Brown Second-Guesses Decision: Should Have Gone For It

PITTSBURGH – Mack Brown made a mistake Thursday night.

He went against his instincts, and he believes it backfired.

With North Carolina trailing 23-20 and facing a fourth-and-goal at the Pittsburgh 2-yard-line with 57 seconds remaining in a game the Tar Heels appeared down and out before clawing back into contention, he chose the safer path.

Brown’s gut told him to go for a touchdown, but he didn’t. Instead, he optioned for a Grayson Atkins 20-yard field goal that essentially sent the game into overtime. UNC lost, 30-23, at Heinz Field, and Brown was kicking himself afterward.

“I should’ve gone for the fourth-and-two at the end because the way it ended up, the rain was really hard, put us in an awful position in overtime, (and) you’re on the road,” Brown said. “The reason I didn’t do it, I got talked out of it, but also we hadn’t made fourth down in three, or four, or two, but looking back, I would’ve been better going for the fourth down at that point.”

Rare beautiful November weather in Western Pennsylvania turned into a heavy rain during the fourth quarter, and by the time Brown and his coaches discussed their late-game options, the rain really started picking up.

The wind whipped around and the rain swirled, changing directions every eight-10 seconds. It was so intense that after the game, the grounds crew used leaf blowers to get water off the field.

A few plays earlier before the fateful fourth down, UNC had a first-and-goal at the 2-yard-line, but an incomplete pass and a false start moved the ball back to the seven. Sam Howell was stopped for a loss of one yard before he found Ty Chandler falling to the ground for a six-yar reception, setting up the meeting of the minds on the Carolina sideline.

“That’s my fault, I can’t get talked out of it unless I don’t wanna do it,” said Brown, whose team dropped to 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the ACC. “I changed my mind, if I’d have known it was gonna rain like that, and put our kids in such a bad position, I sure wouldn’t have waited.”

Brown’s solemn tone and appearance in the postgame press conference told the story. His team lost, but his take on the decision was clearly weighing on the Hall of Famer. The rain worsened as overtime came, and was almost monsoon-like by the time Carolina got the ball after the 21st-ranked Panthers scored to take the lead.

“It’s easy to sit here and second guess myself, but I’d have known it was gonna pour rain,” Brown said. “It would’ve been more fair for the kids to take a one shot.”