The Blue Devils ultimately came up empty on their potential game-winning 2-point conversion attempt against the SMU Mustangs in overtime on Saturday, but Duke head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] doesn’t have any doubts about the decision to go.
After the loss, Diaz expanded upon his decision to forgo a game-tying extra-point attempt. He explained that, since the offense would get the ball first in the second overtime period with a mandatory 2-point conversion attempt if they reached the end zone, he wanted the chance to walk off into the night with a victory.
“If you’ve got a chance to win the game in the bottom of the first inning, to me, you do it,” Diaz said. “You’re going to have to make a 2-point conversion in the game.”
Duke quarterback Maalik Murphy had thrown for 295 yards and three touchdowns, including a 25-yard strike to wideout Eli Pancol on the Blue Devils’ first play of overtime, and he and Pancol converted a 2-point attempt to tie the game earlier in the fourth quarter. Between that and the team’s three missed kicks in the second half (two field goals and an extra point), the choice still seemed obvious to Diaz.
“We liked the play we had,” Diaz said. “We thought we had a chance to get it and were just a couple inches away.”