Great job breaking down Marvin & Andy’s clock mismanagement. But you are right, clock mismanagement is a plague across the league.

The night & day difference from Singletary/Martz’s three-ring circus on MNF to Belichick correctly managing the end of BOTH halves on Thursday night is mind-boggling.

You’d think most coaches/teams could master such a simple concept.

Even when Herm was in NY and hired his infamous time manager he *still* bungled it.

This perfectly illustrates why I rely on this site for football knowledge more than anywhere else. Tackling is often referred to as the ‘lost art’ in the NFL, but clock management is right up there, and arguably just as important if not more so. As a Patriots fan I have always been shocked how so few teams have caught on. Its one of the things the Patriots have consistently done better than any other team, dating back to 2001.

Bill Belichik is the Phil Jackson of the NFL( Phil always gets two posessions inside of 35 seconds–instead of running down the 24 second clock and allowing the opponent to get the last shot of a quarter or half). But I think he set up the Giants winning Super Bowl drive last year by getting throw happy in the last 2 minutes, inside of the Giants 10 yard line. Two incomplete passes allowed Coughlin to conserve his timeouts. That worked out well for Big Blue. Play calling and time management most certainly go hand in hand. Right Andy and Marvin?

While less straightforward than the clock issues outlined above, very few coaches handle decisions well when they face fourth down in the area between their opponent’s 30 and 40 yard lines.

Also, many coaches do not seem to understand the value of field position in terms of expected points scored versus expected points allowed when they make fourth-and-short determinations in the red zone. In many cases, a failed conversion still sets you up with a better point differential when you compare it to the difference in expected opponents points versus kicking off (especially in games where the kick coverage is as excruciating as Buff-Cle.)

But many organizations seem to intentionally devalue these aspects of preparation in favor of “motivational” coaches. Motivation is clearly important and being an NFL head coach is clearly difficult, but I find it hard to believe that 32 people do not exist who can simultaneously succeed in motivating players, teaching fundamentals, preparing schemes, and understanding the nuance of game situations.

If I were grading a head coach, understanding game situations would be the area where I’d be most critical. So many aspects of a football game simply come down to luck. Making proper decisions to maximize the chance to win based on luck, execution, and talent is a matter of foresight. This is why Brad Childress should be fired. His most recent comments to the media suggest he is unwilling to take responsibility for these decisions. It suggests he does not believe these situations can be prepared for and that the odds can be maximized in their favor. Such a coach will manage the team into many more losses than victories.

How is even possible to not know the overtime rules? The ref goes over the rules before the coin flip! So this means McNabb doesn’t read the rule book and he doesn’t listen to the ref?

At least nobody followed up w/a trick question and asked McNabb what his favorite play would be for a two point conversion in overtime.

Many people I know say it’s an honest mistake, something he was overlooking when tired, a heat of the moment item.

But birds fans are calling him “cement head” on sports radio in Philly.

A ‘cement-head’ bobble head, just in time for Christmas.

I tried that two for one play thing in a game here and the sideline marker guy moved the down ahead before the side judge looked, and moved it again when the judge looked there, the side judge was unaware he’d done that. Instead of a second play with 8.9 sec left we gave them the ball back from a third down incompletion.

I suspected we got a free play earlier in the game, it happened to help us convert a second and 26 on later downs from a fourth and two, so it evened out.

What can I say, the guy running the down marker was an Eagles Qb in the league. He played with our team in the final game(along with two team mates) and all three scored a TD for us. We won the game but lost by forfeit, playing those kids so they could end the season on a winning note, after two of ours were suspended for personal reasons. We did a technical forfeit and still won on the scoreboard. He won the league’s sportsmanship trophy as well, class act, very catchable. He joined the Vikings team for what ended up being the consolation bracket.

Then again our guys are playing to learn it, they aren’t getting paid to play, yet. Eagles fans are livid about McNabb’s failure to clearly grasp the rules. Let’s address it in terms that match what many fans are saying.

McNabb is their playmaker, on a team that lacks a true go to target, he and Westy play a two man game.

Start their other QB for a year, you won’t get what he brings you. McNabb is a lot more durable that Kolb. People are acting like this would all change.

Put McNabb on the Vikings this season, you’re talking about the North winner. Same offensive scheme, probably the same terminology. All the Vikes like at this time is a consistent passer that fits their system. McNabb fits that system.

The Vikes did snatch Berrian from the Bears, Chicago has been trying to replace his speed ever since. The Packers made certain they would not get Favre, though I’d file grievance with the NFLPA over it. That contract that puts different stipulations for Favre’s destination past his being off the Packers roster is in some dangerous territory for the kind of precedent it sets. The Vikes should argue in favor of reward compensation, or at least see the Packers pay in compensatory penalty for the same. My guess would be the NFLPA would favor an award instead of a penalty in terms of picks. There’s a slot for the first round that was skipped the prior year, resurrect that pick and award it in some form to the team that feels wronged and can demonstrate as much in arbitration.

Then trade that pick for Donovan if the Vikings are so motivated. The Vikings would love to give the Eagles Qb a shot compared to what they’ve gone through.

What a great article, Michael. This has been one of my pet peeves with today’s NFL. Forget about the teams that are hopeless losers year in and year out–instead I look at those teams that should have a better record than they do. But don’t because they are STUPID TEAMS. And this is a direct reflection of the coach. I have 6 teams that fit this description-Dallas, Philly, Cleveland, New Orleans and Minnesota. In order for these teams to get better they need to fire their coaches. Just watching these teams makes me want to throw up.

Great breakdown of the clock mismanagement. Like everything else this season it once again proves how the Eagles - do not pay attention to the details. For years Andy has put too much of the load on McNabb. 60 passes by McNabb compard to 14 carries from Westbrook. Against the Cincinnati defense! That’s probably the worst part of this entire tie debacle.

Great insight. You could spend the next week going through Romeo Crennel’s time mis-management and still have material left to cover.

Excellent point about Harrison. NO ONE watching the Browns could tell you why he doesn’t play more. What happened to the ‘T’ formation of running backs? Why not put Lewis AND Harrison in the same backfield? Only Romeo knows…

Marvin Lewis didn’t mismanage the clock, it’s what he does every time, every game, it’s how he manages the game, how can you call that mismanagement? If he ever does the right thing then that will be called mismanagement!!!

For anyone that wants a laugh, go back and look at the play by play of the last game of the 2006 season, a game Cincy needed to make the playoffs, and see how he “managed” the last 2 minutes of the game. His management of that game was a fireable offense, unfortunately for Bengals fans it wasn’t done.

Here’s the link:
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/playbyplay?game_id=29114&displayPage=tab_play_by_play&season=2006&week=REG17

One more follow up on the Bengals vs the Patriots: When Kelly Washington came to the Pats last year he was amazed in training camp that the Pats practiced situational football. 1 min left, down by 3, no timeouts, ball on your own 30. 1:30 left, 2 timeouts, down by 6, etc etc. The actual quote out of his mouth was he had never practiced this sort of thing before. Where did Washington play before coming to the Pats? Cincy of course!!!
I used to coach a Freshman high school team and we would practice these situations every week, yet a pro team doesn’t even do it? Fireable offense.

Bill Walsh, the very first situational item his team did every season, backed up offense. When you are inside your five yard line you cannot move backwards. Work those five plays until you master them, mostly runs.

Then you go to third and three. If you can convert third and three consistently you should win your share.

Fittingly, each of the above items can fit at times into short yardage or goal line offense, contingent upon what you line up against, and how that front matches what you plan on doing.

There’s third and long plays(ten plus) you must master the same way. The most common third downs to work are in the range of eight yards.

Finally there are three end of game plays that you must do the same thing with. Walsh said the Falcons made the playoffs one year off the difference of two desperation plays winning close games. These plays that were drilled down and some how worked(one included a tipped pass).

He’s done the same thing in a regular season game against the Super Bowl rival Bengals. Those situations will come up across the span of a season.

As for the team playing and questions of that, both are putting in new QB and have to rep down their standard items(three yard, eight yard, ten yard conversions) because those are huge enough challenges at this time. It isn’t like their current starter is two thirds of the way through this year’s playbook.

As for game management late, when Palmer’s your Qb, he basically has choice in that situation, or should. It’s beyond the coaches when you have a gun commanding the team. People get mad at Favre if they lose that way, and celebrate the wins. I’m not saying Favre isn’t a team guy and doesn’t play the numbers, but when you have ability of a level of him, Big Ben, a Romo or Eli, there comes a time that their confidence must manifest in game calls.

Now making that call match protections to fronts can be tricky. If the protection has done well I’d be even more confident of a passer’s ability to surpass the threshold of percentages and make the numbers in your favor.

The game you link, Cincy scored two TD in the fourth quarter, and missed a 39 FG in regulation. They had an eleven play TD drive in the fourth quarter.

That doesn’t sound like a reason to fire the HC.

If you want to get mad about his defense, there’s a saying that holds true. “Jimmies and Joes beat X’s and O’s every time.”

K.Kaesviharn was a big reason their DB were always out of place. He’s a sieve in coverage, without him their secondary actually has been competitive.

That doesn’t remove the front office problem of letting O linemen go when the guy they protect is a true franchise QB. Henry is another issue as well, when he was playing there they had a lot more ability to isolate Chad and TJ. Minus the protection you can’t spread it out to being with. Minus some speed there to take attention off your other guys you are just doing a good cover team favors to spread it if they have any pass rush and you have protection issues like Cincy does this season.

Chris Brown’s smartfootball blog has a thread dedicated to the development of “the rise of awful spread teams.” That would be a team that goes spread without the people in place to do it, watering down their protections without putting fear into the defense for trying to cover it.

He’s been looking for it in college, where the coverage rules for defenders are far more strict.

If he’d look at the pros, there’s plenty of teams trying to play spread that can’t do it. The awful spread team has arrived, at higher levels. When teams don’t have the Jimmies and the Joes their X’s and O’s will get shown up. The rules will give the DB some leeway into being more physical in the pros. Teams with players who lack separation ability are constantly making routine passes into gladiator contests for the football, life or death items, or they are making it into a circus of errors past that.