by Pweesey » Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:54 pm
sorry to reply to my own thread, but let's look at the first half:
burned a TO in the first minute of the 2nd quarter before a 3rd and 1 play. We really needed the first down, but the call was a QB sneak after the TO. Should have been able to get that off without blowing a TO.
As the announcers pointed out, we punted the ball too early with 2 minutes to go. There is no reason not to take a delay of game there; the 5 yards meant nothing. Instead we punt with 8-9 seconds left on a running clock, and it went in the end zone. I suppose one could argue that we thought we could get the ball back had we forced a 3 and out, but since they'd had 0 3-and-outs up until that point, that was unlikely.
In the second half, we at least held onto all 3 TOs until late in the 4th quarter. But we used the second one almost 20 seconds after we sacked them on 3rd down. At that point, the play clock is halfway gone. That made no sense whatsoever.
On our last drive, we started at our 35 with 3:41 left. It took us 3:30 to drive 40 yards (ended up netting 32 after last sack) in a situation where we needed 2 scores, and that's with a TO. That's pitiful. Padron took 3 sacks, and 3 other times scrambled for: 3 yards, 2 yards, and 0 yards, including a fumble. I believe the clock ran after each of these scrambles. You just can't do that.
I think the foolishness of not kicking the FG has been covered elsewhere. Really, really disappointed in the clock/game management.