Good morning everyone. I took a long break from writing. I was on vacation. So I would like to start off by wishing everyone a Happy New Year. I hope you have a prosperous new year.

The American football season is coming to an end. The playoffs started yesterday. Again, some of you who are not familiar with American football may not be able to understand some things, but none the less, the message is still the same.

Yesterday’s game was between the Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings had the home field advantage. Both teams had very good defense. The Vikings got the ball to start the game and so after half time, the Seahawks would be getting the ball. As I said, it was a defensive struggle and the only points were scored by the Vikings. Scoring involves getting the ball into the opponents end zone or past their goal line either by passing (throwing) the ball to one of your players or carrying the ball (rushing). This is called a touchdown. You get 6 points for scoring. Then you get an extra point if you kick the ball from about 25-30 yards, through the opponents goal post. The extra point is almost automatic, but kickers do miss sometimes. So you get 7 points. But if you fail to get into the end zone, you can kick the ball from wherever your team is and get a field goal. Usually, teams try a field goal if the distance is 60 yards or less. You get 3 points for a field goal.

At half time, Minnesota was leading 3-0. There was still a minute left in the first half and Minnesota had the ball. The Seahawks were supposed to get the ball after halftime. But instead of trying get a score, Minnesota elected to let the clock run. That was a very conservative approach. If I was the head coach, I would have tried to score something. Seattle is a good team and you cant let a good team stay in the game. You have to put them away by being aggressive. In the second half, Minnesota managed to get 2 more field goals and were leading 9-0. Seattle managed to get a field goal and the score was 9-3 in favor of Minnesota. But at about 1 min 45 seconds left in the game, Seattle scored a touchdown and went up  10-6. Minnesota got the ball and were very close to the Seattle end zone. But instead of trying to score a touchdown by passing the ball, Minnesota elected to be conservative and rush the ball. Unfortunately they could not score a touchdown. So they elected to get a field goal. They let the clock run down to about 25 seconds and then stopped it by calling a timeout. They were at the 27 yard line of Seattle. Minnesota sent their kicker out to get a field goal to win the game. This should have been automatic, but the kicker missed and Minnesota lost the game. 

So the moral of the story is that don’t be conservative. Offense is the best defense. Be aggressive. Go after things instead of trying to settle for something.