Why is Clock Management So Hard?

[Tommy]

Maybe he's "Joe King"..

Hey. It took me a minute but I got it!

 

[Carson]

With all the talk about analytics these days, I can't believe every team doesn't have an analytics person assigned specifically to clock management. It's so obvious and would be the perfect thing to address with actual analytics. It's baffling, and it's widespread in both college and the pros.

Because you are always suspect to human error. People pause and think

 

[BoyzBlaster]

Because you are always suspect to human error. People pause and think

I think it's because they don't actually understand it.

 

[Alweezy]

McDaniels was worse to me. Using up all of your timeouts with 8 minutes to go is inexcusable.

Also how many play calls do you need to have for 4th and 1 and the season on the line?
With Baltimore I get it, if you leave too much time, you're screwed. But with the Dolphins, you got to get to the line and run the play.

 

[MyFairLady]

I feel like the head coaches are too arrogant and think that they need to make all of the decisions on their own. They should all have a dedicated clock management guy who they trust who has nothing else to worry about. They can concentrate on clock management only and just tell the head coach what to do.

 

[MyFairLady]

The Miami game was insane. Just get ready and snap the freaking ball.

 

[HungryLion]

Well. I would argue that clock management decisions are sometimes subjective. Take last night for example. It’s obvious that the ravens wanted to use as much time as possible to not leave any time for the bengals to get the ball back.

The ravens actually had enough time until they got the holding call which completely screwed them up.

If the ravens had scored a touchdown with a minute left. Everyone would have been saying “oh they left too much time on the clock for Burrow”

 

[Hennessy_King]

Coaches need to play more madden and get their clock management down.

This i 1000% agree with

 

[Reverend Conehead]

I'm thinking clock management must be way easier in Madden than when you're a real coach in a game and are under massive pressure, especially in playoff games.

 

[JustChip]

The time left in the game was not the issue for Baltimore. The issue was the 10 yard penalty that put them in a 2nd and 20 situation. They did not lose because of clock management, they lost because of a penalty. With todays NFL wou cant leave time on the clock. Absent the penalty if Baltimore would have scored there would have been less than 20 seconds left which is about all you can afford these days to leave a team that just needs a FG to win. I think he played the clock right!

Absent the penalty they would have had the ball 3rd and 6 at the Cinn 13 with 29 seconds left. Plenty of time to run 4 plays if they had converted the first down inside the 5 which is what they needed.

They wouldn’t have been in that position if Huntley doesn’t try extending the ball at the goal line. That was a minimum 10 point play. That was like the Dez catch/no catch play. It’s in their nature to try to extend the ball, but I don’t think it’s smart.

By the way, there was a block in the back on that return that didn’t get called.

 

[nightrain]

An NFL game day sideline is organized chaos. Managing personnel, calculating down and distance, getting the play called. We sit on our couches critiquing from a one dimensional perspective while the Coaches sift through a multidimensional puzzle of decisions that all have to be made within a few seconds. Every play in the NFL involves situational football. There is no script once the game has started. This is why many teams have deployed in-game help with with situations like when to throw the red flag.

 

[Runwildboys]

If you really wanted to see terrible HC decisions and time management you guys missed the Dolphins/Bills game. Im not sure which HC wanted to lose more

How many times outs did the Dolphins have to call to avoid delay of game penalties? ...and then after they were out of time outs they still did it. At least that can be blamed on an inexperienced QB.

 

[noshame]

For those that didnt catch the game tonight, Harbaugh just stood there on the sideline and let about 40 seconds just burn of the clock with two timeouts in his pocket in the final minute of the game. Just a total head scratcher.

We all know McCarthy cant manage the clock worth a dam either, so I aint saying we would do much better in that situation.

But that begs the question, why is clock management so hard for these NFL head coaches? Are they too distracted? Do they not realize the clock is actually ticking? Cant they just hire a dude whose job is just to watch the clock and tell them when to call timeouts and stuff?

It might interfere with their national TV interviews during the game.
How about a game manager since theses clowns can't handle it.

 

[Cowboy_svt]

How many times outs did the Dolphins have to call to avoid delay of game penalties? ...and then after they were out of time outs they still did it. At least that can be blamed on an inexperienced QB.

Cost them the game entirely which is surprising, but on the other side McDermott cost his team 3 good plays cause he kept calling weird time outs which kept miami in the game.

 

[Kevinicus]

The time left in the game was not the issue for Baltimore. The issue was the 10 yard penalty that put them in a 2nd and 20 situation. They did not lose because of clock management, they lost because of a penalty. With todays NFL wou cant leave time on the clock. Absent the penalty if Baltimore would have scored there would have been less than 20 seconds left which is about all you can afford these days to leave a team that just needs a FG to win. I think he played the clock right!

Absent the penalty they would have had the ball 3rd and 6 at the Cinn 13 with 29 seconds left. Plenty of time to run 4 plays if they had converted the first down inside the 5 which is what they needed.

Glad to see I'm not the only one here it was not hard for.

 

[Runwildboys]

Cost them the game entirely which is surprising, but on the other side McDermott cost his team 3 good plays cause he kept calling weird time outs which kept miami in the game.

Our fans would have been cursing MM for months, if he'd called 2 timeouts that gave the other team another chance at making a play!

 

[jrumann59]

John Harbaugh is pretty good but each year he is in baltimore he gets a little more prickly and arrogant. His days I believe are numbered

 

[Sydla]

McDaniels was worse to me. Using up all of your timeouts with 8 minutes to go is inexcusable.

Also how many play calls do you need to have for 4th and 1 and the season on the line?
With Baltimore I get it, if you leave too much time, you're screwed. But with the Dolphins, you got to get to the line and run the play.

FWIW, the Miami game issue seems to be that someone told McDaniel they had the first down so he had called a regular play. When they realized it was 4th down and the play clock had started, they had to scramble to re-call a play and get the right personnel.

Still a blunder but if they truly were told first down I can see how that happened.

 

[Coogiguy03]

For those that didnt catch the game tonight, Harbaugh just stood there on the sideline and let about 40 seconds just burn of the clock with two timeouts in his pocket in the final minute of the game. Just a total head scratcher.

We all know McCarthy cant manage the clock worth a dam either, so I aint saying we would do much better in that situation.

But that begs the question, why is clock management so hard for these NFL head coaches? Are they too distracted? Do they not realize the clock is actually ticking? Cant they just hire a dude whose job is just to watch the clock and tell them when to call timeouts and stuff?

I guess so because for some reason it's better to throw in a pass play instead of running out the clock with the run!

 

[DenCWBY]

For those that didnt catch the game tonight, Harbaugh just stood there on the sideline and let about 40 seconds just burn of the clock with two timeouts in his pocket in the final minute of the game. Just a total head scratcher.

We all know McCarthy cant manage the clock worth a dam either, so I aint saying we would do much better in that situation.

But that begs the question, why is clock management so hard for these NFL head coaches? Are they too distracted? Do they not realize the clock is actually ticking? Cant they just hire a dude whose job is just to watch the clock and tell them when to call timeouts and stuff?

It's what I like about Romo's play by play comments. When it comes to crunch time at the end of the half and esp. at the end of the game. He always rolls out different clock management strategies based on the situation. It's very informative stuff given all the variables.