In Sunday’s loss to the Rams, both teams were forced into a weather delay that turned out to be well over an hour long. With the ball inside their one twenty facing a 3rd and 11, the Rams had one play to worry about. Do we run a play and try to get a first down or do we sit on it and punt? On the other side of the ball, the Bucs had a few different scenarios to prepare for. Prepare being the KEY word.
If the Rams pick up the first down the game is essentially over. If we stop them and force a punt we will have the ball just inside our own 50-yard line with roughly 2 minutes left on the clock. OK, here’s the plan guys! TIC TIC TIC TIC….still waiting for that plan coach!
Like I’m sure most of you seasoned football fans, I sat there in a bewildered state wondering why the Bucs didn’t use any of their timeouts until the very last play when the clock was already stopped, to begin with. Am I missing something? Why was this played as a 2-minute drill without timeouts?
In my estimation using their timeouts would have gained them an extra 3 or 4 plays at least! Can we blame Winston? NO! Plays are called from the sidelines. Simms for not running out of bounds? NO. There was no need to run out of bounds, there were 2 timeouts left. Picking up the extra yardage was more important.
The blame has to sit on the shoulders of coach Koetter for awful clock management and the lack of using the hour to prepare his team victory. The honeymoon is almost over and many more of these blunders won’t be tolerated me the fans before the fire Dirk chants start.
Let’s just chalk this one up as a learning experience and hope clock management blunders don’t creep up again. Seeing how Koetter was an offensive coordinator for years in the NFL you would think he would have faced Similar scenarios many times in the past but instead, it looked like amateur hour on that final drive.
It’s time to change that culture coach but it starts with the guys running the show! We are all wishing for great things! Let’s get it done!
