Clock Management Issue and Late FG's

[cheekygeek]

The choice of not calling the TO before the kick made as much sense as throwing the ball a couple plays earlier against a team with no timeouts to use and the clock working against them in a one possession game

+1

THIS. The IMG radio announcers both said something to the effect of: "OK, now you run the ball and burn clock with SM having no time outs, and kick the FG to put this game out of reach." When the Huskers called a pass play both of the announcers were in sort of a stunned silence. Fortunately they completed the pass, but that was inexplicable to me.

I like a LOT of what I'm seeing, as these Husker's (and this program) develops. But clock management by the coaching staff needs work just to come to reach the level of expertise of the average fan in the stands, and that is hard to figure for such an experienced staff. Our lack of LB depth has the potential to be our achilles heel all season. And I don't get the sheer number of penalties Nebraska is racking up, particularly for dumb things like too many men in the backfield.

On the plus side, I'm SO impressed by the coaching/system's effect on Tommy Armstrong. Our D-Line is looking very good. We've got an offense that knows it has the potential to come back from big deficits (not exactly a Cornhusker trademark in the past).

I think we'll get there and we're going in the right direction, but I'm afraid that this is going to be an agonizing year for most Husker fans.

Langsdorf has the potential to become a Norv Turner type of OC and turn this stint into a NFL Head Coaching job in a few years. I'm not so sure about how the defensive side is going to fare. Too soon to tell. If we fill some holes with quality with the next recruiting class I think we should be a team to be reckoned with week-in and week-out.

 

[GBRedneck]

This is the 2nd time in 4 games that this has happened. NU has had opportunities to run the play clock down to zero and call a timeout before attempting a late FG. Instead, both times, Riley/Read chose to let the play clock run down and then snap the ball late in play clock. To me, this really throws off the timing of the FG attempt because the snapper, the linemen, the holder, and the kicker have to wait so long while they let the clock wind down.

If you have a timeout available, why not call a timeout and then let the kicking team go at their own pace without worrying about winding down the play clock? I understand some people will say "you are just freezing your kicker", but I would rather have the kicking team have extra time to get out on the field, get settled and be at their own pace.

It's little things like these that can be the difference between a win and a loss. It cost NU against BYU, and if So Miss had 30 more seconds, it could have cost NU again today.

I swear that coaches need to have a 12 year old kid who plays hours of Madden video games to help them out with clock management issues.

C'mon man! A team would have to have a full time special teams coach before you could expect them to make these incredibly complex split second decisions for a FG attempt.

 

[Arch Stanton]

I've seen a lot of things posted here regarding Mike Riley. And I'll say that many fair questions have been asked, as well as many fair comments have been made defending him — namely that it's his first year, that he shouldn't be blamed for Pelini's decsions, he needs time to adust to the new players, and they need time to adjust to him.

Just a heads-up about his clock management here: It has never been his strong suit.

Time and time again during his second stint as the head coach at OSU he lost games in part because of poor clock management. The best example of poor clock management that I can cite, though I don't believe it was the sole reason they lost the game, was the 2012 Alamo Bowl. They had just completed a 15-yd pass (unofficialy as the officials did not bother to check) to give them the first down. In Riley's defense, he probably thought the first down was a given and that the clock should have stopped to move the chains. However, there were still 11 seconds left in the second quarter after the completion had been made, and OSU still had one time out left to burn. Rather than use that time out, they ran out of time trying to get to the LOS to spike the ball and stop the clock so they could get the FG unit out there. They ended up going into the locker room at the half up 20-10 rathe than 23-10. They lost that game 31-27.

LikeI said before, I doubt that the missed opportunity to kick the field goal at the end of the first half cost them that game — there were so many other things that went wrong in the second half for them — but it's one of many examples of where Coach Riley simply doesn't understand how to manage the clock. Despite all of the troubles Coach Riley had here at OSU, I do like the guy, and I really hope he makes a go of things there in Lincoln. It would be a real nice F-you to the admin at OSU who didn't give him the full support he deserved when he was here.

Good luck, Huskers.

 

[GBRedneck]

Riley has never been known for good clock management.

 

[Mavric]

Good argument as teams play 60 minutes with no extra time so I dont get the "if they had 30 more seconds point."

Welet the play clock down better this week than against BYU

We had a TD at the end get called back and we centered the ball when Newby fell down but for some reason the ball was kicked at the right hash even though we centered the ball.

We need to continue to work of field goal kicking.

You're talking about our FG attempt right at the end of the game, right? This is not correct.

 

[BigRedBuster]

I've seen a lot of things posted here regarding Mike Riley. And I'll say that many fair questions have been asked, as well as many fair comments have been made defending him — namely that it's his first year, that he shouldn't be blamed for Pelini's decsions, he needs time to adust to the new players, and they need time to adjust to him.

Just a heads-up about his clock management here: It has never been his strong suit.

Time and time again during his second stint as the head coach at OSU he lost games in part because of poor clock management. The best example of poor clock management that I can cite, though I don't believe it was the sole reason they lost the game, was the 2012 Alamo Bowl. They had just completed a 15-yd pass (unofficialy as the officials did not bother to check) to give them the first down. In Riley's defense, he probably thought the first down was a given and that the clock should have stopped to move the chains. However, there were still 11 seconds left in the second quarter after the completion had been made, and OSU still had one time out left to burn. Rather than use that time out, they ran out of time trying to get to the LOS to spike the ball and stop the clock so they could get the FG unit out there. They ended up going into the locker room at the half up 20-10 rathe than 23-10. They lost that game 31-27.

LikeI said before, I doubt that the missed opportunity to kick the field goal at the end of the first half cost them that game — there were so many other things that went wrong in the second half for them — but it's one of many examples of where Coach Riley simply doesn't understand how to manage the clock. Despite all of the troubles Coach Riley had here at OSU, I do like the guy, and I really hope he makes a go of things there in Lincoln. It would be a real nice F-you to the admin at OSU who didn't give him the full support he deserved when he was here.

Good luck, Huskers.

I agree, you ended up losing by 4.