Clock management in the NFL

[adambr2]

Possibly. I just have an issue with someone in the comfort of their living room ripping a guy who has spent his whole life working to the position he is in. When you are under fire in front of 70K screaming people and all the crap going on along the sideline, it's a whole different world. I tend to cut people slack for not being divine.

This was never about being divine. This was about a few small things that coaches can do to help them save precious seconds at the end of a game for a comeback attempt, or things they can do to put a game away. Just because you and GoPGo choose not to even try to understand it doesn't mean it's not a legitimate issue.

Do you really think I don't understand that making these decisions in the heat of the moment is different? It's still a very important part of their job and one that can decide games. That's why I made the suggestion that I did. I don't think the concept of having a personnel member that is responsible for applying clock management techniques and advising the coach at certain points of the game when it applies is outlandish. I'm not talking about having someone handcuffed to the coach and whispering in their ear all game long.

 

[adambr2]

Poppycock. Show me ONE coach who has a guy standing around whose sole purpose is to interrupt everything the HC is managing in the final minutes to tell him how much time is on the clock. That position does not exist on any team, ever.

You're just straight up wrong. Guess what, just because you don't see somebody, just because the cameras aren't panning to him, just because you're not hearing about him, doesn't mean they aren't operating behind the scenes.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2009/columns/story?page=hotread17/ClockManagement

In his first three seasons as Jets head coach, Herm Edwards was often criticized for his clock management skills. In the spring of 2004, he did something about it; Edwards promoted tight ends coach **** Curl to senior offensive assistant, in other words, to become his personal Clock Management Closer.

"As the game is played, obviously, there are a lot of scenarios," Edwards explained recently. "You get caught up in coaching the players. All that's swirling around you, and I learned that I needed to have a [clock] guy."

Some teams -- but certainly not all of them -- have designated positional assistants to help the head coach with clock management on game day.

 

[realcaliforniacheese]

This was never about being divine. This was about a few small things that coaches can do to help them save precious seconds at the end of a game for a comeback attempt, or things they can do to put a game away. Just because you and GoPGo choose not to even try to understand it doesn't mean it's not a legitimate issue.

Do you really think I don't understand that making these decisions in the heat of the moment is different? It's still a very important part of their job and one that can decide games. That's why I made the suggestion that I did. I don't think the concept of having a personnel member that is responsible for applying clock management techniques and advising the coach at certain points of the game when it applies is outlandish. I'm not talking about having someone handcuffed to the coach and whispering in their ear all game long.

Ok, I get what you are saying. How many coaches are already along the sideline? How many people are talking in that headset the coach wears? I doubt having a "clock management" Coach would have much impact. How many times do HC's make mistakes like that. It happens, mistakes are part of the game and it doesn't matter how many people they put on the sideline, they will continue to happen. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving.

 

[adambr2]

Ok, I get what you are saying. How many coaches are already along the sideline? How many people are talking in that headset the coach wears? I doubt having a "clock management" Coach would have much impact. How many times do HC's make mistakes like that. It happens, mistakes are part of the game and it doesn't matter how many people they put on the sideline, they will continue to happen. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I pointed it out in the previous post, but this position does exist already in the NFL. Now to what degree, it really doesn't say. And I'm not sure if it is actually someone hired for that purpose or rather just an existing coach on the team who carries an additional responsibility of advising the coach in clock management.

 

[GoPGo]

Why not elaborate on that and actually explain your position, instead of just insulting the idea?

I already did. I'm not going to re-hash it just because you missed it.

 

[GoPGo]

So I bring up a legitimate point about clock management in the NFL, and talk about how it can be improved and how it has literally cost coaches games (and possibly their jobs).

You respond with a snide sarcastic post about me sitting on my couch. Actually, I don't get to watch more than about half the games live as I get only one weekend off a month -- I work 3 out of 4 weekends a month to support my family. I'm fine with the job I have, thanks. Did you forget to add in the part about me living in my mom's basement?

You're all class, aren't ya?

The main point that you're missing is that it is all too easy to judge in retrospect, but until you've been there and done it, you really have no idea what it's like to wear that headset.

 

[adambr2]

I already did. I'm not going to re-hash it just because you missed it.

And as I've already pointed out, you're incorrect that there aren't any teams that utilize or have utilized a guy in the past to help assist with clock management.

 

[adambr2]

The main point that you're missing is that it is all too easy to judge in retrospect, but until you've been there and done it, you really have no idea what it's like to wear that headset.

Actually, I haven't missed that point at all. I have already suggested that I can understand how much more difficult these things would be in the heat of the moment.

The point that you continue to ignore is that it's a critical enough piece in the NFL to pay attention to or get assistance from a staff member with.

Go ahead and keep thinking that clock management isn't important. Tell that to Falcon fans when they lose their division by 1 game this year.

 

[GoPGo]

And as I've already pointed out, you're incorrect that there aren't any teams that utilize or have utilized a guy in the past to help assist with clock management.

You talked about hiring a guy specifically to do just that. Show me one team who has ever hired such a guy. What's his name?

 

[GoPGo]

Go ahead and keep thinking that clock management isn't important. Tell that to Falcon fans when they lose their division by 1 game this year.

Now you're making up things I never said. I'm not playing that game.

 

[LITP]

I think this is actually a very valid and interesting subject.

I think the 'if you aren't a HC then you can't critique' comment is utterly asinine. How many of us are Profootballers on here? Not many, I bet. Does that mean we are excluded from critiquing the play of Profootballers?

This is going to be a very quiet forum if that is the case!

One of the fundamental issues with football and its coaches is that they are very pack oriented creature - they stay safely hidden within the 'conventional wisdom' of how things should be done because they are scared of isolating themselves and being criticized.

The stuff that Chip Kelly has brought to the NFL has been lauded as new, exciting, but above all SCARY! All the mediots prognasticating that he would lose his job after going for one 4th and short too many in his own half!

Chip Kelly, just like Bill Belichick, is a guy who is always open to new ideas on how to do things - its not always about being a creative genius yourself - its simply about surrounding yourself with these types and being willing to listen to them.

Remember the hoo-ha over Belichicks failed 4th and 2 a few years ago vs the Peyton Manning and Colts?

A lot of people couldn't comprehend why he would do such a thing - of course, they were being wise with hindsight - in my opinion it was actually the correct call. Manning was ripping that Patriots D to shreds every time he got the ball - so Belichick took a considered risk that didn't ultimately pay off.

Its the same stuff that stops HC's properly utilizing the clock properly - most coaches aren't doing it...ergo it can't be worth doing.

I agree that there should be an advisor (Andy Reid could certainly do with such a guy) whose job is to analyze down and distance and score etc and help his coach to make the right decision.

Its certainly an involving process that would fully employee at least one individual on a full time basis.

People often wonder why the Belichick Patriots have been so successful, so continuously over the last decade - it isn't the players because there is always huge turnover (although having Brady helps!) .

Belichick sweats the finer points of the game - the maths, the stats and risk/reward - this is how he nearly always puts his team in the best position to succeed.

 

[adambr2]

I had to bump this to ask one thing -- to those who watched the game last night, was that not just about the worst clock management you've seen in the NFL by the Steelers? Both at the end of the first half and the game. End of first half, 40 seconds left down 14, and a running play, followed by just...kind of letting the clock run. Even if Heyward -Bay had made the 3rd down catch, they were out of time to keep driving.

End of the game, down 14, inside of 2 minutes, they repeatedly burned a ton of clock between plays. By the time they scored, they were within a score but had burned through the rest of the clock even if they had recovered the onside kick.

It was like they didn't practice the 2 minute drill at all in training camp.

 

[adambr2]

You talked about hiring a guy specifically to do just that. Show me one team who has ever hired such a guy. What's his name?

The Jets. **** Curl. There are others, but they obviously don't call them 'clock managers', but they are assigned that responsibility to the head coach.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2009/columns/story?page=hotread17/ClockManagement

 

[HardRightEdge]

The Jets. **** Curl. There are others, but they obviously don't call them 'clock managers', but they are assigned that responsibility to the head coach.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2009/columns/story?page=hotread17/ClockManagement

While I agree that clock management is often shabby, the analysis in that link is a little bizarre, specifically:

"Reed calculated in a real-time analysis, the favored Patriots failed to play at a reduced tempo and take 163 seconds off the clock in 21 second-half plays. New England could have -- and should have -- burned that 2 minutes and 43 seconds while it was constructing leads of 7-3 and 14-10. If the Patriots had done it correctly, in theory, the Giants wouldn't have had time to rally."

New England "constructed" the 7-3 lead with 45 minutes left in the game.

The 163 seconds in 21 second half plays would have accrued from the beginning of the second half. Are we to believe New England should have begun planning for the end-game eventuality exactly as it occurred, 30 minutes in advance, while forgoing their preferred pace of play? That's nonsense.

New England took the 14-10 lead with 2:42 left on the clock with a 75 yard, 12 play, 5:12 elapsed drive. Even if one were inclined to break down that drive to see where New England could have burned more time, the fact of the matter is that New England was losing and needed a TD. Somehow, the idea that a team should have slowed their preferred pace of play during that drive, which was hardly speedy to begin with, to finesse the clock is, to repeat, bizarre.

 

[sschind]

Clock management is a lot like play calling. Occasionally we hear a "we won in spite of it" but not too often. Most of the time if a team wins it was good and if they lose it was bad.

Clock management is part of the overall game plan and its not always clear when you should abandon your initial plans and speed up or slow down the pace of the game. I recall one game when the Dolphins were down by 2 scores and Shula started calling defensive TOs with about 6 minutes left. I'm not talking 1 random TO on defense, I'm talking 3 TO's (might have been only 2 and he saved one I'm not sure) to stop the clock after the opposing offense ran a play and it was clear his intentions were to save time for his offense. I can't recall ever seeing a coach do that so early in the game before or since. Was it too soon? I don't know but they won the game so probably not. People were praising him for taking them so soon to save time but if they had lost those same people would have criticized him for burning them so soon.

Remember, no one loses they just run out of time. Or was that just that one game?

 

[adambr2]

I agree that some of the train of thought is just overkill. When you're in a close game with a good deal of time left, it's a waste of thought and energy to worry about burning every last second of the play clock. Your 14-10 lead with 13 minutes to play might be a deficit with 3 minutes to play and you'll be wishing you had some of that time back. Same goes with call timeouts too early. Maybe you don't have a timeout later for a critical challenge that comes back to haunt you. Who knows how Dallas/Green Bay would have turned out last year if we had burned all our timeouts by that point.

The stuff that bothers me are the concepts that are really pretty basic and yet sometimes overlooked. For example, if the opposing team is in clock kill mode on offense and you're trying to get the ball back late, you should never ever wait until after the 2 minute warning to use your timeouts. It is complete foolishness that does nothing more than burn an extra play's worth of time off the clock to wait until after the 2 minute warning. Yet, somehow, some coaches still have not figured this out.

This is a little more subjective, but another one of my peeves is a pre-snap timeout. In many cases, especially in the 2nd half of a close game, I think you could argue that taking the 5 yard penalty is less costly than a timeout. The only situations where I would ever call a pre-snap timeout in the second half of a close game are in a critical down and distance (ex: 3rd or 4th down and goal ). Bill Cowher mentioned at one time that his players were not even allowed to call timeouts (not sure if this was the whole game or just the 2nd half).

 

[Poppa San]

Was it clock mgmt when Chicago allowed Lacey his TD so they'd get the ball? They get the onside kick with 45 seconds left and it is a different ending maybe.

 

[PikeBadger]

Coaching football and managing a game is NEVER as simple as it appears on TV.

Totally agree. This has to be the toughest part of being a head coach. Lots of things happening very quickly and plenty of ways to look at things.

Another thing, football coaches are not exactly the greatest thinkers on this planet. A lot of them would be driving garbage trucks if they hadn't gone into coaching.

 

[PikeBadger]

Aww, come on, have a thick skin. You give a dissertation on how coaches should under ideal condition's manage the clock. Generals have a saying. Once the battle starts, the battle plan goes out the window.

American generals.
Many other countries, not so much. Front line American units have quite a bit of leeway to make decisions on the fly based on rapidly changing circumstances.

 

[Krisco65]

I agree but I think it comes with experience. You can definitely tell the difference between the good and bad clock managers depending on how long they have been coaching..

 

[adambr2]

Remember with about 4 minutes yesterday when there was confusion after Odell took off with the ball and the play clock was reset and Eli could have ran off 40 seconds but instead snapped it somewhere around 15-20?

It won't be talked about much because it was not the highlight of what happened the last few minutes but the result might have been different if he has simply let it run down on 1 play.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Clock management or lack there of has always been a pet peeve of mine as well. So many classic examples on how the clock was mismanaged in games and that mismanagement ended up costing the team the game. With the millions of dollars being paid in Salaries to players and coaches, you would think they could hire one guy to sit in the booth, with a voice in the ear of the coach, who does nothing else but know how to properly manage the clock and corresponding play on the field. If this seems like too easy of a job, then add to his duties, determining when challenging a play is wise or foolish, because this decision is messed up quite a bit as well.

 

[Sky King]

Clock management or lack there of has always been a pet peeve of mine as well. So many classic examples on how the clock was mismanaged in games and that mismanagement ended up costing the team the game. With the millions of dollars being paid in Salaries to players and coaches, you would think they could hire one guy to sit in the booth, with a voice in the ear of the coach, who does nothing else but know how to properly manage the clock and corresponding play on the field. If this seems like too easy of a job, then add to his duties, determining when challenging a play is wise or foolish, because this decision is messed up quite a bit as well.

Didn't Mike Sherman hire somebody like this? I have a vague recollection of some former NFL coach that was hired for this purpose, among other consulting considerations. He might even have been a former HC somewhere. Anyone else remember who this was?

 

[adambr2]

I just wanted to point out that we most likely cost ourselves 4 points in the first half by calling all of our timeouts in the first quarter. With our time very limited toward the end of the second quarter, even down at the 1 we were forced to pass having no way to stop the clock. Had we had one or two timeouts to burn that changes the whole complexion of that last first half drive as the entire playbook is still open down on the 1.

We seem to be getting pretty nonchalant about calling pre-snap timeouts, but I'd hate to see something minor like that cost us a game at some point. It's one of the little things that I'd like to see us clean up.

 

[Joe Nor Cal Packer]

Not gonna happen, nor should it. The last thing a HC needs is yet another voice clamoring for his attention in the waning moments of a game. It would be more of a distraction than it would be worth. Besides, the coach's strategy might be different that the "clock guy's" strategy. There can often be more than one strategy for timeout usage in a game, each with its own risk/reward and it is the coach's job to determine which strategy he wants to use.

You might be right. The clock mgmt at the end of the Giants Cowboys opener was terrible. But in that case, Eli Manning should have had the presence to fall down rather than throw the ball away. The HC or the "clock guy" if one existed can't make up for a terrible play by the player. We've got enough specialists already.