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"A most peculiar move by Coach Richard Green," WCTV announcer, John Wartowski, said to his partner, Joe Thomas. "I just don't understand why a coach would call a timeout when his team is on the field, ready to kick the tying score. Is he trying to ice his own guy?"
Standing up and looking down on the field from his place in the press box, Thomas replied, "I don't know John, but what's even more odd is that Coach Green is not even strategizing with his coaches or team right now. He's twenty yards away from them, all by himself."
"Joe, this is a sad thing to see," Wartowski said, "as I think Coach Green is having a breakdown. It's the only explanation. Why else would he be abandoning his team at the most crucial point in their season?"
"I agree, John," Thomas replied. "And it's easy to see why he would be having a meltdown. Coach Green's Crusaders are the top-ranked team in Division III and are undefeated to this point, but due to a computer-generated scheduling error, they were forced to play their final regular season game at home tonight against Northeast State, the best team in all of college football.
"The Christian Academy Crusaders came in to tonight's game projected to lose by thirty-plus points, but have played a great game. They were down by two touchdowns with six minutes to go, but after a couple of quick scores, they are one kick away from tying the game and sending it to overtime. The only problem is that their coach appears to be losing it!"
Coach Green, in fact, was not having a breakdown; he was praying. He stood with his eyes closed and head bowed, doing his best to show reverence to the Lord, without turning his prayer into a performance.
The timeout was coming to a close, and Greg Sands, the Crusaders' offensive coordinator, approached Coach Green. "Coach, we're almost out of time. What do you want to do?" he asked.
Coach Green looked up and said, "Send the kicking team out onto the field and run the play clock down. Then call our final timeout. I'll know what to do by then."
"Okay Coach," Sands said and he jogged off.
Green bowed his head again and whispered, "Oh Father, please give me guidance. You know that I would never ask You to deliver a victory to my team as that would be asking for You to deliver a loss to another. Prayer should never be used to ask for another man to fail. I only ask that You give me the ability to make the best coaching decision that I am capable of making."
Immediately after uttering these words of prayer, Coach Green could feel a question tugging at his heart. "If you don't believe that you're All-American running back can take the ball in two yards to win the game for you while your team is on this amazing scoring streak, what makes you think that you'll be able to do any better in overtime?"
The crowd let out a huge roar and up in the press box Wartowski exclaimed, "I can't believe it! Green's sending his offense onto the field! They're going for two!"
"You said it," Thomas replied, "I don't know what he's thinking. He's got a chance to take the best team in the nation to overtime and he's going to risk that here on the final play of regulation. Unbelievable."
Wartowski cut him off, "Okay Joe, and here's the play. The ball is snapped to Smith. He hands off to the All-American, Dwight Kay. Kay takes the ball and runs right into a wall of defenders. He pushes the line back, but the defense converges. They've got eleven players on the line now and Kay seems to be losing his momentum just short of the goal line. But, wait, what's that? Kay spins and pitches the ball back to Smith. Smith bootlegs to the left and there's no one left to stop him! He scores! Crusaders win!"
"Wow!" Thomas exclaimed. "What a gutsy call by Richard Green. In this situation, John, what makes you decide to scrap the extra point and make an attempt at a two-point conversion?"
"Well, I'd always take the sure thing, but I can tell you what Coach Green was thinking," Wartowski said. "When things are going this well for you, you just go for it."
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