"4th down and 3: Bengals Not Playing To Win, but Playing Not To Lose"

Since Marvin has taken the reigns of the Cincinnati Bengals, I have had a few complaints, but the one thing I hate the most is his lack of confidence and play not to lose style.  Today is a perfect example, we see some decent play calling, which is out of the norm for offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski, and have the chance to beat the reigning Superbowl champs, and a pretty solid team in the New York Giants.  Coach Lewis asked for his defense to keep them in the game just enough for our offense to be able to win it.  Although they were beat up and missing a few key players, they still managed to keep the Giants within their grasp.  The final series, trailing by three points with under two minutes left to play. The Bengals offense drives down the field and looks as good, if not better, than most of us expected to see this offense play. Third down with the clock ticking, they hurry the offense to the line in what looks to be an effort to spike the ball. But Palmer saw an opportunity to win the game and hurried a play, completion across the middle to get them to the three yard like with a forth down and four seconds left after the timeout.  The Bengals down by three opted to do the safe play and kick a field goal to tie it up.  As soon as the timeout was called I had to call my dad, who has gone to every home game with me since I was about five years old, and say, Id rather them go for it, but I know they won't  We have an opportunity to score a touchdown and win the game, our offense looked strong and we only had three yards to go, but instead of playing to win, they play not to lose and leave our fate up to a coin toss.  Honestly, What do we have to lose?  I understand its normally a very smart call to tie up the game, but if they go for the TD and get it, they upset a supposedly much better team on the road and bring some confidence to not only your team, but your fans who are starting to lose the faith. But Marvin didn't have the confidence in this team, plays it safe, and loses.  If they go for the TD and miss it, what are people going to say? Sure they will complain, but they're already doing that.  The Bengals have NOTHING to lose and EVERYTHING to gain from playing to win, and not just playing to avoid a loss.