Third down..threw short and failed to make it

[diondublin]

I don't know about you, but during the 2007-2008 football season I was repeatedly shocked at the frequency of the strategic blunder that is to make a completed pass on 3rd-and-longish SHORT of the first down line and then fail to make the additional yards for a first down.

This seemed to happen time and time again, across a great cross-section of teams and games and I was astonished, shouting at the TV 'Throw for the LINE on 3rd down!'.

Understanding the thinking, of course, that it is easier to complete a short pass, especially with deeper coverage protecting the first down line; the thinking is nonetheless wrong. Here one is backing a double where the second leg - making the additional yardage on the ground - is far more difficult than it seems. Constantly converging defences would stuff the receiver for insufficient additional yardage leading to the strategically wasteful situation of 4th-down-and-short.

The actual point of this missive though is to ask if anybody else noticed that this situation seemed to happen very markedly less during the 2008-2009 season. It really did appear to me as though the teams had 'got it' and they were much more frequently 'throwing-for-the-line' on 3rd down, such that any catch would be a first down without further gain...strategically simple, but also very wise!