Its not conflicting. I am blaming McFadden for not knowing having the awareness on his own, and I am blaming Garrett for not ensuring another mental lapse happens again. I am making an assumption that the communication did not happen. Fair enough. There's two timeouts. After McFadden goes out of bounds, use one. It just like the Arizona game. He didn't ice his kicker. What he did do was not use one of his multiple timeouts after the 18 yard third down conversion to settle things down and make sure the players had the right mind set. Those are things I expect from a head coach.
So maybe lets split the difference and blame it on McFadden. He just didn't have the heads up mentality that we've seen so many other players have in similar situations. And THAT starts in the meeting rooms. And now we're all the way back around to coaching.
You and another poster said we could have called a timeout after the 1st down run to reinforce the point, and can't argue much with that, though I'm not sure it's worth burning a timeout in a close game when we might have then been forced to use our last right before a FG with time left for them afterwards. I don't think it's a clear call, but timeout might have been the right call.
The last point I won't have a popular opinion on since a lot have said similar in this thread, but if you expect pro athletes (not the sharpest dudes in the shed) to remember a drill run 5 months prior in training camp covering the situation, or something mentioned in a position meeting that week when they are zoned out checking their phone, then you have a lot more faith in their high pressure mental functioning than I do. I trust their muscle memory, not their mental awareness.
I'm in no way saying the end was managed well, I just think it was a strange series of events and doesn't condemn any particular party. We did win the game.