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The Debriefing: This 'Time Out Right Before the Field Goal' Nonsense Has to Stop
Posted Oct 9th 2007 9:00AM by mjd
Filed under: NFL Coaching, Featured Stories, The Word
The Debriefing is a column that runs every weekday at 9:00 a.m. here on FanHouse. It goes deep into one issue and then bounces around to a plethora of smaller ones ... and does it all in a way that will make you feel like the prettiest girl at the cotillion. Bookmark this page, and visit daily.
I didn't have much of a rooting interest heading into last night's Dallas vs. Buffalo Monday Nighter. I was interested, because it was football, and I like football ... but I didn't care who won. Honestly, I didn't expect the game to even be entertaining past the second quarter or so.
But by the time the game was over and the clock hit all zeros, my allegiance had shifted ... violently. I was hoping that someone in the Buffalo crowd brought a large javelin into the game with them, and that they'd be willing to shove the entire length of that javelin into Dick Jauron's ear.
Why?
Because I am getting sick of this "Let's call time-out right before the other guy kicks so he has to do it twice" routine. It is the most annoying trend in sports since people started writing letters to Barbaro.
(Also at the bottom: Now would be a good time to say your goodbyes to Joe Torre ... the Indiana Pacers would like you to know that they're as white as humanly possible ... Joe Buck might get a talk show ... and we say goodbye to Mack Strong...)
Let me clarify first ... I don't blame Dick Jauron for doing it. It's how the rules are set up, it's perfectly legal, you could even argue that it would be irresponsible for a coach not to do it ... even if it is the most irritating thing that any coach in any sport could possibly do, other than be Norv Turner.
So I'm not saying that Jauron is a bad guy ... but it's true that when Nick Folk rocked that second field goal through the posts last night, I yelled something that rhymed with, "TRUCK BLUE, NICK LAURON."
If you didn't see the game, it was one of the more memorable Monday Night games of all time ... the Bills led the entire way, despite totaling just 229 total yards of offense and not scoring a single offensive touchdown.
You can read more about how things went down here, but at the very very end, Cowboys kicker, rookie Nick Folk had a 53-yard field goal attempt to bring home the hugely improbable win ... it would be the longest kick he's ever made, in the NFL, or in college, and here he was, a mere rookie, on a national stage, his team's undefeated status sitting on his shoulders ... and Nick Folk onion'd up, booted the pigskin confidently through the posts, and finished the game in dramatic comeback fashion.
Actually, no he didn't. None of that counted. Nope. That dramatic moment you experienced a second ago, when your heart was in your throat, and you either rejoiced with glee, or became awash with grief? Never happened. Figment of your imagination. Strike it from the record.
Dick Jauron called a timeout at the last possible second before the ball was snapped, so please, any of you fans who might have enjoyed that moment ... promptly erase from your memory anything that happened over the last 30 seconds. Rather, try to focus on this upcoming watered-down, anti-climactic version of the exact same thing you just experienced, and thank you for enjoying the NFL experience.
It's the same thing that Raiders coach Lane Kiffin did to the Cleveland Browns in Week 3, and the same thing that Mike Shanahan did to the Raiders in Week 2. In both of those occasions, the chicanery worked ... the first field goal, which didn't count, was good, and the second, which did count, was no good.
Not last night, though. Nick Folk became a hero ... not just to Cowboys fans, but fans of common decency and game-endings that make a lick of a sense everywhere. He made the second field goal attempt, just as true as he made the first, and Dick Jauron, you can stuff your time-out in a sack, mister.
It seems like every week, some devious ******* does this ... and I hate it every single time. It hasn't happened to my favorite team, so it's not like this is sour grapes ... truth be told, I'd rather the Cowboys weren't undefeated, because I don't think they're of the same caliber as AFC powerhouses New England and Indianapolis.
I even hated the whole bit when it screwed over Sebastian Janikowski, and please believe me when I tell you that I wish nothing but the worst things in life for Sebastian Janikowski.
There's not a situation in any other sport where a player would be forced to do something that tests the nerves to the highest extreme ... and you had a reliable way to force him to do it twice.
The European Ryder Cup team did not have a way to force Justin Leonard make that 45-foot putt in 1999 at Brookline twice. Craig Ehlo didn't have a way to force Michael Jordan make this shot twice. Dennis Eckersley did not have a way to force Kirk Gibson to hit this home run twice.
And as sports fans ... we're better off for this, right? Can we all (with the exception of fans of Europe, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oakland A's, of course) agree that these are good sports memories?
It's not fair to players involved, but more importantly ... it's not fair to the fans. The ending of the game should be the ending of the game. It's like watching Rocky go the distance against Apollo Creed, and then as soon as he gets up and starts yelling for Adrian, the filmmakers hit rewind, we hear a Morgan Freeman voiceover saying, "No, seriously, this is how we're going to do it," and then Carl Weathers hits Rocky in the forehead with the back of a shovel in the 8th round, and then goes back to the locker room and gets a stew goin'. The End.
This practice has to end as soon as humanly possible. The NFL isn't big on mid-season rule changes, so I imagine that will be next year. If the defense wants to call a timeout when the opposing team is in a field goal formation, they should have to do it before the kicking team is set in their formation. As soon as they're set, we're locked in. Sorry, defense. That's the way it has to be.
Roger Goodell needs to put his foot down and make this go away, regardless of whether or not the owners want the rule changed ... because every time this happens, the end of a hard-fought game becomes cheapened. The game is not won or lost based on performance, but on a coach's highly-irritating subterfuge.
Filed under: NFL Coaching, Featured Stories, The Word
The Debriefing is a column that runs every weekday at 9:00 a.m. here on FanHouse. It goes deep into one issue and then bounces around to a plethora of smaller ones ... and does it all in a way that will make you feel like the prettiest girl at the cotillion. Bookmark this page, and visit daily.
I didn't have much of a rooting interest heading into last night's Dallas vs. Buffalo Monday Nighter. I was interested, because it was football, and I like football ... but I didn't care who won. Honestly, I didn't expect the game to even be entertaining past the second quarter or so.
But by the time the game was over and the clock hit all zeros, my allegiance had shifted ... violently. I was hoping that someone in the Buffalo crowd brought a large javelin into the game with them, and that they'd be willing to shove the entire length of that javelin into Dick Jauron's ear.
Why?
Because I am getting sick of this "Let's call time-out right before the other guy kicks so he has to do it twice" routine. It is the most annoying trend in sports since people started writing letters to Barbaro.
(Also at the bottom: Now would be a good time to say your goodbyes to Joe Torre ... the Indiana Pacers would like you to know that they're as white as humanly possible ... Joe Buck might get a talk show ... and we say goodbye to Mack Strong...)
Let me clarify first ... I don't blame Dick Jauron for doing it. It's how the rules are set up, it's perfectly legal, you could even argue that it would be irresponsible for a coach not to do it ... even if it is the most irritating thing that any coach in any sport could possibly do, other than be Norv Turner.
So I'm not saying that Jauron is a bad guy ... but it's true that when Nick Folk rocked that second field goal through the posts last night, I yelled something that rhymed with, "TRUCK BLUE, NICK LAURON."
If you didn't see the game, it was one of the more memorable Monday Night games of all time ... the Bills led the entire way, despite totaling just 229 total yards of offense and not scoring a single offensive touchdown.
You can read more about how things went down here, but at the very very end, Cowboys kicker, rookie Nick Folk had a 53-yard field goal attempt to bring home the hugely improbable win ... it would be the longest kick he's ever made, in the NFL, or in college, and here he was, a mere rookie, on a national stage, his team's undefeated status sitting on his shoulders ... and Nick Folk onion'd up, booted the pigskin confidently through the posts, and finished the game in dramatic comeback fashion.
Actually, no he didn't. None of that counted. Nope. That dramatic moment you experienced a second ago, when your heart was in your throat, and you either rejoiced with glee, or became awash with grief? Never happened. Figment of your imagination. Strike it from the record.
Dick Jauron called a timeout at the last possible second before the ball was snapped, so please, any of you fans who might have enjoyed that moment ... promptly erase from your memory anything that happened over the last 30 seconds. Rather, try to focus on this upcoming watered-down, anti-climactic version of the exact same thing you just experienced, and thank you for enjoying the NFL experience.
It's the same thing that Raiders coach Lane Kiffin did to the Cleveland Browns in Week 3, and the same thing that Mike Shanahan did to the Raiders in Week 2. In both of those occasions, the chicanery worked ... the first field goal, which didn't count, was good, and the second, which did count, was no good.
Not last night, though. Nick Folk became a hero ... not just to Cowboys fans, but fans of common decency and game-endings that make a lick of a sense everywhere. He made the second field goal attempt, just as true as he made the first, and Dick Jauron, you can stuff your time-out in a sack, mister.
It seems like every week, some devious ******* does this ... and I hate it every single time. It hasn't happened to my favorite team, so it's not like this is sour grapes ... truth be told, I'd rather the Cowboys weren't undefeated, because I don't think they're of the same caliber as AFC powerhouses New England and Indianapolis.
I even hated the whole bit when it screwed over Sebastian Janikowski, and please believe me when I tell you that I wish nothing but the worst things in life for Sebastian Janikowski.
There's not a situation in any other sport where a player would be forced to do something that tests the nerves to the highest extreme ... and you had a reliable way to force him to do it twice.
The European Ryder Cup team did not have a way to force Justin Leonard make that 45-foot putt in 1999 at Brookline twice. Craig Ehlo didn't have a way to force Michael Jordan make this shot twice. Dennis Eckersley did not have a way to force Kirk Gibson to hit this home run twice.
And as sports fans ... we're better off for this, right? Can we all (with the exception of fans of Europe, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oakland A's, of course) agree that these are good sports memories?
It's not fair to players involved, but more importantly ... it's not fair to the fans. The ending of the game should be the ending of the game. It's like watching Rocky go the distance against Apollo Creed, and then as soon as he gets up and starts yelling for Adrian, the filmmakers hit rewind, we hear a Morgan Freeman voiceover saying, "No, seriously, this is how we're going to do it," and then Carl Weathers hits Rocky in the forehead with the back of a shovel in the 8th round, and then goes back to the locker room and gets a stew goin'. The End.
This practice has to end as soon as humanly possible. The NFL isn't big on mid-season rule changes, so I imagine that will be next year. If the defense wants to call a timeout when the opposing team is in a field goal formation, they should have to do it before the kicking team is set in their formation. As soon as they're set, we're locked in. Sorry, defense. That's the way it has to be.
Roger Goodell needs to put his foot down and make this go away, regardless of whether or not the owners want the rule changed ... because every time this happens, the end of a hard-fought game becomes cheapened. The game is not won or lost based on performance, but on a coach's highly-irritating subterfuge.
