-NINJA]

Well said... That was not the time.

That cb mix up to lose the game is all too familiar.

[Eazy-E]

Signature Rivera. Defines his coaching tenure. Played just like ATL, NOLA and about 5 other recent loses. Guy is a gutless pussy who doesn't know how to win.

[ncsu12engr]

My problem was that they settled to run it 3 plays in a row. On 2nd down there the Bills were going to overplay the run. If we call a play action to Olsen we are going to get a first down easily. Like you said Rivera's biggest problem is that instead of playing to win he plays to not lose. 

[hepcat]

I mean yea, all Panthers fans know he should be fired.  This isn't the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh...time he's done something like that.  How many times does Ron "Took Too Many Hits To His Head During His Playing Career To Be A Head Coach" Rivera need to blow a game until he's fired?  You might still be able to salvage the season if you fire him now!

[Zod]

Pretty hard to argue against.

[Darth Biscuit]

Yep, this cost us the game.  Rivera doesn't have the coaching instinct to go for it in situations like this.  He'd rather take a meaningless FG and hope that our depleted defense can hold.  

 

Doesn't ever seem to work out does it?

[Zod]

How about a really quick lineup and a QB sneak.

 

Every other team in the league gets a yard easily that way. We have a mammoth QB in Cam Newton and do we try it? Hell no, its not even in the playbook. 

[SCP]

How about a really quick lineup and a QB sneak.

Every other team in the league gets a yard easily that way. We have a mammoth QB in Cam Newton and do we try it? Hell no, its not even in the playbook.

SHULA

[PANTHERBOI93]

Is he fired yet??

[teeray]

It was right call IMO.

[AceBoogie]

When your in a situation where a touchdown beats you even with the field goal you need to go for the win.