Am I the only one who thinks the recent kicking woes might be a great opportunity to create a competitive advantage? Every decision is situational, of course, but I think we would be pretty dangerous if the coaches used the general philosophy that we're going for it on any 4th down between the opponent's 25 and 35. From the opponent's perspective, I would hate to have to defend this offense for four downs in that field position.
In general i think a lot of teams could benefit from this, from even further out than the 35 probably, could even go out to the 50.
The net swing from A) the additional chance of scoring, and B) even if you don't score, the incremental
decrease in score if you push the ball forward another set of downs or two if you complete the 4th down is worth it.
The biggest benefit is that you can treat the preceding downs differently when its not a question of 'going for it' and is instead just part of your offensive plan. 3rd and 10? You don't have to go for the sticks, instead you can opt to take the safe 5-6 yard play if it is open. And because of that, then on 1st and 2nd down you can, for instance, opt to take more high risk\reward plays due to not being as worried about being stuck in third and long. It really just opens things up a lot more.