I've read a couple of threads here, and in other forums, discussing the Bills' clock management in the last minute of the game. I think it was managed incorrectly. With a minute left, Minnesota was around our 10 yard line and had, I think 1 time out left. We had three. Some notes:
(1) With a minute left, Minnesota was in no rush - they had plenty of time to score.
(2) The Buffalo defense hadn't given any indication that is was going to stop Minnesota from scoring a td.
Why we should have used timeouts and got the ball back with around 1 minute left, instead of 26 seconds left:
(1) If Minnesota scores, we get the ball back with more time left on the clock.
(2) If Minnesota doesn't score, they have no timeouts left anyway, so we kneel on the ball and win. Even if Minnesota saved 1 timeout, we would have had to just kneel on the ball one additional time.
The only drawback for Buffalo in calling timeouts is, it would have given Minnesota time to regroup. I argue that our D would have benefitted more from regrouping.
I think we mismanaged the clock and were lucky Drew bailed us out.
(1) With a minute left, Minnesota was in no rush - they had plenty of time to score.
(2) The Buffalo defense hadn't given any indication that is was going to stop Minnesota from scoring a td.
Why we should have used timeouts and got the ball back with around 1 minute left, instead of 26 seconds left:
(1) If Minnesota scores, we get the ball back with more time left on the clock.
(2) If Minnesota doesn't score, they have no timeouts left anyway, so we kneel on the ball and win. Even if Minnesota saved 1 timeout, we would have had to just kneel on the ball one additional time.
The only drawback for Buffalo in calling timeouts is, it would have given Minnesota time to regroup. I argue that our D would have benefitted more from regrouping.
I think we mismanaged the clock and were lucky Drew bailed us out.
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