Supplemental material including comments on clock management in recent football games and errata for the book Football Clock Management

These items are in chronological order with the most recent at the top of the page. This page got so big that it began to download too slowly so I broke it into a separate page for various years or year groups.

Arizona vs. USC, 12/5/09

Arizona QB has played some great games this season, but he needs to learn correct football clock management. In the USC game on 12/5/09, his team was up 21-17 with 2:20 left. The clock was stopped. It was fourth down. USC had no timeouts. AZ had first down at the USC 15. Is that take a knee? Almost. It’s sweep-slide. Foles should have run one or two quarterback-sweep-slide plays (See my NCAA rules change supplement that comes with the 3rd edition of my book Football Clock Management) then taken a knee to kill off the rest of the time. The sweep-slide play is diagrammed on page 69 of Football Clock Management.

But he ran three handoffs and Arizona used all three of its timeouts on the series. As a consequence, there was : 04 left after the fourth down play and they turned it over on downs to USC.

USC was sacked on the final play, but there should have been no need to sack him. Game should have ended with AZ in possession.

Patriots-Colts, 2009

New England had fourth-and-2, up six, 2:03 to play, at their own 28-yard line. They went for it, came within inches or perhaps a spot, but fell short. Indianapolis then won the game with a touchdown at :13.

Seth Wickersham of ESPN The Magazine called me to ask what my clock management rule was about a subsequent play when the Colts had first and goal at the one-yard line with :36 left. He said an unnamed NFL coach he discussed it with thought New England should have deliberately let the Colts score a TD so the Pats could have the maximum time to come back and kick the game-winning field goal. I was surprised that my book did not cover the situation already.

The current edition is the third edition. My second edition says to deliberately let the opponent score a touchdown when you are tied or up by one and they are going to kick a field goal no matter what. Mike Holmgren did that in Super Bowl XXXII.

I told Wickersham the issue involves working assumptions as opposed to probability assumptions. In New England’s situation after they turned the ball over on downs, they had a negative win probability. A working probability is like kicking onside when you are behind near the end of a game. You do not do it because you think it will probably work. You do it because it’s essentially your only way to victory in that situation.

The Patriots could win by a successful goal line stand—but with first and goal at the one and :36 left, Indianapolis gets four shots to go one yard. Peyton Manning is their quarterback. I do not like those chances.

The alternative is to let the Colts score a TD at :36, then try to use the kick return and/or about four scrimmage plays. That is more likely to result in a New England victory.

So, yes, the former 49ers coach (head or assistant) whose name was not disclosed to me is correct. The Patriots should have let the Colts score a TD from the one so they could have :34 or so to try to come back and kick the game-winning field goal.

So sometimes you let the opponent score a touchdown when you will be down by one after the TD.

Pitt-Cincinnati, 12/5/09

During this game, Pitt ran a kickoff out of the end zone with about a minute left and down by one. The returner was tackled short of the 20-yard line. The return consumed 11 seconds. Announcer Matt Millen pointed out that they could have gotten all the way to the 20 without spending any seconds to do it by taking the touchback. Good point.

They were in a hurry-up situation. 11 seconds is enough time to start two plays. So the issue is which is likely to increase your win probability the most: a kick return out of the end zone or two additional scrimmage plays with a starting point of your own 20-yard line? The answer is a function of the relative ability of your offense against the opposing defense and your kick-return team against the opposing kickoff team.

Since most teams neglect special teams, the touchback is probably the better choice for them.

Stanford-Notre Dame, 11/28/09

Stanford was tied with the Irish and had 1st and goal at the Notre Dame 4 with 1:03 left. Notre Dame had one timeout left. Stanford scored a touchdown on the next play. Anything wrong with that?

That was extremely stupid. It almost cost them the game. They should have taken a knee three times and stopped the clock at :03 then kicked the game-winning 21-yard field goal. By scoring a touchdown on first down, they had to kickoff to Notre Dame with :59 left. Notre Dame got to the Stanford 24-yard line. From that spot, a 41-yard field goal would have tied the game and sent it into overtime. Notre Dame tried to pass instead. The game ended with a scak and interception.

My Football Clock Management book includes a table that says when you have first down and your opponent has one timeout, you can start taking a knee if the time remaining is 2:08 or less. So it was not even close. Furthermore, my book has my Clock Management Rules including Rule 2.02 which says to take a knee in this situation until the clock gets down to :03 then kick the field goal.

I attended a Stanford practice several years ago. As a token of my appreciation, I brought a copy of my Football Clock Management book for the head coach. He told me he already had a copy. His best friend, Harvard coach Tim Murphy, told him to get it. So why did Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh screw this up? The Stanford coach I gave the book to was Buddy Teevans, who is now at Dartmouth. He was fired to make room for Harbaugh.

Tyrone Willingham, who was very successful as head coach at Stanford before he was less successful at Notre Dame and Washington, came to my house to hear my rehearsal of my 1998 Football Clock Management clinic talk at American Football Quarterly University. I gave him a copy of the book to tank him for coming to my rehearsal.

Harbaugh came from USD. I gave the head coach of USD a copy of Football Clock Management too. He’s quoted in it. But that was Kevin McGarry, the guy they fired to hire Harbaugh.

So Stanford, I’ve tried to help you—repeatedly. At this point, you guys can buy a copy of the damned book.

I was also your #2-in-the-Pac-10 WR Ryan Whalen’s first football coach. (Mainly, I chewed him out for dropping passes. He does not do that anymore so I guess it worked.)

Maurice Jones-Drew kneel down at 1-yard line

With his team down by 1 point against the Jets, Jaguar Maurice Jones-Drew got to the Jets one-yard line with 1:40 left in the game—AND TOOK A KNEE!

What’s up with that? Almost the same as the situation above at Stanford-Notre Dame. Jacksonville then took a knee three times, running the clock down to :03, at which time they kicked the game-winning field goal.

Did I have a connection with that? They probably got it from my book. I never saw or heard of any such thing when I wrote the book, but it made logical sense to me so I put it in there. The Broncos 9/13/09 game (see below) when the receiver ran sideways along the goal line to run off some more clock before scoring probably made the NFL safe for such things. (The Bronco guy did not take a knee because they needed more than three points.)

Jones-Drew graduated from De La Salle High School which is 12 miles from my house, but I am not aware that school has ever used my clock book or rules.

Another possible connection is with Amador Valley Exercise Equipment in Dublin, CA. I was talking with the owner there a couple of years ago and mentioned my book. The owner was very interested. He said he was a personal friend and former personal trainer of Jack Del Rio. When he trained Del Rio, Del Rio lived in Castro Valley, CA, the town west of Dublin. The trainer said he was going to tell Del Rio about my Football Clock Management book. That was around 2006. Del Rio has been the head coach of the Jaguars since 2003 and was for the game when Jones-Drew took the knee at the one. I do not know if Del Rio ever got my book. But I suspect that someone on the Jaguar staff must have because players do not think shit like that up on their own in the middle of a game they are losing.

Many fantasy football owners of Jones-Drew were pissed that he did not score a TD on that play. Go back to cleaning your pocket protectors, guys. The object of the game is to win, not to pad your individual stats.

Kudos to Del Rio for coaching Marurice Jones-Drew to execute that play in that situation. Kudos to Jones-Drew for having the discipline and team orientation to do so. And kudos to my local 49ers for kicking the butts of Del Rio and Jones-Drew today, 11/29/09, 20-3.

Now if I could only get 49ers coach Mike Singletary to adhere to my clock management rules.

LSU-Ole Mss 11/21/09

Here is an email I got from a reader:

John,
 
I’m sure you’ve seen and heard about it already, but the last minute of the LSU – Ole Miss game on 11/21 could comprise a new chapter in your book.
 
Ball @ Ole Miss 32 yard line with just under a minute to go and 2 time outs. LSU’s kicker has already made a 50 yard FG, so he is within range. First down, LSU QB bails out and throws it away, because Ole Miss is bringing heavy blitz pressure. In fact, the play that got LSU to the 32 was a WR screen that caught them in a blitz. Should have been a warning sign, but apparently not. Second down, LSU QB sacked for an 8 yard loss. Time out called. Third down, LSU swing pass behind LOS thrown for another loss. 29 seconds on the clock, 4th and 26, LSU coaches let the clock run down to 9 seconds before calling final time out.
 
LSU attempts a Hail Mary that falls short of the end zone, but is complete for a first down with 1 second at the 12. Despite their best efforts to avoid winning the game, LSU still has a chance if they run the FG team out or run a play as soon as the ball is spotted. Replay shows that 27 seconds of real time elapsed between the completion and the time the chains were set. The refs actually had trouble GETTING them set, which gave LSU more time. However, it is clearly evident that LSU was not prepared for either option. Instead, they make a futile effort to spike the ball and the clock runs out. After the game, Les Miles sounds like a boxer that just got knocked out trying to explain what happened.

[Reed note: That’s a pace-graph situation. LSU should have have done a series of running plays designed to get closer to the goal post, stopped the clock at :03 with a timeout, spike, or what I call a spike out of bounds which is a spike that takes a few more seconds off the clock. Then they should have kicked the game-winning FG as time expired. The 32-yard line is a 49-yard kick. That’s borderline probablity-wise even if he made one previously in the game from 50. They needed to get closer. The passing violates my rules in this situation. Too dangerous, stops the clock, could result in a turnover. I agree it’s bad clock management. Given how much big-time coaches make these days, it continues to amaze me that many of them cannot be bothered to buy, read, and comply with the clock-management rules in my $39.95 book.]

The writer adds;

Final score was 25 – 23. LSU had just scored with 1:17 to go and failed on a 2 pt conversion (incomplete pass, but Ole Miss was penalized.) LSU ran the same play from the 1 yd line, a fade pass, which was again incomplete. However, they recovered the onside kick when Ole Miss’s best player let the ball go right past him.
 
Miles actually makes $4 million a year. I think he’s a good coach, but it’s inexcusable for a team of that caliber to be so inept in that situation.

Jericho Mount Mansfield-Otter Valley, 9/26/09

With 1.3 seconds remaining, Jericho, trailing 16-14, attempted a game-winning field goal. It came down in the end zone, according to the TV news announcer on the YouTube video, where an Otter Valley player caught it and ran it out to the 11-yard line. After the buzzer signaling the end of regulation time sounded, he spiked the ball in celebration.

Jericho junior Jeff Sutherland scooped up the ball and ran it into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. Like everything else these days, it’s on you tube at http://www.youtube.com/v/N1JpJ53FbXg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en.

In fact, if the ball crossed the plane of the end zone, and did not go through the uprights, it was a touchback. Had regulation time not ended during the play, Otter Valley would have been awarded the ball at their twenty-yard line. You can run the ball out of the end zone in that situation in college and pro football, but not in high school (NFHS Rule 8-5-3-a-2).

The way the play was officiated was appropriate if the ball had come down short of the end zone. When I watch the video, it appears that the ball did not cross the plane of the end zone. In other words, the TV newsman described where the ball came down inaccurately.

My Football Clock Management book has a chapter called “Celebrations and personal fouls” which is about players, and others like the Sooner Schooner, losing games by celebrating prematurely. By the way, you can also lose games because of premature mourning of a loss when it’s not over yet. My book has rules to prevent that and lots of actual case histories to make the point. The Jericho play will be added to the next edition of Football Clock Management.

The basic rule is the game does not end until the fat man in the striped shirt blows his whistle. The scoreboard horn or buzzer does not end the game during a play started before the horn.

The final clock management rule in my book says simply:

Rule 7.00 Always play until the whistle.

In 2004, one of my freshman players did a little dance after scoring a touchdown in a summer camp drill. The head varsity coach and I instantly told him we don’t do that at Monte Vista. I also named him Mr. Sportsmanship for our team. His duty as Mr. Sportsmanship was to tell the rest of the team a “bedtime story” about premature celebrations, premature mourning the loss of the game, or end-of-game personal fouls, at the end of practice. We would sit the team down about four minutes before the end of practice and Mr. Sportsmanship would tell them about an actual team—NFL, NCAA, high school—that lost a game because some yo yo on that team failed to play until the whistle. He got the actual case histories from the celebration chapter of my book which I gave him. It was fun for the team and I’ll bet that team of mine would not have made the mistake the Otter Valley player made.

Again, Otter Valley won the game if the ball crossed the plane of the end zone. The officials were wrong to call the play a Jericho touchdown in that case. It was a touchback. If the ball did not come down inteh end zone, the call was correct and Jericho wins. But the impulse to celebrate before the whistle is wrong, the impulse to pick the ball up and run it into the end zone is usually correct and harmless in any event, and the celebration would have had the effect in question had the kick not gone into the end zone.

New York Giants vs Dallas Cowboys, 9/20/09

The Giants won this game with a field goal as time expired. Did Dallas lose because they screwed up the clock management?

That would be the case if they failed to operate at a slowdown tempo when they were ahead in the second half [my clock management rule 1.10(a)] or if they failed to operate at a tempo determined by my pace graph on their final scoring drive my clock management rule 1.10(b)].

Pace graph on last possession

The Cowboys’ last possession began at 7:30 left in the game at their own 29. They were down 30-24 so they needed a touchdown. There is a different pace graph for TDs and FGs. My NFL TD pace graph is on page 164 of my third edition. It says from that field position with that much time remaining, the Cowboys should snap the ball with :08 left on the play clock when the game clock is running. The pace graph is merely a schedule that delivers the team in question to the the opponent five-yard line with 1:00 left so they can take up to four shots at the end zone from that high-probability-of-success field position.

Did Dallas stay on the pace-graph schedule? Their 2nd & 8 snap at their own 42 came about 40 seconds after the ready-to play signal. (See the play-by-play at http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2009092014/2009/REG2/giants@cowboys#tab:analyze/analyze-channels:cat-post-playbyplay) It should have been :32, but the problem is snapping too early, not too late. Their next game-clock-running snap came after getting to the Giants’ 45 with about 6:00 left. Checking the pace graph again, that time-field-position combination calls for snapping when there are no seconds left on the play clock—a max slowdown. Why the change? They got ahead of schedule by gaining 26 yards in about 1:30.

Their next snap was at 5:24. Was that correct? No. It should have been several seconds later.

Their second-down snap was correctly at 0:00 in the play clock. As was the subsequent touchdown scoring play from the Giants’ 7-yard line.

So did Dallas lose because they violated the pace-graph schedule? No. Scoring ahead of schedule was caused by their gaining a lot of yards per play. I do not recommend taking a knee on any such play for the sake of the pace graph when you need a touchdown. You gain as many yards as you can on each play. The Cowboys did need to stay in bounds on this drive, and they did. Field goals are a different matter because they have such high success probability on a single down when within range.

Correct tempo earlier in the second half?

What about being in a slowdown when they had possession and were leading earlier in the second half?

Dallas snapped the ball about :09 too early in the second quarter at the Giants 49 and about two seconds early on the next play which was intercepted. The Cowboys never again had the ball in the second half when they were ahead. So had they been in a max slowdown on those two plays as they should have, the game would have ended about :11 sooner.

Where were the Giants with :011 left in the came? On the Dallas 19—same place where they kicked the game-winning field goal.

Another clock question was whether NY scored the margin-of-victory points just before the end of the first half. No. Dallas actually kicked a field goal just before the end of the first half. The only clock thing they could have done to win might have been to refrain from throwing the incomplete pass on 2nd & 8 at the Dallas 42. That added :40 to the length of the game—enough time to start about seven six-second plays. Where was NY with :40 + :11 left in the game? At the Dallas 41. That would require a 58-yard field goal which is unlikely.

So did Dallas lose the game because of violating my clock management rules? Probably. They violated the pace graph to the tune of :11 and they seem to have violated my Rule 1.20(c) and maybe 1.20(d) which added :40 to NY’s final drive. Those two rules relate to avoiding incomplete passes when in a slowdown tempo.

You may think that a lot of little things contributed to the loss. True, but clock management is the easiest to fix. Had every single thing in the game gone exactly the same, but they abided a little more strictly by my clock-management rules, Dallas probably would have won the game. The Cowboys bought my book a year or more ago.

Every second you leave on the clock unnecessarily may be the one your opponent uses to beat you. Here, Dallas left about :51 on the clock unnecessarily and those :51 second were used by the Giants to beat the Cowboys.

Oakland Raiders vs Kansas City Chiefs , 9/20/09

Just before half, the Chiefs totally blew three almost sure points with bad clock management. They were well within field goal range. the announcers said they had “time to take a shot at the end zone” before kicking the field goal. Apparently, they had no timeouts left.

So how did they throw away an almost sure three points? The “took a shot at the six-yard line” or some such. That is, they completed a pass to that area and the receiver was tackled before he could get out of bounds. The remaining five or six seconds then ran off the clock as the Chiefs tried futilely to line up to spike the ball. They should have “taken a shot at the end zone” like the announcers said or thrown the pass away to get the clock down to :03 and stop the clock until the snap for the field goal.

The Chiefs head coach was pissed. Of course, he is the one who coached the team so...

In the second half, KC lost by 3, the same 3 they blew at the end of the first quarter because of awful clock management. But they still have the $39.95 they saved by not buying my clock management book, so it’s not a total loss.

Washington Huskies vs USC Trojans, 9/19/09

WA won, but unnecessarily risked loss by violating my Clock Management Rule 1.21 which says to run the clock down to :03 at the end of a half before running a final scoring play. They snapped the ball :07 on 2nd down to kick the game-winning field goal which stopped the clock at :03 after the field goal. They should have spiked the ball or “spiked” it out of bounds (takes a couple more seconds) or taken a knee and called timeout to get the clock down to :03 before the field-goal play snap. Because of the violation, WA had to defend a kick return.

Congratulations to WA (unranked) Coach Sarkisian on the tremendous upset victory over #3 USC, but aren’t they paying you enough to learn and abide by simple clock-management rules?

Denver Broncos vs Cincinatti Bengals, 9/13/09

My Football Clock Management book has special clock management rules that I invented. Here is one that related to this game:

Rule 1.20 Slowdown tempo
(m) Delay touchdown
Ball carriers should not cross the goal line until just before a defender arrives

Have you ever seen that happen in an actual game? Probably not unless you were watching this game. With :28 left in the game Denver was trailing 7-6 2nd & 10 at their own 13 with :28 left in the game. Orton’s pass intended for Marshall is tipped up into the air where Stokely catches it. No one can catch him down the left side line. As he arrives at the five yard line, instead of going into the end zone, he hangs a right and runs along the one-foot line still not in the end zone. Finally, when a Bengal is about to arrive, he goes into the end zone scoring the game-winning touchdown. :11 is left on the clock.

After the unsuccessful two-point conversion, Denver kicks off. Cincinnati runs one unsuccessful pass. Game over. Denver wins.

Had Stokely not run along the goal line, and run off some extra time, the Bengals might have been able to run another play.

You need to know another of my clock management rules to understand this. As I said above, this fell under my Rule 1.20 which covers the slowdown tempo. Why, you may wonder, would a team that’s trailing be in a slowdown? Because of my

Rule 1.10 Proper tempo
(a) When your win probability is greater than .500, use a maximum slowdown tempo.

At the snap, with Denver on the own 13, their win probability was less than .500. But during the play, their win probability went from below .500 to about .999. So Stokely had to performa that calculation as he ran down the field. In other words, his coaches had to coach that in the pre-season and remind their players of it often enough so that Stokely would remember it in the heat of a game. He did.

VERY sharp clock management by Stokely and the Broncos!

He should have taken a knee at the one instead

I give the Broncos an A. To earn an A+ though, Stokely would have had to take a knee at the one-yard line. Then the Broncos would have let the clock run down to :03 and kicked the game-winning field goal. Game over.

By doing it the way they did, which left :11 on the clock after the touchdown, they had to defend a kickoff and one scrimmage play. They risked losing the game on either. What if they missed the field goal? Then they lose the game, but you have to make decisions by probability. The probablity was higher that they would make the field goal. Missing a field goal from closer than a P.A.T. would be a stuff-happens event, not evidence of poor judgment by Stokely or the Broncos.

The most famous football play in history, the Cal 5-lateral, come-from-behind, TD kick return over the trombone player against Stanford, was enabled by the failure of Stanford QB John Elway to let the clock run down to :03 before he called time out for Stanford’s go-ahead field goal. He called it at :08. That sequence is discussed in more detail on pages 3, 46, 177, 207, and 215 of my Football Clock Management book. (There were also end-of-game celebration-penalty clock-management lessons which caused the kick to be from the 20 rather than the 35 and which would have resulted in a rekick from their 10 had Cal not scored a TD because of the Stanford band coming onto the field during the play.)

Do I have any connection to Stokely’s smart play? I do not know, but here’s a possibility. The NFL guy who showed the most interest in my Football Clock Management book has been Mike Nolan. He was the Niners head coach until the end of the 2008 season when he got fired. He was then hired as defensive coordinator at Denver where he is now.

Two reporters tried to get me to say Mike was a lousy clock manager. I said I would have to do a detailed analysis of multiple games to conclude that. Neither would wait. I said I would be surprised if he was not one of the best clock managers because, as I said, he showed more interest in my book than any other NFL coach.

Maybe Mike shared his clock knowledge with the Broncos. If so, it would appear on this day that he was one of the best clock manager coaches in the NFL.

Pittsburgh Steelers vs Tennesse Titans, 9/10/09

Hines Ward caught a 20-yard pass that got Pittsburg into field-goal range in a 10-10 game at about :53 left in the game. Instead of sliding, he tried to score a TD, but had the ball stripped and Tennessee ran out the clock putting the game into overtime.

Tennessee had two time outs when Ward could have taken a knee. That would have given the Steelers 1st and goal at the Titans’ 14 or so with :53 left. Is that take a knee? Yes, as you can see on page 68 of the third edition of Football Clock Management.

Did Pittsburg violate my clock management rules? My son called me about the end of the regulation. He said he knew Ward should have slid after the catch. I did not think of that. I initially thought he as right to try for the game-winning score although wrong to fumble.

The three issues are when to take a knee on the fly (after you cross a line that means you are going to win like a first down or getting into field goal range), the pace graph (not scoring too soon), and the principle of enough (score enough points to win; additional points benefit you not and trying to score them may cost you the game as could have happened here.

Pittsburg kicked a field goal to win in overtime, but that has nothing to do with analyzing the failure of Ward to slide after the catch.

My clock management Rule 2.02 says,

If the team with the ball is tied or behind by one or two points and within field-goal range, they should take a knee until they can snap the ball with :03 left in the game to kick a field goal.

That is the rule Ward violated. One should ask about the probability of kicking a field goal from the 14. That is a 17 + 14 = 31 yards. The Steelers’ Reed was 8 for 11 from 30 to 39 yards in 2007 so that’s a good enough probability to avoid unnecessary contact.

As a result of this play, I’m going to modify my Rule 3.02 which is now only about getting into the take-a-knee period by gaining a first down. I need to add that the same thing applies when you get into the take-a-knee period by getting into field-goal range which might not be a first-down.

I do not have a rule about the enough principle but it is discussed on page 13 of the 3rd edition of Football Clock Management. Going for more, a two-point conversion, when he could easily have had enough—16-7 score with 8:26 left—with a one-point conversion, cost Navy coach Charlie Weatherbie the 1995 Army-Navy Game.

Ward should have slid down just before contact with a Titan, then the Steelers should have taken a series of knees until there was :03 left on the clock then they should have kicked the game-winning field goal.

What about the possibility of missing the field goal? Stuff happens. You have to go with the probabilities. You do not judge decisions by results, only by what the decision maker knew at the time. What Pittsburg knew when Ward caught that pass in the open field and began running was that they were within high-probability field-goal range therefore they should not risk contact and a fumble.

Two people I saw on the broadcast have my book. I sent Al Michaels one when he and Boomer Esiason got into a clock argument in a broadcast. Boomer was right, but conceded to Michaels as a result of a subsequent play. I told both Boomer and Al that Boomer was right and that the subsequent play was irrelevant and could also be interpreted another way. The details of what I told Boomer and Al in my cover letters to them are on pages 153 and 154 of the 3rd edition of Football Clock Management. Neither Boomer nor Al ever acknowledged my sending them the book, but Al subsequently seemed to make more intelligent clock comments so I surmise he got the book and read it. Their moms should have taught them to send a “thank you” either way.

The other reader of the book was Titans coach Jeff Fisher who called me one day a number of years ago to order my book. We talked for about 45 minutes. His son just started youth football which Jeff had just helped start in Nashville. Because he seems quite innovative and ballsy to me, I sent Jeff a complimentary copy of my latest football book The Contrarian Edge for Football Offense. He never acknowledged it.

Memo to NFL: teach all your head coaches to send “Thank you’s.” I was a speaker along with Bill Walsh, Brian Billick, and Bob Stoops of special a 6/1/2004 NCAA clinic to help minority coordinators get ready for head-coach interviews. Among other things, the curriculum included table manners and how to dress. I kid you not. So teaching the lifelong gym rats who coach in the NFL about common courtesy like “Thank you’s” is not as dumb as it might sound. They taught us that in “Cadetiquette” classes at West Point, when they weren’t teaching us the best spots to bayonet an enemy in combat.

San Francisco 49ers vs Buffalo Bills, 11/30/08

Just before half, Mike Singletary, whose team had a timeout, kicked a field goal with about :11 left on the clock. He could have and should have let the clock run down to :03 so that the kick would have been the last play of the half. Buffalo was unable to score but they should not have had a chance. The announcers commented on it.

Singletary’s predecessor, Mike Nolan, acquired about seven copies of the first, second, and third editions of my Football Clock Management. He would not have made that mistake.

When he was then head coach of the Chicago Bears, current Buffalo head coach Dick Jauron personally called me one day to order my Football Clock Management book. His Bills special team coordinator Bobby April took my clinics on the subject an the 1999 American Football Quarterly University. He would not have made the mistake either.

Green Bay Packers vs Carolina Panthers, 11/30/08

In the Green Bay-Carolina game on 11/30/08, up by 4, Carolina intercepted. The Carolina interceptor fell down, but not by contact. One of his teammates immediately held him on the ground. I do not recall anyone knowing to take a knee in that situation before I wrote about it in my first edition in 1997. My book says he should have run with the ball until he encountered a bad guy at which time he should slide.

Carolina was very close to a quarterback-sweep-slide situation. There was 1:09 left in the game. Green Bay had two timeouts. Carolina tried to gain a first down. They failed. They had to punt with :14 left. The great danger there was a blocked punt or bad punt snap. Green Bay tried to block, they had no receiver back to return, but were unsuccessful. Green Bay got the ball on their own six with :02 left. Their pass fell incomplete.

Carolina might have executed two sweep-slide plays. That would have taken them back to their own 9 and the clock down to around :55 to :57. Then they would execute a take-a-knee play back to the 7. That would take about :03 and the clock would run because Green Bay would be out of timeouts. Carolina would let the play clock run down to :01 then use their final timeout. The game clock would then be around :12 to :14 Their final play would be an intentional safety with the quarterback running to the back corner of the end zone then stepping out of bounds either after the final horn or just before he was touched by a Green Bay player. If they could stretch out the sweep-slides and take-a-knee for another couple of seconds, they could kill all the clock. The same may have been true if the interceptor had run off some clock without risking being tackled.

At worst, this would have forced Carolina to do a free kick after the intentional safety. That beats the hell out of a punt as far a block risk goes. True, this would force Carolina to cover the free kick and need to keep Green Bay out of field goal range. In the event, Carolina got a good long snap and protected the punter in spite of an 11-man rush.

Texas Tech/Texas crowd celebration 11/1/08

With :01 left on the clock, Texas Tech came from behind to score a touchdown against #1 Texas who had been leading 33-32. The TD put Tech up 38-33. But the Texas Tech crowd ran onto the field and tore down a goalpost. Tech was penalized for unsportsmanlike crowd for the crowd behavior. The penalty was to be enforced on the kickoff. Then Tech kicked the extra point to make it 39-32, and the crowd rushed the field again. Another penalty flag was thrown. As a result of the two 15-yard penalties, Tech had to kick off from their own 7 1/2-yard line (first penalty from the 30 to the 15; second penalty from the 15 to half the distance or the 7 1/2).

Texas tried the multiple lateral route to victory. They had no choice. Before the kick, Texas coach Mack Brown was seen on TV asking the officials no to start the clock if they made a fair catch. That is the correct rule. Apparently his preference was to call a fair catch then throw a Hail Mary. But Tech did not cooperate. They kicked a ground ball. You cannot fair catch a grounder, although one of my freshmen did in 2003. Tech intercepted the second lateral then the Tech ball carrier wisely went to the ground instead of trying to score. Such a score would unnecessarily risk a fumble to score points that would only serve to pad the individual’s own stats. My book says to always go to the ground or go out of bounds in such a post-buzzer situation where you have the lead.

Mike Leach and I met in 1998 when we were both speakers at the inaugural American Football Quarterly University. My clock book had just come out. I was a regular columnist for that magazine. We met again in 1999 at the same event where we had the same roles.

I have cited him at my Web site and in my book The Contrarian Edge for Football Offense as one of the most innovative football coaches in the country. I was proud of his victory over #1 Texas and proud of the clock management he and his players employed at the end of the game—although not the out-of-control Tech crowd that almost cost him the game.

First-down reception slide

In the 10/5/08 Broncos-Tampa Bay game, Denver needed two more first downs in order to be able to take a knee for the rest of the game. They completed a pass and the receiver slid to the ground without being hit as soon as he crossed the first down line to gain. That was correct for the second first down they needed, but premature for the first. He should have kept running inbounds until tackled.

I have never seen that done in a TV game before, but all three editions of my Football Clock Management book said to do that. The first edition came out in 1997 and covered the matter on page 97 under the subhead “Taking a knee on the fly.” By the second edition, I had a signal for the clock management assistant coach to use to signal that situation in. He would give the referee’s first down signal (pointing forward of the offense with a stiff arm) then take a knee. That tells the QB to remind his teammates to “Get the first down then slide.” The current third edition covers it in Reed’s Football Clock Management Rule 3.02 and the discussion thereof in the book.

NCAA clock rules changes

In 2008, the NCAA changed its play clock to 40 seconds when there is no official’s timeout. That is the same as the NFL rule except that there is still no two-minute warning official’s timeout in college as there is in the NFL. That means you cannot simply use my NFL take-a-knee and sweep-slide tables now in college football.

Essentially, there already was a sort of 40-second play clock in high school and college because the game clock time that ran off between plays consisted not only of the 25-second play clock, but also an additional 10 to 21 seconds of what I call “ball-placing time.”

What has changed at the college level is that henceforth, the amount of ball-placing time will always be 15 seconds precisely. Since I assumed 35 seconds when I made the High School/NCAA tables that are in my book, I need to create a revised NCAA table that will be five seconds longer than the current High School/NCAA tables.

Unpredictable official’s timeouts

Thinking about this had made me realize that there are five possible clock reasons for official’s timeouts that can screw up the tables. If there is an official’s time out, the play clock is reduced from 40 seconds to 25 seconds. Since the tables assume 40, such a timeout would make the table incorrect. You would not be able to kill as much time as the table says. Six of the reasons for official’s timeouts do not affect the tables’ accuracy because they either change the down or create a non-continuing series situation. The five official’s timeouts that cannot be controlled by the offense are:

Rule 3-2-4-c
3. Media timeout
4. Injury timeout
5. Measurement
11. Instant replay review
12. Other administrative stoppage

The only one of these an offense can possibly affect is to run a play that comes very close to the line to gain for the first down. But even then, the official may deny a request for a measurement. Of course, the take-a-knee tables and sweep-slide tables are for your slowdown so you would NOT want a measurement. Deliberately trying to trigger a measurement would be a hurry-up tactic only when you are on offense. On defense, successfully stopping a ball carrier at a location that triggered a measurement would add 15 seconds to the game. But if the spot did not require a measurement or the offense got the first down, you’re done. So on defense, you’d better stop the ball carrier as soon as you can.

Since these five official’s timeouts are possible, I will add a new, worst-case, all-25-second play-clock set of tables. That may never have happened in the history of football, that is, three successive official’s timeouts for media and/or injury and/or measurement and/or instant replay review and/or “other administrative stoppage.” The all-25-second clock is not likely to ever happen, but it puts a floor on the worst case. Any coach who is still trying to gain a first down after entering the worst-case sweep-slide table period is inarguably behaving incompetently.

NCAA should change the rules

NCAA should assume that injuries to a trailing team player that require official’s timeouts during the sweep-slide period are intentional attempts to conserve time. Accordingly, they should make the play clock after an injury to a trailing team player 40 seconds, not 25. There would be no incentive for the leading team to deliberately trigger an injury timeout. They can run 40 seconds off the clock between plays with no injury and only 25 with an injury.

The general principle should be that these five official’s timeouts do not change the game. By converting what have been a 40-second run off of time between plays to a 25-second timeout, they favor the trailing team over the leading team. That should not be.

Use challenge instead of timeout

49ers coach Mike Nolan, who has shown more interest in my clock books than any other coach, challenged a call in his 9/28/08 game. The penalty was minor. He had a low chance of prevailing. And he did not win the challenge. So why did he do it? Because he was going to use a timeout anyway and he figured why not do a challenge instead because at least it provides a chance that he would win and thereby get the benefits of a timeout without having to burn one. That makes sense. It’s like calling for a measurement as part of a hurry-up when you are out of timeouts or want to conserve them and the play came close to a first down or not being a first down.

Buffalo Bills vs Oakland Raiders 9/21/08

At the end of this game, the Bills had one timeout left and were down by two points. They wisely let the clock run down to :03, called timeout, then kicked the game-winning field goal as time expired. Bills coach Dick Jauron who called the :03 timeout purchased my Football Clock Management book back when he was head coach of the Bears. Bills special teams coach Bobby April attended my talk on the subject at the 1998 American Football Quarterly University convention. It was three days long. He told me he just came to hear my talk then he was going back to New Orleans where he worked at the time.

The Raiders had two timeouts left. Even thought the Bills were within field goal range and there was more than a minute left, the Raiders did not use either timeout. They should have used both in hurry-up fashion as stated in my book. Color man Dan Fouts did the game and he said they should have used their timeouts. See the pace graph chapter of my book. Although I live about 20 minutes from the Raiders, got some help from them researching Football Clock Management, and have been written up in the local papers for the book several times, neither Al Davis nor any Raiders coach ever purchased my book as far as I know.

Had the Raiders used their timeouts as I recommend, they would have received a kickoff and had more than one minute to try to kick their own game-winning field goal. They lost the game, in which they had earlier played great.

New York Jets vs Buffalo Bills, 12/30/01

The Jets-Bills game of 12/30/01 seemed to end in a clock-management mess, but I have looked at the play-by-play and see no problem. When they were ahead 14-9, Buffalo tried to punt on 4th & 15 from the Jets 37. That strikes me as a bad idea, although it’s not a clock-management mistake per se. In the event, they fumbled the snap back to the 50 where New York took over on downs with :47 left. With 1st & 10 at the Bills 24, Testaverde spiked the ball to stop the clock at :13. That is correct clock management. Then they completed a pass over the middle to the 17 and had no time outs left. They hustled to snap the ball and did so just before time ran out. Testaverde threw a very inaccurate incomplete fade pass and the game ended.

After the game, the owner and Testaverde implied someone screwed up on the last couple of plays. I don’t know of anyone other than Testaverde who screwed up. He could have thrown to another receiver or thrown more accurately. The fade receiver was covered, but an accurate pass would have at least given the receiver a chance to make a play. The pass Testaverde threw was so high there was no chance to make a play. The Bills special teams screwed up royally on the punt, but the Jets clock management on the last series was OK. Testaverde implied a different play should have been called. He’ll get no support from me. I think a fade pass is as good as any other in that situation. Execute.

Go for it

Economist David Romer of the University of California at Berkeley did a study of 700 NFL games from 1998 to 2000. He found that teams near midfield should go for it on fourth down if they less than five yards to go and that teams inside the opponent’s five-yard line should go for the touchdown on fourth down. The study was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Deliberate lateral out of bounds in NCAA

In the second editions printed before 6/5/06, I said it was legal to lateral the ball out of bounds to stop the clock if a ball carrier could not run out of bounds. Referee Mike Wise corrects me on that. Rule 7-2-1 says it is a five-yard penalty and loss of down and Rule 3-4-3 says the clock restarts on the ready to play signal. There are til some situations where it would make sense to lateral out of bounds to stop the clock, namely, if you needed the clock stoppage and could afford the five yards and loss of down.

Add Football Clock Management Rule 1.10(e)

If the defense has fewer than or more than eleven men on the field, snap the ball as soon as possible to prevent them from correcting the problem.

I got this idea from the 2008 Super Bowl where New England may or may not have done it for that purpose, although their punter may just have inadvertently called for the snap early.

Usain Bolt’s Olympic celebration

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s Olympic celebration did not prevent him from winning the gold in the 100 meters or from setting a world record. But it did prevent him from setting the world record he would have set had he not showboated in the last ten meters of the race. According to Norwegian physicist Hans Eriksen, Bolt would have set a new record of 9.55 to 9.61 with no showboating. Instead, he ran the 100 meters in 9.69. Stupid celebration mistake.

Monday Night Football classic premature mourning by Dallas cancels out premature celebration by Eagles receiver 9/15/08

On Monday Night Football, Philadelphia’s DeSean Jackson got open deep, caught a perfect pass from Donovan McNabb, and ran into the end zone untouched. In one of the most bonehead plays of all time, he celebrated prematurely by tossing the ball away backward back into the field of play. Dallas challenged whether the ball crossed the plane of the goal line when it was in his possession. Replay showed it had not. He literally threw away a sure touchdown.

Dallas could have and should have picked up the ball and ran the other direction. But instead they went into mourning over the “touchdown” they assumed had just been scored. They walked away. The officials blew the play dead for lack of interest with the ball resting on the one yard line. After review of the replay revealed that the touchdown had not been scored, Philadelphia, which was the last team to touch the ball, was awarded the ball on the one yard line 1st and goal. On the next play, Brian Westbrook dove into the end zone over the defensive line. After the extra point, the score was Philadelphia 27-Dallas 21.

The loose ball might have been returned for a touchdown if the officials did not inadvertently blow it dead. That would mean the premature mourning cost the Cowboys a point swing of 14 points. At worst, Dallas would have gone three and out and punted the ball out of there. To the extent that such a series would have reduced the number of points scored by Philadelphia or increase the number scored by Dallas, the premature mourning might have lost the game.

In the event, both teams got a field goal before half time. Dallas had to rush theirs, but they made the mistake of calling time out with :09 left rather than :03 for their attempt. Then they had to kick off to Philadelphia. The kickoff was not returned for a touchdown and ended the half.

Dallas won 41-37.

Batting a punt to run out the clock
A high school official brought this to my attention. He has not seen it on the field, but he and I both see it in the rule book. Neither of us likes it and we both agree the rule should be clarified to prevent this tactic.

Team A has the lead but cannot take a knee because it is fourth down and they have to punt. After the ball is kicked, there will be about ten seconds left in the game. The principle would apply, albeit less finally, at the end of the first half.

The Team B receiver decides to get away from the ball. (By the way, I hate punt returners who do not catch catchable balls on the fly or who do not return bouncing balls where there is little danger of a muff in the presence of kicking team members. It is a firing offense on my teams generally.)

The punting team members start batting the ball back toward the end zone behind them as explicitly permitted by NFHS Rule 9-7-2 exception. They keep on batting until time runs out. By rule 6-2-5, the receiving team gets the ball at the spot of first touching by the punting team, but that does them no good if there is no time left on the clock.

I think it violates Rule 3-6-2-f as delay of the game. In that case, the ball should be moved five yards toward the leading team’s goal line and the batting time put back on the clock. The official says it cannot be delay because the ball is live. I guess the logic of that would be that the penalty is for preventing “promptness in putting the ball in play…” and the ball is already in play while it is being batted.

Obviously, the sole purpose of the rule is to enable the punting team to prevent the ball from going into the end zone for a touchback. But that only takes one bat generally. Using the rule repeatedly just to prevent the trailing team from running any more plays during the remaining time is anti-competitive and unsportsmanlike. It is reminiscent of the 9/10/78 Raiders-Chargers “Holy Roller” play that was promptly outlawed in the NFL.

Until the rule is changed or clarified, receiving teams should make sure they catch such a punt to prevent serial batting. If they are not going to do a kick return, they should fair catch it to maximize the time remaining in the game.

I think the referee should stop the clock when the ball would have stopped after the first bat under the general rule 1-1-6 which says,

The referee has authority to rule promptly, and in the spirit of good sportsmanship, on any situation not specifically covered in the rules.

1/5/08 Wild Card Playoff game between Jags and Steelers
Watching the end of the Jags victory over the Steelers I thought the Jags screwed up their clock management and made the victory far tougher than necessary. Specifically, I thought they should try for another first down rather than take a deliberate delay penalty in the final minutes.

So I looked at the official play-by-play that you can see for yourself at http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/playbyplay?game_id=29517&displayPage=tab_play_by_play&season=2007&week=POST18. Here are the details of the key time in the game and my comments about the decisions Jacksonville made.

Play-by-play	Reed comment
3-2-PIT 43 2:00 incomplete pass	The announcers commented and I agree that JAX should have made sure they snapped the ball for this play before the 2:00 warning. They were in a hurry-up mode which means they should snap the ball ASAP and they did not.
4-2-PIT 43 1:56 QB scrambles up the middle for 32 yards to the PIT 11	At this point, the two teams both needed to switch clock management gears 180 degrees. Before this play, JAX should be in a hurry-up and PIT in a slowdown. After this play, the opposite. The reason is that JAX became the favorite as a result of the play. Before the play, PIT was the favorite to win.
timeout #1 by PIT at 1:34	Steelers called this timeout too slow. The play probably took about six seconds. They should have called timeout immediately after the play ended at 1:50
1-10-PIT 11 1:34 run loss of two	correct clock management
timeout #2 by PIT at1:30	correct clock management, Jags within FG range so Steelers need to conserve time for their post-FG comeback
2-12-PIT 13 1:30 run to PIT 8	correct clock management
timeout #3 by PIT at 1:25	correct clock management
3-7-PIT 8 1:25 run to PIT 2	correct clock management
4-1-PIT 2 :40 Jags deliberately took delay penalty	This is where I thought maybe they should go for the first. I had not been aware of the down. Since it was fourth down, they did the right thing. Announcer John Madden said he would have gone for a touchdown then settled for the field goal on fourth down. He’s wrong. Jags coach Jack Del Rio did the right thing. Madden needs to study the decision trees in my Football Clock Management book and get someone to explain expected value to him. Madden said he does not take “chip shot” field goals for granted. Neither do I, but that’s not the correct analysis. The correct analysis is what course of action is most likely to lead to a victory. In a decision tree, you choose the branch that has the highest expected value. The fact that high-probability events like chip shot field goals sometimes fail is irrelevant. You make the decision that is most likely to result in victory. It it misses, that’s life.
4-6-PIT 7 :40 FG good Jags take lead at 31-29	correct clock management

The clock management by Jags coach Del Rio was correct. Parenthetically, in 2006, I got into a long conversation with the owner of Amador Valley Exercise Equipment in Dublin, CA. He is a friend and former trainer of Jack Del Rio, who is from nearby Hayward, CA. The trainer was very excited about my depiction of my clock management book and said he was going to tell Del Rio about it. I do not know if he did. I do not recall a subsequent order for the book from the Jags. But I cannot say for sure whether a team does not have the book because coaches move around from team to team and some buy using a name that would not reveal who they are.

In their second possession of the fourth quarter, Steelers quarterback Ben Rothlisberger violated my clock management rules by getting tackled on a two-point conversion attempt from the 12 yard line (after a holding penalty on the first attempt). He should have lateraled rather than allow himself to be tackled. In a PAT play, the defense getting possession means the play is over. They cannot score or gain any advantage on the subsequent play—a kick return—from a take away on a PAT play.

Had Rothlisberger lateraled successfully and the lateral resulted in PIT scoring the 2-point conversion, which I admit would have been unlikely, the later JAX field goal would merely have tied the game. Unlikely or not, you never allow yourself to be tackled or knocked out of bounds on a two-point conversion play in the NFL or high school. You must always lateral once it becomes apparent that you will not get into the end zone. In NCAA, that rule does not apply because they allow the defense to run the ball back for a two-point defensive touchdown at that level.

Brian Billick fired
In a newspaper column by Baltimore Sun columnist Mike Preston, Ravens head coach Brian Billick was said to have been fired in part because of his clock management. I was surprised by that because Brian bought my book at the 1998 American Football Quarterly University where he and I both gave clinics. We also talked on the phone and exchanged a number of emails. In one, he said he might have me come to Ravens as a clock-management consultant. He never did.

I never focused on his clock management and recall no reports that it was incorrect. When a coach screws up the clock, I usually hear about it. So I wonder what Preston’s basis was. My book has never been criticized as being wrong, so Preston in essentially accusing Billick as not having applied the book’s advice, in effect. (I have no reason to believe Preston knows anything about my book.) Knowing Brian’s intelligence, approach to the game, and the having discussed my book with him at length, I would be very surprised if he was truly guilty of bad clock management other than the usual reluctance of NFL coaches to use some clock tactics that the public and columnists like Preston might not understand, like my quarterback sweep slide play instead of taking a knee when there is too much time left to take a knee.

Hang-time throwaway just before NFL two-minute warning
My son Dan pointed out to me that a hang-time throw away (deliberate maximum-distance incomplete pass) on a quarterback sweep-slide play that will end after the 2:00 in the NFL would kill more time than taking a knee or the quarterback sweep-slide play because of the flight time of the incomplete pass. As always, the hang-time throwaway pass must not be caught by anyone, but it must also not trigger an intentional grounding penalty.

Deliberate lateral out of bounds in NCAA
In the second editions printed before 6/5/06, I said it was legal to lateral the ball out of bounds to stop the clock if a ball carrier could not run out of bounds. Referee Mike Wise corrects me on that. NCAA Rule 7-2-1 says it is a five-yard penalty and loss of down and Rule 3-4-3 says the clock restarts on the ready-to-play signal. There are still some situations where it would make sense to lateral out of bounds to stop the clock, namely, if you needed the clock stoppage and could afford the five yards and loss of down.

Page 150 of second edition books printed before 8/9/01 says 120 seconds is enough time to run ten stop-the-clock plays. It should say 20 stop-the-clock plays.

Page 153 of books printed 9/1/01 and before says Notre Dame’s Rudy Ruettiger brags that he was the only Notre Dame player ever carried off the field by his teammates. It should say “the last player carried off the field by his teammates.”

Page 59 of books printed before 11/19/01 said it had to be 2:00 and 1 time out left at the time of the first-down snap in the NFL to take a knee. It should have said 1:28.

Page 60 of books printed before 11/19/01 said it had to be 2:00 and 1 time out left at the time of the first-down snap in the NFL to sweep slide. It should have said 1:40. Also, change the down 1 gained end from 2:40 to 1:59.

Clock Management Rule 1.20 (c) ends with the phrase “especially on the first three downs.” Change that to “on the first three downs of a series”

The Jets-Bills game of 12/30/01 seemed to end in a clock-management mess, but I have looked at the play-by-play and see no problem. When they were ahead 14-9, Buffalo tried to punt on 4th & 15 from the Jets 37. That strikes me as a bad idea, although it’s not a clock-management mistake per se. In the event, they fumbled the snap back to the 50 where New York took over on downs with :47 left. With 1st & 10 at the Bills 24, Testaverde spiked the ball to stop the clock at :13. That is correct clock management. Then they completed a pass over the middle to the 17 and had no time outs left. They hustled to snap the ball and did so just before time ran out. Testaverde threw a very inaccurate incomplete fade pass and the game ended.

After the game, the owner and Testaverde implied someone screwed up on the last couple of plays. I don’t know of anyone other than Testaverde who screwed up. He could have thrown to another receiver or thrown more accurately. The fade receiver was covered, but an accurate pass would have at least given the receiver a chance to make a play. The pass Testaverde threw was so high there was no chance to make a play. The Bills special teams screwed up royally on the punt, but the Jets clock management on the last series was OK. Testaverde implied a different play should have been called. He’ll get no support from me. I think a fade pass is as good as any other in that situation. Execute.

Go for it
Economist David Romer of the University of California at Berkeley did a study of 700 NFL games from 1998 to 2000. He found that teams near midfield should go for it on fourth down if they less than five yards to go and that teams inside the opponent’s five-yard line should go for the touchdown on fourth down. The study was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Click on the items below to go to those Web pages.

1997 Football Clock Management News

1998 Football Clock Management News

1999 Football Clock Management News

2000 Football Clock Management News

Jets Ravens 11/14/04 game

An interesting clock-management game I have heard about but not yet researched: 1993 Peach Bowl Clemson over Kentucky