WHAT were they thinking, burning that last timeout?

[Sgt. Largent]

I think everyone's hyper-focusing on the wrong thing.

If it wasn't for Dickson's horrible punt giving the Rams the ball at the 21 instead of where it should have been, inside the 10, if not the 5..............then we're not having this conversation because there's no way McVay goes for it on his own 30.

 

[pmedic920]

I was flabbergasted when we used that last timeout. It seemed pretty obvious that the reason the Rams didn't go for it initially was because we'd be in a good position to win the game with a timeout left and a buck 39 on the clock. Once we burned that, it changed everything; they only had to get a few inches on one play to end the game.

OF COURSE they decided to go for it at that point!

What in the HELL were we thinking burning that timeout then?! It cost us a good chance at winning the game!

I'm still not over it. Absolutely livid.

I have to comment now, I’ll read the thread after this post.

#metoo

I was absolutely FREAKING OUT.
to me it felt like that TO gave the Rams time to get their shit together, and change their mind.

I almost broke another TV by throwing the remote. Only thing that stopped me was the $1500 I spent last year after breaking one.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

to me it felt like that TO gave the Rams time to get their shit together, and change their mind. .

The Rams already had TWO official measurements and all that time to get their shit together.

You're thinking they're punting and you're getting the ball back to try and win the game, why on earth wouldn't you want an extra 40 seconds?

This take and anger makes ZERO sense to me.

 

[mrt144]

Could they bring the offense out after bringing the punt team on the field with the clock running? I doubt it. The only way for them to get the offense back on the field without us taking a TO was to take the delay of game.

There were over 30 seconds left on the play clock. That’s plenty of time to bring the offense back out had they wanted to.

I honestly think there's a rule against that. You have to give the defense time to substitute or something. Anyway, I highly doubt that McVay would do that, they'd have just lined up their offense in the first place. It's the extra time afforded by the TO that solidified their decision to go for it.

Which, by the way, Hawkpower, is not a stupid decision at all. By win probability, it was absolutely the right move and teams don't do it enough (going for it on 4th and 1 regardless of where you are on the field). It makes even more sense for the Rams because they are an offensive team. I think that's going to do a lot for their team confidence. Goff was absolutely fired up after it.

McVay is a gamer, Pete a coach.

 

[kidhawk]

to me it felt like that TO gave the Rams time to get their shit together, and change their mind. .

The Rams already had TWO official measurements and all that time to get their shit together.

You're thinking they're punting and you're getting the ball back to try and win the game, why on earth wouldn't you want an extra 40 seconds?

This take and anger makes ZERO sense to me.

Problem is, it's not 40 seconds, it's 25 tops and that's only if they took a delay of game penalty. We'd still have had over a minute to get into field goal range and had a timeout to boot.

I get Pete's thought that he wanted to stop the clock, but sometimes you need to work within the situation you're actually in, and not just do what you always do. Giving the rams the extra incentive to go for it was a bad idea. Letting them punt increases our odds of victory even with 25 less seconds on the clock.

 

[mikeak]

I initially was pissed at what happened then I went back and ran the play and realized I had an incorrect understanding

1) Rams 3rd down is a play down the middle
2) The only reason the clock is stopped is because of measurement
3) As soon as the ball is spotted the clock will run
4) It felt like a wasted timeout because the clock had been stopped, but it would have started running again
5) It was completely the right call to stop the clock - it is what should be done

Now lets discuss NOT taking a timeout at 2.37 and let the clock go down to 2 minutes. That my friends is horrible clock management

 

[mikeak]

I think everyone's hyper-focusing on the wrong thing.

If it wasn't for Dickson's horrible punt giving the Rams the ball at the 21 instead of where it should have been, inside the 10, if not the 5..............then we're not having this conversation because there's no way McVay goes for it on his own 30.

Also correct - this was key

 

[Sgt. Largent]

to me it felt like that TO gave the Rams time to get their shit together, and change their mind. .

The Rams already had TWO official measurements and all that time to get their shit together.

You're thinking they're punting and you're getting the ball back to try and win the game, why on earth wouldn't you want an extra 40 seconds?

This take and anger makes ZERO sense to me.

Problem is, it's not 40 seconds, it's 25 tops and that's only if they took a delay of game penalty. We'd still have had over a minute to get into field goal range and had a timeout to boot..

1. The NFL playclock is 40 seconds, not 25. As soon as the ref winds the clock, McVay is taking all 40 seconds.

2. We couldn't get into FG range from the 50 yards like the previous series with five minutes left, what confidence did you have that we could do it from inside our 20 with just a minute.

Again, people are focusing on the wrong thing IMO, if Dickson (who we spent a 5th round pick and did nothing during the preseason except punt the ball out inside the 5) doesn't get cute and try to roll a punt giving the Rams the ball at the 21, this conversation doesn't happen. McVay has to punt.

Dickson is the one who gave the Rams an extra 10-15 yards giving McVay the chance to go for it.

 

[Jazzhawk]

Meh... one call did not lose a game.

 

[kidhawk]

to me it felt like that TO gave the Rams time to get their shit together, and change their mind. .

The Rams already had TWO official measurements and all that time to get their shit together.

You're thinking they're punting and you're getting the ball back to try and win the game, why on earth wouldn't you want an extra 40 seconds?

This take and anger makes ZERO sense to me.

Problem is, it's not 40 seconds, it's 25 tops and that's only if they took a delay of game penalty. We'd still have had over a minute to get into field goal range and had a timeout to boot..

1. The NFL playclock is 40 seconds, not 25. As soon as the ref winds the clock, McVay is taking all 40 seconds.

2. We couldn't get into FG range from the 50 yards like the previous series with five minutes left, what confidence did you have that we could do it from inside our 20 with just a minute.

Again, people are focusing on the wrong thing IMO, if Dickson (who we spent a 5th round pick and did nothing during the preseason except punt the ball out inside the 5) doesn't get cute and try to roll a punt giving the Rams the ball at the 21, this conversation doesn't happen. McVay has to punt.

Dickson is the one who gave the Rams an extra 10-15 yards giving McVay the chance to go for it.

40 or 25 is still inconsequential. The fact remains we'd have gotten the ball with about a minute left on the clock and a timeout to get into field goal range. The timeout was unnecessary. As I said, I understand it's the "normal" thing to do in the vast majority of situations. This just wasn't one of the vast majority of situations. Sometimes you have to coach within the situation you are in. This time we didn't do that.

is this the one single thing that cost us the game? No it's not, but it is the one thing that happened that I disagreed with before it happened.

We can go back to the holding call that took us out of field goal range. We can talk about the bad punt by Dickson, and i'm sure there's a litany of other plays throughout the game that could have changed the outcome. I'm not saying that the timeout call was the sole reason for us losing, it was just the final nail in the coffin.

 

[bbsplitter]

Almost everyone is acting like if the timeout had not have been called we would have won the game. Calling that timeout was not bad coaching. For all we know, McVay was simply switching from a high-risk fake punt to a lower risk QB sneak, and he was always going to go for it. Carroll might have seen the indications of the fake punt in their personnel as well, and called the time out for that reason, as well as to preserve the clock. If we had let the clock bleed out on that punt we would have had a much lower chance to win, especially with a good punt.

There is just too much we don't know, and I don't know how PC can be shoved under the bus so hard for that one circumstantial play... Now, the unneeded timeouts because we forget how to call a play sometimes? Those need to be cleaned up.

Also, we only lost by 2 points against a team that IMO has a much more talented roster. That to me does not scream out-coached.

 

[AROS]

Sometimes it's just the Occam's Razor principle:

He called a time out simply to save time on the clock.

Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[OkieHawk]

Almost everyone is acting like if the timeout had not have been called we would have won the game. Calling that timeout was not bad coaching. For all we know, McVay was simply switching from a high-risk fake punt to a lower risk QB sneak, and he was always going to go for it. Carroll might have seen the indications of the fake punt in their personnel as well, and called the time out for that reason, as well as to preserve the clock. If we had let the clock bleed out on that punt we would have had a much lower chance to win, especially with a good punt.

There is just too much we don't know, and I don't know how PC can be shoved under the bus so hard for that one circumstantial play... Now, the unneeded timeouts because we forget how to call a play sometimes? Those need to be cleaned up.

It could have gone either way, but saving the timeout was a better decision than wasting it right there. Even if it was a fake punt I'm hoping they would have factored that into their decision. If they didn't then Pete has no reason to keep coaching as the game has moved on without him.

 

[kidhawk]

Almost everyone is acting like if the timeout had not have been called we would have won the game. Calling that timeout was not bad coaching. For all we know, McVay was simply switching from a high-risk fake punt to a lower risk QB sneak, and he was always going to go for it. Carroll might have seen the indications of the fake punt in their personnel as well, and called the time out for that reason, as well as to preserve the clock. If we had let the clock bleed out on that punt we would have had a much lower chance to win, especially with a good punt.

There is just too much we don't know, and I don't know how PC can be shoved under the bus so hard for that one circumstantial play... Now, the unneeded timeouts because we forget how to call a play sometimes? Those need to be cleaned up.

It could have gone either way, but saving the timeout was a better decision than wasting it right there. Even if it was a fake punt I'm hoping they would have factored that into their decision. If they didn't then Pete has no reason to keep coaching as the game has moved on without him.

I think we had a very good chance of stopping the fake punt, because they have a lot of grass between the punter and the line of scrimmage. The qb sneak was the only good option there for getting the first down. Either way, we'll never know what could have been. All I know is what I wanted to see in that moment and what I wanted and what Pete wanted were apparently 2 different things.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

We can go back to the holding call that took us out of field goal range. We can talk about the bad punt by Dickson, and i'm sure there's a litany of other plays throughout the game that could have changed the outcome. I'm not saying that the timeout call was the sole reason for us losing, it was just the final nail in the coffin.

Kinda what I'm getting at, no reason to hyper focus on the TO called or not.............it's a false pretense to think THAT'S why we lost, or even contributed to us losing. Too many other plays that ACTUALLY happened to talk about.

I mean, in general Pete is a terrible in game decision maker. So if you think he shouldn't have called a TO, then just put it down on your massive list of terrible in game clock management/calls by Pete.

 

[mrt144]

We can go back to the holding call that took us out of field goal range. We can talk about the bad punt by Dickson, and i'm sure there's a litany of other plays throughout the game that could have changed the outcome. I'm not saying that the timeout call was the sole reason for us losing, it was just the final nail in the coffin.

Kinda what I'm getting at, no reason to hyper focus on the TO called or not.............it's a false pretense to think THAT'S why we lost, or even contributed to us losing. Too many other plays that ACTUALLY happened to talk about.

I mean, in general Pete is a terrible in game decision maker. So if you think he shouldn't have called a TO, then just put it down on your massive list of terrible in game clock management/calls by Pete.

It was the final factor which took the game out of our hands. But that last 4 minutes of the game just had little things add up against us, mostly self inflicted.

 

[OkieHawk]

I mean, in general Pete is a terrible in game decision maker. So if you think he shouldn't have called a TO, then just put it down on your massive list of terrible in game clock management/calls by Pete.

Oh, it is on said list. I agree that the TO didn't cost us the game though, it is another game of death by a thousand cuts.

 

[kidhawk]

We can go back to the holding call that took us out of field goal range. We can talk about the bad punt by Dickson, and i'm sure there's a litany of other plays throughout the game that could have changed the outcome. I'm not saying that the timeout call was the sole reason for us losing, it was just the final nail in the coffin.

Kinda what I'm getting at, no reason to hyper focus on the TO called or not.............it's a false pretense to think THAT'S why we lost, or even contributed to us losing. Too many other plays that ACTUALLY happened to talk about.

I mean, in general Pete is a terrible in game decision maker. So if you think he shouldn't have called a TO, then just put it down on your massive list of terrible in game clock management/calls by Pete.

I agree that we don't need to focus on any one thing and "blame the loss" on it, but I think it's a worthy discussion topic as is our rookie punter making rookie mistakes and Fluker holding when we are barely in field goal range. These guys need to use their heads more, but we can have those discussions too, this just happens to be a thread regarding the TO call.

 

[mikeak]

We were only able to pass because of our running game. Almost every big pass play was due to running game

Under the 2 minute drill scenario we would not have a threat of running because there wasn't enough time left on the clock

The rams would be happy to punt if we had a minute left on the clock because we would not have enough time to move the ball

They were happy to go for it when we took the timeout

So we don't take a timeout everyone here is blasting Pete for letting 40 secs run off the clock

We take the timeout everyone here is blasting Pete for not letting 40 secs run off the clock

Look in the mirror and think about all the times you have complained that Pete didn't use a timeout and let clock run down

I am fine with using it

 

[kidhawk]

So we don't take a timeout everyone here is blasting Pete for letting 40 secs run off the clock

We take the timeout everyone here is blasting Pete for not letting 40 secs run off the clock

Look in the mirror and think about all the times you have complained that Pete didn't use a timeout and let clock run down

I am fine with using it

It's fine that you are ok with the timeout, but to say that I'd be complaining had he not called the timeout and we didn't win is ludicrous. Sure some people would complain, but not necessarily the same people. I base my belief on how I felt in the moment. That would't have changed had Pete not made the timeout call.