The Onside Kick is Overrated!

Okay, this is now two weeks in a row where coaches with timeouts available chose to go with an onside kick instead of the smarter move of kicking it deep.  For the record, an onside kick is a great tool when used correctly and at the right time.  Desperate times mean desperate measures and an onside kick is more than a reasonable option.  I just think that it is being done in the wrong situations, especially in last week's case.

In the Baltimore game versus Jacksonville, with a 2 minute warning and 2 timeouts left down by 2. Now every one in the world knows they are going to run it 3 times in a row and make them use their timeouts.  The last thing that anybody was expecting was Jack Del Rio to put the ball in the hands of the Blaine Gabbert.  So instead of sending them back to the 20, which Raven kicker Billy Cundiff is more than capable of, was the best option in my mind.  As we saw, the Ravens had a nice onside kick that didn't make it ten yards and the Jaguars only needed a couple of yards to get into field goal range, which gave them a 5 point lead and now forced the Ravens inept offense to have to score a touchdown the length of the field.  To say the least, it didn't work out well.  So, John Harbaugh chose to put the ball in the hands of his inept offense as opposed to his defense, which is op ranked against a hapless offense.  Most people would choose the opposite in my opinion.

Last night, I can agree a little bit more with the Patriots choosing to go with the onside kick, but I still think it was the wrong option.  In this case, I don't think Belichick trusted his defense to stop the Steeler offense, but at the minimum go with a better onside kick as that was a terrible attempt.  With the amount of time that was left on the clock, I think you need to show faith in your defense and try to get the ball back in decent field position when a touchdown is needed.  I just feel that the onside kick is too much of a risk in these situations when there are timeouts available and you have a defense that is good enough to stop most teams, which I feel the Patriots are.  The Steelers were not going to spread it out on first and second down, it would either of been a run or play action, which the Patriots are capable of stopping.  The onside kick option looks especially bad when a statistic shows up on a board stating that the Patriots have not had a successful onside kick since 1994.

In my opinion, let us keep the onside kick as an option to be used as a situational surprise earlier in the game or as a desperate measure at the end of the game.  When you have a capable defense and timeouts available, give your defense a shot.