Darren Rizzi will make his head coaching debut this upcoming week against the Atlanta Falcons, but if his debut was against the Carolina Panthers, he would have done at least one thing differently.
The New Orleans Saints were faced with a fourth and one in the fourth quarter at their own 46. Dennis Allen tried to draw the Panthers offsides. When it didn’t work, the Saints took the delay of game to give Matthew Hayball more space for the kick.
Rizzi may be a special teams guy, but he would have kept Derek Carr and the offense out to go for it. Not only does Rizzi disagree with Allen’s choice, he believes it is the objectively wrong call.
“I think the draw offsides play was a bad call,” Rizzi said on WWL Radio Monday night. He explained his thought process through analytics. “I think analytics tell you to go for it there.”
In addition to analytics, the flow of the game suggested to go for it as well. You’re up five points with a little more than five minutes left near midfield. You just followed up your second touchdown drive with an amazing interception. This felt like a chance to put the Panthers away.
From this quote, the change at head coach could lead to a more aggressive attitude and possibly more of a reliance on analytics.
