Mike Kafka Defends ‘aggressive’ 4th Down Call In Giants’ Overtime Loss To Lions

The Giants, who had used two trick plays for touchdowns to take a 10-point lead over the Lions in the fourth quarter, had the ball on Detroit's six-yard line with 2:58 to go and a decision to make: Kick a short field goal to go up by six or roll the dice and try and ice the game with a touchdown?

Mike Kafka, in his second game as New York’s interim head coach, decided to go for the kill shot.

“Yeah, we did want to be aggressive,” the interim head coach said after Sunday's game. “Just thought it was a good time to take points in that situation. Go up two scores and just hit a good flow. Wanted to just go up two scores."

The public analytics data was divided on the decision. Ben Baldwin's 4th down bot recommended kicking the field goal, a decision that would have netted the Giants 6.5 percent of win probability. ESPN's Seth Walder recommended going for it, a decision that would add 7.1 percent of win probability.

The result: Jameis Winston’s pass to tight end Theo Johnson fell incomplete. The Lions used 13 plays to pick up 53 yards to get Jake Bates in position to make a 59-yard game-tying field goal, a new career-long. In overtime, a 69-yard touchdown run by Jahmyr Gibbs proved to be the difference in the 34-27 loss as Winston was sacked on a 4th down play at the Lions 27.

"We are desperate for a win,” Winston, who threw for 366 yards and two scores and caught another one, said. “That's one of the things I was echoing in the locker room, let's be desperate for a victory. This is one of the best teams in the NFL. 

“We came here on a mission, and we didn't complete that mission. We have to find a way, and whatever it takes, we are willing and able to do it."

Kafka, who is auditioning for the Giants’ job and also the 31 other teams around the league, sounded like a coach looking to demonstrate his mindset, a mindset he hopes to impart on the team he is at least provisionally in charge of.

“We're just trying to score as many points as possible and try to win the game,” he said. “So, if we're going to be aggressive on fourth down, that means we like the play-call, like what we want to do. I think there are times in the game when you take that into consideration, 'When do you want to kick the field goal? When do you want to go for touchdown?' 

“I thought all game we had really good consensus and really good communication with the entire staff, our game management crew on when we wanted to be aggressive and be calculated when we could go for fourth downs and take shots at the end zone."

The veteran quarterback, making his second start of the season, put the blame on himself for not executing Kafka’s aggressive call.

"There's so many ifs, ands, and buts,” the quarterback said. “My pass to the right to Theo Johnson, if it is four inches to the left, that's a touchdown, and we finish the game."

Winston added about Kafka: "He's been doing phenomenal. He's been doing phenomenal. He's an excellent head coach. He's poised, he's confident. We have to help him out, myself included."

Two of those ifs came on the two plays preceding the 4th down, two plays that they would want to have back: A 2nd down incompletion and a 3rd down run that lost four yards.

“We were on the three-yard line with the chance to put the freaking nail in the coffin. And I missed Theo Johnson on the quick flat,” Winston said about the first play. “That is the details. That is the execution that is required to win tough NFL games.”

Kafka added that losing yardage impacted the decision, but didn’t doubt the call: “Our decision was a correct one. I stand by it. We took [a chance] to go up 10 points."

In the first half, Kafka went with a different option, kicking a 21-yard field goal from the Detroit three to go up 10-0 in the first quarter. Did that decision factor into the later one?

“You just take every situation within itself. That one play you focus on where you're at in the game for that,” he said. “You don't try to make decisions based on previous plays or results. So, we just went with our numbers and what we felt confident in that situation for that play.”

But it all goes down as another instance this season in which the Giants had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter but came out with a loss. Kafka disagreed with the sentiment that it was the “same old story.”

“I think we had an opportunity at the end of the game. Took a really good team to overtime. We have to find a way to finish those games,” he said. “I really believe in our players. I believe in our coaches. They're battling their heart out for us. Just continuing to have that mentality, that aggressive mentality, and continue to ramp it up come practice time this week.

“That's the only thing we can look at right now is where can we get better, where can we improve? Take those little things and let's really work them. Let's detail them out and make sure that doesn't happen again."