The Missing 37 seconds
The apologists are back. There is a school of thought and a story that says had LSU receiver Demetrius Byrd dropped the winning touchdown pass against Auburn Saturday with one second left or - heaven forbid - no seconds left, officials would have put time back on the clock. Because replays show Byrd actually making the catch with three seconds to go, and the clock was allowed to run a couple of more seconds.
Maybe LSU would have had an opportunity to kick the field goal anyway.
Uh, NO. This notion is a little too iffy and a little to LSU serving. And it does not lessen the poor time management by the LSU sideline and coaching staff one bit.
Two or three seconds often tick off after a play as officials sort out the play. The official near Byrd's catch looked like he was making sure Byrd had the ball. That's reason enough to keep the clock going.
The coaching issue that Les Miles is dealing with has nothing to do with what happened on the play anyway. It's what happened before the play. The play before Matt Flynn's winning touchdown pass to Byrd ended with 45 seconds to go when tight end Richard Dickson was tackled for a 1-yard gain to the Auburn 22-yard line. (It was not with 25 seconds to go as I originally reported, which would have made Miles and staff look better.)
It was third down. There were 45 seconds with which to work. That's plenty of time to call a play, get it off, call your last timeout and kick the winning field goal.
But no, LSU players were casually walking around. Miles seemed to have no sense of urgency either. And as has happened throughout this season and throughout the Auburn game, LSU's coaches were late getting the play to their players. Flynn also could have hurried a little more. At any rate, he did not get the snap until about eight seconds remained.
Eight seconds! What happened on the play is not the issue. Where LSU's coaching went seriously wrong was from the 45-second mark to the eight-second mark. Miles was asked about that huge time gap Monday in his office. He honestly could not explain it, but it was clear he was setting out to correct it. He mentioned other time and game management issues in the game and throughout the season. This has happened in past seasons under his regime, too. Miles blew an opportunity for a score late in the first half against Tennessee in 2005 with poor clock management. He lost that game in overtime.
He knows he dodged a bullet this time and will try to get it fixed. They have plenty of time to do that. He's got the right idea. He's not trying to justify his questionable actions by saying officials would have put time back on any way. That would be a cop out.
Maybe LSU would have had an opportunity to kick the field goal anyway.
Uh, NO. This notion is a little too iffy and a little to LSU serving. And it does not lessen the poor time management by the LSU sideline and coaching staff one bit.
Two or three seconds often tick off after a play as officials sort out the play. The official near Byrd's catch looked like he was making sure Byrd had the ball. That's reason enough to keep the clock going.
The coaching issue that Les Miles is dealing with has nothing to do with what happened on the play anyway. It's what happened before the play. The play before Matt Flynn's winning touchdown pass to Byrd ended with 45 seconds to go when tight end Richard Dickson was tackled for a 1-yard gain to the Auburn 22-yard line. (It was not with 25 seconds to go as I originally reported, which would have made Miles and staff look better.)
It was third down. There were 45 seconds with which to work. That's plenty of time to call a play, get it off, call your last timeout and kick the winning field goal.
But no, LSU players were casually walking around. Miles seemed to have no sense of urgency either. And as has happened throughout this season and throughout the Auburn game, LSU's coaches were late getting the play to their players. Flynn also could have hurried a little more. At any rate, he did not get the snap until about eight seconds remained.
Eight seconds! What happened on the play is not the issue. Where LSU's coaching went seriously wrong was from the 45-second mark to the eight-second mark. Miles was asked about that huge time gap Monday in his office. He honestly could not explain it, but it was clear he was setting out to correct it. He mentioned other time and game management issues in the game and throughout the season. This has happened in past seasons under his regime, too. Miles blew an opportunity for a score late in the first half against Tennessee in 2005 with poor clock management. He lost that game in overtime.
He knows he dodged a bullet this time and will try to get it fixed. They have plenty of time to do that. He's got the right idea. He's not trying to justify his questionable actions by saying officials would have put time back on any way. That would be a cop out.
posted by Glenn Guilbeau at 9:49 AM
1 Comments:
It was choreographed madness. For one thing, the clock clicked to :01 a good deal after Byrd made the catch. There is below zero chance we wouldn't have gotten to kick a field goal if the pass had been incomplete.
You do raise a good point -- similar to the one Russo raised in the AP piece. Every week, Miles seems to put his players in a position where they have to bail him out. I don't think this is an accident. I think he believes in his team in a way most coaches never quite do. It explains the deliberate drive against Florida, the play he chose for 4th-and-2 at Kentucky and the end of the Auburn game. His message is that he's not going to bail them out. He's going to do the things they hang their hat on, and it's up to the players to succeed doing those things. It's an interesting approach, and only a coach with an extremely talented team could even think of doing things his way. But if they can continue to walk through those fires and meet those challenges. God help the poor saps who have to line up against us in New Orleans in January.
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