Quote:
Originally Posted by rm1369
The lack of a timeout certainly affected the outcome of the game. It’s not just about the time remaining on the clock. Saturday himself admits the team was in disarray. That was Saturday’s words. Taking a timeout to regroup made absolute sense - especially considering the time remaining. Not to mention the lack of a timeout dictated the personnel grouping and therefore limited the play selection - a pretty big point considering the defender claims he knew what was coming by the alignment.
And I’ll ask - if time wasn’t an issue and there was no need to regroup or talk anything over, why call the timeout before 4th down? Probably to regroup and make sure they had what they thought was the best play regardless of personnel groupings. The reality is they should have called timeout after the sack. They ran 36 seconds to get to the next play and were lucky Ryan’s scrambled bailed them out. Rookie coach, it happens. But 3/4 of the people defending it would have been criticizing Reich for it.
|
1) The media criticism leveled at Saturday following the game has almost exclusively been about the time remaining on the clock. Those criticisms are unwarranted, in my view, and driven largely by the need to justify the criticism of hiring Saturday in the first place.
2) The criticism about the timeout being needed due to the team being in disarray seems perfectly reasonable and fair if true (and it certainly seems to be as Saturday acknowledges this). He should be assessing their preparedness in making his strategic decisions, but it sounds like he was more intent on catching the Steelers off guard, and ignored or did not recognize the signs that the Colts weren’t ready themselves. Again, fair point, but it seems more like a garden-variety coaching mistake rather than some sort of proof that the guy is in over his head.
What irritates me is the narrative pushed by the media that Saturday is so inexperienced that he doesn’t even know enough to call a simple TO when time is melting away. He offered a perfectly reasonable explanation for his decisionmaking in this regard, and nobody has contradicted it. I'm NOT saying Saturday is the coaching answer, only that this is weak evidence that he's not.
3) As to taking a TO after the sack, I’d imagine you’d get the same answer – there is no need to do so as there was ample time left on the clock. Maybe the team was in disarray then too, but 36 seconds might be enough to clear things up. And don’t forget, while the Colts want to keep enough time on the clock to score, they also need to ensure that the Steelers don’t have enough time left to turn around and kick a game-winning FG.
4) Lastly, why did they take a TO before 4th down? Because its 4th down, and because there were only about 30 seconds left at the time.