Can we talk about dumbass coaches and time management?
At the same time.,..Dallas hit that long FG to win but they also had ways to stop the clock and let it run to the very end without even running a play. That was a Mike McCARTHY SPECIAL. Tea was less than impressed with that guy, no doubt.
In college and pro, these teams need to hire clock specialists or something... we see multiple errors every week of something that is VERY simple.
I agree with the clock management issues, but I do see two sides to the coin. Here's the other side:
1) The previous week they were in a similar situation, Down 2, 2 minutes left, ball at their 35. They hit a big pass early to get right into FG range. Then they stalled and left Brady 1:24 to drive for the GW FG. I'm sure they ran a slower pace and more runs on Sunday to make sure Herbert and his cannon arm had no chance to counter.
2) With 33 seconds left, Dallas had 2 and 6 on the Chargers 41, right at the edge of FG range, 1 timeout left. They decided to run....I would've been passing. They should've had two plays ready to go, maybe they did, I dunno. But now there's 28 seconds left, the clock is running, 1 timeout left, and its 3rd down. The choices are not great:
a) call timeout now. IMO you've moved into a high-risk position because its third down. If you run a play that doesn't stop the clock but also doesn't convert, then you're running the FG unit at double time and trying to kick a 50+ yarder in 20 seconds.
b) run a hurry up and get a play off to try to convert while keeping the timeout. This is their best option but for whatever reason they were slow in setting up (which they were that whole possession) and now they risked screwing up the play, losing yardage, or turning it over, or getting a penalty that would push them out of range.
This led them to go with option c) let the clock run to almost nothing a give your big leg a shot from a distance he can reach fairly easily. Here the only real risk is getting it blocked. Otherwise miss and its still a 50-50 shot in OT.
So from a clock management standpoint it wasn't their best. But from a risk management standpoint they basically did what happens in the NBA all the time. They held the ball in a tie game for the last shot and then instead of driving to the hole had Dame throw up a fall away three. This time it swished.
