NFL

NFL Week 9: Four 4th Down Decisions

Keith Goldner  —  @keithgoldner Nov 5th, 2012
There were a plethora of interesting coaching decisions in this week's Steelers/Giants game. Mike Tomlin says he goes strictly based on feel.

numberFire.com Chief Analyst Keith Goldner occasionally takes a look at some of the big NFL decisions of the week and the advanced numbers behind them. Today, he takes a look at the Steelers vs. Giants game in Week 9.

Big Ben and Eli Manning faced off against each other Sunday, leading the teams that have won four of the last seven Super Bowls; Manning and Roethlisberger will always be linked as the No. 1 and No. 3 QBs taken in the 2004 NFL draft. Let's look at the plethora of interesting decisions between the coaches.

What first tickled my fancy was when the CBS announcer mentioned that, "Mike Tomlin says he makes all these decisions strictly on feel." This was before the Steelers went for it on 4th-and-1 from the Giants 48-yard line, down 7 in the second quarter. After I shuddered at the quote, I checked out the 4th-down calculator to confirm my notion that this was one of the easier football decisions to be made:

Want to read more about Mike Tomlin's gut feelings and other interesting coaching decisions? Check out Keith's full analysis at AdvancedNFLStats.com.