take a knee?

[Dakota]

I don't officiate football, so this is from a fan's perspective (not a fan of either of these 2 teams, just in general a fan...).

A question was posed by Mike Golic, and I think it is a fair question. I am paraphrasing the situation/question.

If the offense gets to go into "victory" formation, and the defense is supposed to honor that to avoid injury, etc., why can't the defense do the same thing? For example, 5 seconds remain, defense is ahead by 7, offense has 4th and 20 from their own 25. The chances of any "hail Mary" pass play working is exceedingly slim. Why can't the defense go into its "victory" formation, inform the offense they are not going to rush the passer, and now the offense is obligated by "unwritten rule" to just quit?

Golic further made the point that the injury argument is hollow, since it was obvious when the defense lined up they are coming. If the offense chose to ignore that, and not line up to protect themselves and their QB, any injury was their own fault.