Stupid Person Asking Question about End of Half Timeout
Rainy Tuesdays are much worse than Mondays, in my opinion, and I was hoping to see a few more thoughts about the time-out called with three seconds left in the half.
Here's my take: there is no significant risk from taking this timeout (chance of a successful hail mary is pretty minimal). However, there is not much reward there either, as the probability of a turnover-for-touchdown is even less than that of a conversion.
As a Brady Hoke apologist, and admittedly able to find the smallest amount of hope in the least-sensible ways, I would argue that it was a good call. The fact of the matter is: Penn State was content to let the clock run out and go in for a rest. Brady Hoke said, "wait a minute there, get on back out here and finish some football." I like the mindset because I am stupidly loyal and find humor in the call in that the opposition was trying to do one thing, and Michigan forced them to do the other.
I saw Space Coyote chime in on this as well in a different thread, I would like to hear a few more thoughts. Seems to me the general sentiment is it was bad because it gave them a chance to throw the ball to the endzone (if PSU thought they had a chance of converting, why didn't they try it themselves)?
October 14th, 2014 at 2:25 PM ^
October 14th, 2014 at 1:00 PM ^
is on par with the AI I play against on Madden--but closer to All Pro than All Madden.
October 14th, 2014 at 1:27 PM ^
There was no good reason to call timeout with 3 seconds left - all it did was give Penn State options none of which were good for us. If the reason is that it made sense to call it with 33 seconds left and it took a half minute to figure it out then that explains why it was done and explains the ineptitude. If we could have forced the punt, we had a chance to block it or run it back but with 3 seconds they could have taken a knee and run out the clock or they could have converted the Hail Mary and put the game out of reach. The scenario of a pick six or fumble return for touchdown was too remote to explain it.
October 14th, 2014 at 2:38 PM ^
While the ESPN announcer, Rod Gilmore, had just finished regurgitating canned remarks about how bad a coach Hoke was, he and the other announcer were hilarious. They took forever hemming and hawing about whether it was a good or bad call--so long that the announcers, were they coaches, would have had to call a time out to decide.
October 14th, 2014 at 1:34 PM ^
The result was a good one - an extra hit on the QB (and perhaps some added momentum for the defense, which pretty much owned the second half). I thought it was a bad idea, but it is interesting that with the actual result having been positive, and the chances of a 60+yard touchdown hail mary quite low, there's still so much anger.
(Also, a problem with calling the TO earlier is that PSU could still go for it on 4th and 1 and have more downs. And even if you get the ball on your own 30 or lower with 15 seconds left, it's no great thing. It seemed to me an attempt to get a punt block/return, thinking that PSU would see the probability of getting their own score pretty low and would rather punt it away, even out of bounds, to avoid a pick or a Hackenburg sack. Like I said, I didn't love it, probably not the right move, but it's the same aggression that was once lauded around these parts and, to me, the whole episode is more revealing of the anger and lack of composure around here than on the sidelines.)
October 14th, 2014 at 1:52 PM ^
Hackenberg took another hit. I'd say that's a good thing so thererfore it was a good call.
October 14th, 2014 at 2:18 PM ^
October 14th, 2014 at 2:25 PM ^
delay of game like that is supposed to stop the clock, i believe
October 14th, 2014 at 2:53 PM ^
I can only scratch my head if, as the OP suggests, Hoke was just trying to foul up the opposition by preventing them from doing what they wanted. That would betray an extremely shallow strategy that ignores what was important here---the relative chances of different outcomes—i.e., the greater chance of a simple event (an offensive completion in a ball thrown to the end zone) vs. a complex event requiring multiple things to happen (e.g., , a defensive interception AND a 100 yard run back or a fumble AND a defensive recovery AND a 50 yard fumble return for a TD).*
Certainly, when we are not dealing with a well-defined end-of-half or end-of-game situation, it can make sense to trick the opponent: to surprise him or lure him into doing something outside his comfort zone. But this was the end of a half, and it was not a matter of trying to trick the opponent in making a poor choice. Once Hoke called a TO, PSU had to run a play, and with 3 sec, it would have been nonsensical to punt. Indeed, all Hoke did here was to trick the opposing coach into a choice he should have made in the first place.
*If you want to complicate things further, you could try to gauge the chances of hitting, shaking up or injuring the PSU QB on the last play of the half, but that assumes you are OK with making bad choices in order to physically harm the opponent, that you know you will get the the QB, that it will materially affect the game, and that one of your own players is not injured on the same play. We could complicate the situation even further, but there's little hope of judging the likeliness and net impact of all the possible events. They are not likely to form the basis of a sound decision.
October 14th, 2014 at 4:06 PM ^
"If you feel ANY pressure, just cover the ball and go down."
Clearly, Franklin felt comfortable throwing the Hail Mary after the timeout.
October 14th, 2014 at 9:41 PM ^
The only positive thing you can say about that timeout is that it wasn't the dumbest timeout called in the game. Silver linings, everybody.
October 15th, 2014 at 8:28 AM ^
My biggest fear is not that they will throw a long pass for a TD, but that there might be a play or series of plays with pass interference or other penalties that gives them a first down. PI isn't a spot foul in college but a couple of them could have gotten them in FG range. We have the ball to start the half, just get off the field.