Last night, Mike McCarthy decided to punt on 4th-and-2, from the Green Bay 33-yard line, with 4:20 remaining and the Packers trailing the Seahawks 27-24. Aaron Rodgers never again took the field, as Seattle picked up two first downs and ran out the clock.
Since 2008, there have been 17 examples where a team trailed by 1-7 points, in the final 5 minutes of the game, and punted on 4th and short (1, 2, or 3 yards).
Three times, those teams won: JaMarcus Russell and the Raiders pulled it off against the Broncos in 2009, Russell Wilson and the Seahawks famously defeated the Patriots in 2012 in this situation, and Derek Carr and the Raiders pulled it off against the Chiefs in 2017.
In his career, Rodgers has had 99 cases where the Packers had a 3rd-and-2 or 4th-and-2 from at least 30 yards away from the end zone. Green Bay picked up a first down 55% of the time.
What do you think?