Bizarre Play Call

Action PC Football's computer manager makes an interesting decision

Bizarre Play Call

Every computer sports sim will give you some odd AI decisions. This one, though, was really strange.

I was coaching the 1984 Ole Miss team, a team that really wasn’t all that great in real life. We were at home against the powerhouse 1984 Miami Hurricanes. Miami was up 31-6 near the end of the third quarter.

We managed to force them into a 4th and 5 from our 38. You’d expect that they’d just punt, right? I mean, they were up by 25, and we were having a hard time even moving the ball against them.

Nope. This is what happened:

I honestly don’t know what the computer manager was thinking.

It was obvious that they were going to run. I guess this was an attempt to start running out the clock?

The funny thing is that they didn’t even use Highsmith, their star running back. They used Oliver, who really doesn’t have much of a potential to get 5 yards on 4th down.

To put it into more context, this is the entire situation in a screenshot I took right after the play:

Now, you should understand that long field goals in this 1984 college season aren’t usually an option. I suppose the computer figured that giving the ball up on the 38 wasn’t much worse than a touchback after a punt going out to the 20.

Still — I’ve watched a lot of 1984 college football games, and I can’t imagine any team going for it on 4th and 5 while up by 25.