Time Management

[BlitzFritz]

we were in the NW corner end zone.

at the end of the first half the Pats got hte ball with 5 mins left, and milked the full clock to get down to basically the 3 yard line or whatever. even tho we missed the FG, the approach to using up the full clock was well done.

then at the end of the game, we clearly left too much time on the clock. 1:36
it was surprising seeing them hurrying to get in more and more plays with 2:20 mins left and we were already in Giants territory near midfield. we know we needed a touchdown, but we scored too fast.

strange.

-- FRITZ

 

[DarrylS]

From my couch observed the same thing, OTOH the Giants D is stingy so how would you have handled the last drive?? You take what you can get.

The D should have been able to stop that last drive..

 

[pencilneckgeek]

The problem I saw with their offensive execution much of the game was the frequency with which a successful play was followed by an unsuccessful play. Thus, they were unable to get their fast-paced put-the-defense-on-its-heels offense going. They finally got a couple successful plays and wanted to milk that success to develop the kind of pace that keeps the DLine out of Tom's face and the secondary scrambling to keep track of their assignments. They needed to worry about simply scoring that TD, and it was touch-and-go there at the end. They simply needed to play better defense.

 

[randomk1]

No ******* way...our offense was struggling all game. At that point all you care about is scoring the TD...not playing the clock. With 1:30 left and 80 yards you really have to expect your D to atleast hold them to a FG.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

No ******* way...our offense was struggling all game. At that point all you care about is scoring the TD...not playing the clock. With 1:30 left and 80 yards you really have to expect your D to atleast hold them to a FG.

Agreed. It would have been nice to have drained the clock more, but the first need is to get the TD.

 

[Kjmass1]

No ******* way...our offense was struggling all game. At that point all you care about is scoring the TD...not playing the clock. With 1:30 left and 80 yards you really have to expect your D to atleast hold them to a FG.

Absolutely.

 

[Halifax_Pats_Fan]

Sorry, you play to win the game....

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

No ******* way...our offense was struggling all game. At that point all you care about is scoring the TD...not playing the clock. With 1:30 left and 80 yards you really have to expect your D to atleast hold them to a FG.

Based on what? Last week's game? Their statistical performance coming into this game?
The offense playing with clock efficiency just couldn't be considered because the O was not playing well? Seriously? That's not playing winning football, that's playing on a wing and a prayer without regard to the percentages. The Patriots had plenty of time to score. They were near the red zone with almost 2 minutes and 2 time outs (I believe). Do the math.... It shows the patriots had plenty of time to run enough plays to score without having to 'hurry up and get a TD'. They should have run off more time per play, period. It would have had zero affect on their scoring chances and would have helped assure the Giants would have had too little time to score. That is winning football and that is what the Patriots should have done.

 

[The_Riddler]

Couldn't believe it. Brady hurrying the team to the line before the 2 minute warning on the Giants side of the field. For what ??? 2 minutes is in an eternity in the NFL and Brady was acting like there was 30 seconds left in the game. Not to mention they still had their timeouts. Why he didn't let the clock run down to the 2-minute warning was mind-boggling. That's all we were talking about walking out of the stadium was the brutal mis-management of the clock. Inexcusable !

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Woodhead going OOB hurt us on that 1st down. Not only did it stop the clock when we could have milked 40 seconds off, it looked like there was way more roomto the inside when outside there was nothing. This isnt' in hindsight because I was yelling at my screen as he did it. Just poor game awareness.

We made the same mistake at the end of the first half in Buffalo. On 1st and goal we could've ran the ball (even if just once) and at least made sure Buffalo can't get the ball back with more than 30-40 seconds. This team just isn't very tactical/smart this year and making poor decisions in the final minutes both by players and coaches. We've also had a problem with killer penalties. Direct reflection on BB and his staff IMO.

 

[upstater1]

we were in the NW corner end zone.

at the end of the first half the Pats got hte ball with 5 mins left, and milked the full clock to get down to basically the 3 yard line or whatever. even tho we missed the FG, the approach to using up the full clock was well done.

then at the end of the game, we clearly left too much time on the clock. 1:36
it was surprising seeing them hurrying to get in more and more plays with 2:20 mins left and we were already in Giants territory near midfield. we know we needed a touchdown, but we scored too fast.

strange.

-- FRITZ

There was a whole sequence of events there.

First, Woodhead was down in bounds on 1st down, but the dumb ref called him out of bounds. Woodhead got one knee down in bounds, the clock should have kept running.

That was the major problem in the sequence since the whole point of running on 1st down from the 15 was to run time off the clock.

Obviously, when you have a 4th down, the concept of scoring "too quick" doesn't apply. If they don't convert a TD or 1st down there, the game is over.

So, I'm not buying the argument.

A case could be made that Gronk was interfered with on 2nd down, and then, I can see running the ball up the middle a few times if that penalty had been called.

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

I had my own time management issue yesterday. Forgot to set the clocks and showed up at the bar an hour early.

 

[upstater1]

Couldn't believe it. Brady hurrying the team to the line before the 2 minute warning on the Giants side of the field. For what ??? 2 minutes is in an eternity in the NFL and Brady was acting like there was 30 seconds left in the game. Not to mention they still had their timeouts. Why he didn't let the clock run down to the 2-minute warning was mind-boggling. That's all we were talking about walking out of the stadium was the brutal mis-management of the clock. Inexcusable !

I can't understand this argument. The clock was stopped. It wasn't running. If Brady was hurrying up to the line, it was to take advantage of the Giants D in disarray. Welker had run the ball out of bounds. The clock was stopped. Brady was probably trying to prevent the Giants from substituting.

 

[upstater1]

Woodhead going OOB hurt us on that 1st down. Not only did it stop the clock when we could have milked 40 seconds off, it looked like there was way more roomto the inside when outside there was nothing. This isnt' in hindsight because I was yelling at my screen as he did it. Just poor game awareness.

We made the same mistake at the end of the first half in Buffalo. On 1st and goal we could've ran the ball (even if just once) and at least made sure Buffalo can't get the ball back with more than 30-40 seconds. This team just isn't very tactical/smart this year and making poor decisions in the final minutes both by players and coaches. We've also had a problem with killer penalties. Direct reflection on BB and his staff IMO.

To be fair, Woodhead got his knee down in bounds. Ref blew the call.

 

[Seacoast Fan]

I was at the game, in Section 136, and the Woodhead OOB play happened right in front of us and it sure looked like his knee hit in-bounds and the clock should have kept running. But, that was not the only bad thing that happened on that play, since Woody was hurt and the Pats lost a time out because of that.
In that situation, I think running the ball made sense. Why it was Woodhead and not BJGE is beyond me, though. If it has to be Woodhead, then why he went to the sidelines was also beyond me.
Having said all that, when it gets to be 3rd and 4th down from the ten or thereabouts, the Pats had to try to score, and had to forget about milking the clock. Although, had Gronk caught the ball on the one yard line rather then on the goal line, like he did, its first down Pats and then they can milk the clock and probably win. (not a sure bet though since the Giants had all their time outs.)

 

[randomk1]

To be fair, Woodhead got his knee down in bounds. Ref blew the call.

Umm..wasn't it an injury timeout because Woodhead couldn't get up?

 

[randomk1]

Based on what? Last week's game? Their statistical performance coming into this game?
The offense playing with clock efficiency just couldn't be considered because the O was not playing well? Seriously? That's not playing winning football, that's playing on a wing and a prayer without regard to the percentages. The Patriots had plenty of time to score. They were near the red zone with almost 2 minutes and 2 time outs (I believe). Do the math.... It shows the patriots had plenty of time to run enough plays to score without having to 'hurry up and get a TD'. They should have run off more time per play, period. It would have had zero affect on their scoring chances and would have helped assure the Giants would have had too little time to score. That is winning football and that is what the Patriots should have done.

lulz...our offense stunk in the red-zone all day,it took us a 4th down to even get the TD. And our defense had been doing a good job against eli. If we were actually dominating on offense i could see the argument for it but that wasn't the case yesterday. 1:30 left a D needs to stop an opposing offense,ours couldn't and that's where we stand right now.

 

[Koma]

Umm..wasn't it an injury timeout because Woodhead couldn't get up?

Yeah, I would need to see the play again to see if the official signaled for the clock to keep running or not, but it was rendered moot by the injury TO.

The Patriots unintentionally burned themselves with the injury TO during the Giants final drive also. The clock should have been running following a completion, but the injury to Barrett caused them to take another TO. Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference, but it basically allowed the Giants to work that drive as if they had 3 TOs remaining.

 

[Dutchmaster617]

Based on what? Last week's game? Their statistical performance coming into this game?
The offense playing with clock efficiency just couldn't be considered because the O was not playing well? Seriously? That's not playing winning football, that's playing on a wing and a prayer without regard to the percentages. The Patriots had plenty of time to score. They were near the red zone with almost 2 minutes and 2 time outs (I believe). Do the math.... It shows the patriots had plenty of time to run enough plays to score without having to 'hurry up and get a TD'. They should have run off more time per play, period. It would have had zero affect on their scoring chances and would have helped assure the Giants would have had too little time to score. That is winning football and that is what the Patriots should have done.

Two things

1. They were struggling and speeding up gave them some momentum, as indicated by scoring one of only two TDs the entire game.

2. They were wasting throws, missing kicks, fumbling, and throwing INTs. Running down the clock meant more short passing and running, which means higher chance of screwing up again. If they rush and mess up they still have a chance (the defense is great at getting 'one last chance' when behind, we saw that against PIT and DAL, despite their inability to hold a lead they could get the ball back), if they drain the clock and mess up the Giants need to take a knee to end it.

They made the right call, if this was 07 or 10 when we didn't make dumb mistakes we should have ran it down, but this year we just need any momentum and as much time as possible, because we are not efficient at scoring, we have looked ugly scoring the last month. Again maybe I am a fool but I feel more comfortable throwing on 4th down with 1 minute+ left than with 10 seconds, because again our D is great when behind, but our offense is also a headache when trying to score, we waste too many good drives to take our time, look at the Jets game last playoffs where we had a loooong ass drive and then it ended with no points, that was a possibility last night.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Had they not converted on the 4th and 8, the Giants would have the ball back at their own 10 yard line with 1:35, and the Patriots would have had three time outs. They played this correctly, hoping they would score but having a chance to get the ball back if they didn't score.

It's easy to look back in hindsight and wish they'd done things differently, but that time strategy was absolutely the best call by percentages.