I have no issues with the end of game clock mismangement

Sydla said:

Yeah, I can't buy this.

Why would the chargers call timeout there? At that point, there is little chance they would get the ball back so stopping the clock isn't a priority for them at that point. The Cowboys coaching staff needs to be ready to send in a play/personnel at that point. To suggest they were banking on the Chargers to help them out is preposterous to me. If they didn't have a play ready for that situation, then that's clearly a coaching mistake. And your point about the hail mary possibility is even more of a reason to not settle for a 56 yard FG.

Secondly, their excuse about the clock is just pathetic. There are clocks all over that stadium.

At the end of the day, SETTLING (and that's exactly what they did) for a 56 yard FG is poor management when there were 25 seconds left and you had a timeout still.

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SackMaster said:

Based off what I have seen in the NFL, I think most teams call a TO. Especially if they thought a miss from that distance was as likely as Cowboy Fans seem to think it was.

I mean, it was what, 28 seconds left at the end of the last run? the Chargers had 2 timeouts (or maybe 3?) and it was 3rd Down.

If I was the Chargers, I call my second time out. Do what I can to take back yards, to include trying to draw a flag (which the Refs were giving out like it was going out of style) on 3rd Down. Call my last time out if it is 4th down and the clock wasn't stopped.

So then we are looking at getting the ball back after kickoff or miss with ~15 seconds left.

Not a great opportunity at all, but it is better than watching the FG succeed with 0 seconds left.

But then again, I'm not an coach, so who knows.

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Hawkeye19 said:

Had Greg missed that kick and we lost in OT, the clock management issues would be the focus of every sports talk show for the next week.

He made the kick and was clutch for us— and I am thankful it worked out— but the percentages are against that being a winning strategy over the long run

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SackMaster said:

Look. Do I wish the Cowboys been a little smarter with the clock in the last ~30 seconds of the game? Sure.

But forced, and even worse, unforced errors are a thing. See the KC RB that just flat out drop the football while not being touched towards the end of that game vs Baltimore.

Bad snap, fumble, sack, TFL, interception, false start, holding, illegal shift, illegal formation, delay of game ... or anything else you can think of could have happened, then what was in range for GZ is out of range for GZ.

I do believe the Cowboys coaches were expecting the Chargers to take a timeout, hence no other playcall came in for the offense to run after that last run, but since the Chargers didn't call a TO, I think it played out perfectly.

Why, you might ask?

1. It was not a FG that if you missed you lost.
   
2. But we also made sure that if GZ did miss, LAC could not use their left over TO to try and attempt a last minute Hail Mary.

I get it, no one wanted to go into Overtime in that game, but at the same time, I'm thinking the end of the game clock management issue is being COMPLETELY overblown.

Fact of the matter is, last week we complained about giving TB too much time to make a last minute comeback.

This week Big Mike DID NOT make that mistake .... yet some people, to include the local Dallas media, is dang near calling for MM's head.

I just don't get it, but then again, you are more than welcome to try and change my mind.

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Sydla said:

Most teams would not call a timeout there. There's no point in that situation to give the team driving for a FG more time and time to figure out what to do. If anything the Chargers were probably hoping the Cowboys would use their last timeout there. So there is no chance they would use their own in that situation and essentially give the Cowboys a free timeout. If this staff expected the Chargers to call timeout, that's an egregious mistake.

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SackMaster said:

Look. Do I wish the Cowboys been a little smarter with the clock in the last ~30 seconds of the game? Sure.

But forced, and even worse, unforced errors are a thing. See the KC RB that just flat out drop the football while not being touched towards the end of that game vs Baltimore.

Bad snap, fumble, sack, TFL, interception, false start, holding, illegal shift, illegal formation, delay of game ... or anything else you can think of could have happened, then what was in range for GZ is out of range for GZ.

I do believe the Cowboys coaches were expecting the Chargers to take a timeout, hence no other playcall came in for the offense to run after that last run, but since the Chargers didn't call a TO, I think it played out perfectly.

Why, you might ask?

1. It was not a FG that if you missed you lost.
   
2. But we also made sure that if GZ did miss, LAC could not use their left over TO to try and attempt a last minute Hail Mary.

I get it, no one wanted to go into Overtime in that game, but at the same time, I'm thinking the end of the game clock management issue is being COMPLETELY overblown.

Fact of the matter is, last week we complained about giving TB too much time to make a last minute comeback.

This week Big Mike DID NOT make that mistake .... yet some people, to include the local Dallas media, is dang near calling for MM's head.

I just don't get it, but then again, you are more than welcome to try and change my mind.

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SackMaster said:

Look. Do I wish the Cowboys been a little smarter with the clock in the last ~30 seconds of the game? Sure.

But forced, and even worse, unforced errors are a thing. See the KC RB that just flat out drop the football while not being touched towards the end of that game vs Baltimore.

Bad snap, fumble, sack, TFL, interception, false start, holding, illegal shift, illegal formation, delay of game ... or anything else you can think of could have happened, then what was in range for GZ is out of range for GZ.

I do believe the Cowboys coaches were expecting the Chargers to take a timeout, hence no other playcall came in for the offense to run after that last run, but since the Chargers didn't call a TO, I think it played out perfectly.

Why, you might ask?

1. It was not a FG that if you missed you lost.
   
2. But we also made sure that if GZ did miss, LAC could not use their left over TO to try and attempt a last minute Hail Mary.

I get it, no one wanted to go into Overtime in that game, but at the same time, I'm thinking the end of the game clock management issue is being COMPLETELY overblown.

Fact of the matter is, last week we complained about giving TB too much time to make a last minute comeback.

This week Big Mike DID NOT make that mistake .... yet some people, to include the local Dallas media, is dang near calling for MM's head.

I just don't get it, but then again, you are more than welcome to try and change my mind.

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SackMaster said:

I think we agree for the most part. It was not an ideal situation.

As far as sports talk, I really couldn't care less. Like with most things Cowboys, it would be completely overblown irregardless of the outcome.

Hell, the team won this Week 2 matchup, and some are acting like MM nearly cost us the Super Bowl.

I just feel that while it was not "good", it is hardly as "bad" as so many are making it out to be.

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rambo2 said:

They made the winning kick as time ran out. That is exactly what you want. Kind of stupid to argue when the best thing that could of happened actually did happen, which is the winning kick as time expires.

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SackMaster said:

So are you saying you have NEVER seen a situation like that were a NFL team calls timeouts to get the ball back with any time they can?

If that is the case, I completely disagree with you. But that's OK. I still like ya, if for nothing else, at least you admitted when you are wrong. (Note: talking about Kearse, not this thread)

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Ranching said:

I agree....we won and Gans are still crying! I don't get it

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Jipper said:

Not going to try and change your mind but the bottom line is something fishy happened with the play clock going out and MM wasn't ready to adjust to it.

Lesson learned for him too I'm sure and he will be more aware next time of other options in case the play clock goes out.

If Greg misses that fg obviously it's a different conversation....what if it came up a yard short?

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aikemirv said:

So are you saying MM did not want to run another play or that Dak is not smart enough to not get sacked on a quick out?

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CowboysFaninHouston said:

so you are saying we should play afraid. being afraid of making mistakes because that has a higher probability than making a play. we should play scared, because we suck and we make mistakes so take what you have now, don't try to be better...lets just be conservative and count our blessings because we had a chance at 56 yard kick (remembering that the same kicker badly missed a 60 yarder the week before).

but how many times do bad snaps happen? a fumble happen?....you go out and you play to win, you don't play "not to lose"....that's how you lose more than you win.

the last 30 seconds were badly mismanaged. the last 3 mnutes of the game against tampa was mismanaged. that's two games in a row, at critical times at the end of the game we have sucked in managing it.

no, the play should have been perhaps a deep throw to the endzone (throw it out if not clearly open). or two quick out throws to the sideline and throw it away if not there (remember what Brady did the last game?)..... but the coach, OC had no idea how much time there was because they couldn't see the clock? really!! really!! that's your excuse.....they saw the clock before the play started. shouldn't they have had a plan before hand? shouldn't they have communicated that before hand? shouldn't Moore have several plays ready to go?. shouldn't Dak know the plays he is going to call and just run the plays? shouldn't they have talked to Dak about the different scenarios and how to manage through it!!!

that was total fvcckery of a managing an end of the game. lets just say we got lucky. how many more times are we going to get lucky!?

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CowboysFaninHouston said:

so you are saying we should play afraid. being afraid of making mistakes because that has a higher probability than making a play. we should play scared, because we suck and we make mistakes so take what you have now, don't try to be better...lets just be conservative and count our blessings because we had a chance at 56 yard kick (remembering that the same kicker badly missed a 60 yarder the week before).

but how many times do bad snaps happen? a fumble happen?....you go out and you play to win, you don't play "not to lose"....that's how you lose more than you win.

the last 30 seconds were badly mismanaged. the last 3 mnutes of the game against tampa was mismanaged. that's two games in a row, at critical times at the end of the game we have sucked in managing it.

no, the play should have been perhaps a deep throw to the endzone (throw it out if not clearly open). or two quick out throws to the sideline and throw it away if not there (remember what Brady did the last game?)..... but the coach, OC had no idea how much time there was because they couldn't see the clock? really!! really!! that's your excuse.....they saw the clock before the play started. shouldn't they have had a plan before hand? shouldn't they have communicated that before hand? shouldn't Moore have several plays ready to go?. shouldn't Dak know the plays he is going to call and just run the plays? shouldn't they have talked to Dak about the different scenarios and how to manage through it!!!

that was total fvcckery of a managing an end of the game. lets just say we got lucky. how many more times are we going to get lucky!?

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SackMaster said:

None? Both? Something else?

I mean, it didn't HAVE TO BE MM or Dak. Williams could have held. Smith could have done another Chaz Green impersonation. One of the d-linemen could have tipped it up and resulted in an interception.

Hell, we could have scored a TD (and/or then have it called back like LAC had happen to them twice).

I don't know, I'm not a future teller.

What I do know is that GZ made the kick with relative ease and the Cowboys won. I'm just sad some fans are MAD about that.

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Sydla said:

I can't think of one. And the fact none of us really can kind of shows how weird it is how we played that end of the game. At that point, with 28 seconds left, the Chargers know they aren't getting the ball back with any real time. I bet they were surprised that the Cowboys let the clock run down to settle for a 56 yard FG.

Also, the fact the Cowboys trotted out a bunch of weird excuses like how McCarthy and Moore couldn't see the clock tells you they know they didn't manage the end of the game well. Further, McCarthy said it wasn't even not having a play ready, they said a player ran off the field which caused confusion.

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JD_KaPow said:

They made one mess-up, not rushing a play or taking an immediate time out, but instead getting caught in between. It's a mistake, but at least they didn't compound it: they said, okay, we screwed up, run the clock down and take the kick.

If a player came off the field who shouldn't have, I'm glad they didn't just rush him back out there, try to make a fast snap and risk a false start. Obviously, it wasn't great but stuff happens.

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Sydla said:

No one is mad that GZ made the FG. But a positive outcome there doesn't mean it was a good decision.

Let's say we were down 2 with 10 seconds left and have a 40 yard FG. Instead of playing it safe and kicking the FG, Dak throws an up for grabs fade into tight coverage that we get lucky and score a TD on. Sure, the outcome was great, it won us the game but was the decision to throw a high risk, low percentage pass instead of taking the easy FG for the win the smarter play? Not really.

We won the game but the Cowboys completely mismanaged the end of that game. The fact they trotted out a bunch of weird excuses like they couldn't find the clock on the scoreboard and that they wanted to run a play but couldn't because a player ran off the field when he shouldnt have tells you they know they messed it up and just got lucky.

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