Gilligan,
I was at the game and have not seen any replays of the last minute. My impression was that after the last first down catch, the officials did not stop the clock to move the chains. By the time we realized they were not stopping the clock, 10 seconds ran off. I thought the officials would review that and put the time back on the clock. Could you tell if there was a clock stoppage to move the chains?
I was at the game and watched replays. THe clock did stop after the last first down. It stopped for about 3-4 seconds or so, which seemed short for the distance. You'd want your home clock guy, if you can, to have a slow finger there. I have no idea who provides the official clock control guy for our home games......but if you can, you want your guy to have a slow finger on the switch there. BUt it did stop.
That is situational football. Nobody in that huddle, on the play prior, was prepared for what to do if the play went for a long first down.
The thing that killed me about that drive - (other than how lucky Boyle was not to have this game end 20-10 on a pick 6 - three times - let's hope he didn't use it all in one game - *fingers crossed, salt over shoulder....) was that we finished that drive at the 49 of USF. We started the drive at our own 4 after McCombs made live catch at the 6.
we've been through the discussion elsewhere around here, that you can't predict what would happen had one play turned out differently during the course of a game - but the decision to catch that punt - I understand players wanting to make plays - we've been through that before wiht the field goal debacle earlier in the season - but at some point reason and coaching needs to take over. Buggs is getting a pass on some very head scratching kick return decisions.
Hypothetically, theoretically, had that ball been allowed to drop, and bounced into the endzone, we start at the 20, a 52 yard drive puts us at the USF 28 yard line with enough time to kick, even with the time clock debacle. I know it's all hypothetical - but every inch on the football field counts toward getting a win.
The risks of catching that ball and trying to make a play by McCombs on the punt, far BY FAR outweighed the benefits of letting it drop in that situation, and that IMNSHO, is probably the biggest play in the sequence of the game, that could hve been changed with coaching, that made it hardest for us to pull out the win. Because there was plenty of time left on the clock after every other mistake.
Buggs has got to work on his thought processes for returning kicks. We've made some real strange decisions through the course of the season.
