Clock management in the NFL

[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.

BTW I agree with you.

 

[adambr2]

Since I pointed out the bad from the Seattle game I should also point out the good. The last few minutes of the game where we had it after the Elliot INT with the 7 point lead waa textbook clock management for late in the game with a lead.

We were running the play clock all the way down every time, and if you go back and look at the 3:28 handoff to Starks, this was a wide stretch play by design. The idea was to burn off a few more seconds than a straight dive, so they could take the next snap at 2:40 which they did and either run it all the way down to 2:00 or force Seattle to burn their last timeout, which they did. It was only a 2 yard gain, but it likely saved them from having to run an extra play.

The idea there with a 7 point lead should simply have been to run as much clock off as possible and ensure you take a 2 possession lead which is exactly what they did.