Monday, October 8, 2007

Run 3 Times!

You heard it here first: I reversed field and began rooting for the Dallas Cowboys tonight late in the fourth quarter. That doesn't happen often. Usually I know who I'm rooting for and why, but the Buffalo Bills deserved to lose tonight. That was terrible clock management. With 6:21 to play the Bills had a 3rd and 8 down in the red zone. Instead of running the ball, using clock, and kicking a field goal Buffalo decides young Trent Edwards should drop back and try to make a play. Instead of an eleven point lead it's an interception. Amazingly Dallas bails them out with a fifth Romo pick.

With 3:50 seconds left in the game the Bills are up 8 points with the football. Its third and long and they have the opportunity to run 40-odds seconds off the clock by running Marshawn Lynch up the middle for no gain. Instead they pass. Incomplete. Clock stops. Dallas is left with an eternity and they use every second of it, scoring twice to win the game.

Coach Dungy says most NFL games are lost and not won. The Bills proved this tonight. NFL coaches are extremely busy, but they would do themselves a favor by reading Greg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback once in a while. Sometimes all you need to do is run the ball three times into the line and everything will be okay.

Unfortunately this leaves Dallas in a bad spot. They are coming off an emotional win on a short week of rest. Their reward? The New England Patriots. Sounds like trouble to me. Then again the Pats are a part of the AFC East. Which is just. . . wow. . . horrible.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course, if they read TMQ they would think that blitzes never work. In reality, blitzes are used by NFL defenses because the stats show by a wide margin that they provide a net benefit to the defense.

I do agree on your main point about the clock mgmt. But citing TMQ as an authority on football only diminishes the force of your argument.

Deshawn Zombie said...

I think Demond was just saying that as a figure of speech to give credit to Easterbrook for harping on the idea. We like TMQ and especially trumpet the no punt philosophy, but he's full of crap most of the time, and I think even he knows it.