Should Walsh and Cal Poly have gone for it on fourth down?

Tim Walsh said that over five yards was too much to risk going for it on fourth down with the game on the line Saturday. By Owen Main

With just over four minutes left on Saturday night, Tim Walsh had a decision to make. Cal Poly had just gone down seven points to Arizona State. The Mustangs got all the way to the Arizona State 42 yard-line and had a third down with four yards to go.

Cal Poly ran a sweep to the right side and DJ Peluso lost two yards, bringing up a fourth and six at the ASU 44. With all his timeouts, Walsh sent on the punt team. The Sun Devils started their drive at the 14, but went 86 yards in five plays and sealed their home victory.

“If it had been under five [yards] I probably would have went for it. With six or seven [yards], and they were really starting to pressure us and it puts a lot of pressure on us when we have to throw the ball. I wish it would have been fourth and three or four and it would have made my decision a lot easier. Like I said before, yeah, sometimes we’re going to have some calls that I wish we had back, but the reality of the situation, probably the right call. We got them pinned inside the 20 yard-line and if we get a stop — our defense had played well for most of the night — we get a stop and we get the ball back with two timeouts or three timeouts and who knows what happens,” said Walsh.

The more interesting statement came right after that and answered preemptively a question about what Cal Poly would have done had they scored a fourth touchdown.

“At that point, we were gonna go for two,” said Walsh.

That would have been fun.