The 2022 Call Sheet: 3rd & long

Welcome back to the Call Sheet. After going through our 1st & 2nd down scenarios, we find ourselves looking at a bit of a different beast: 3rd & long (where “long” is 7 or more yards needed for a 1st down). 

I say it’s a different beast because we need to decide up front how aggressive we want to be on 4th down. Are we planning on punting if we don’t get the 1st down? If not, what’s our threshold for going for it on 4th? Are we going for it if we need 3 or fewer yards? Fewer? More?

That all ties into this…