things kevin hates

Now, I’m going to start this with a disclaimer: I didn’t see much of the LSU/Ole Miss game because I was moderating at a quiz bowl tournament. But I did hear everything from LSU’s failed two-point conversion and successful onside kick through to the end of the game, and when I got home I rewound and watched the game from the same point on. But I’ll just be concerning myself with the last minute of the game, so that shouldn’t matter.

LSU got a remarkably good break with their successful onside kick, and then another when Brandon LaFell made a superb play, racking up the yards after catch en route to the Ole Miss 31-yard line. At that point LSU was in excellent shape, with two timeouts left and within Josh Jasper’s range (he had already made a 50-yarder earlier in the game). That said, a 48-yarder is no gimme, so Les Miles was entirely justified in trying to pick up more yards through the air. But Jordan Jefferson has got to have the pocket presence to get rid of the ball. On first down he successfully avoided a sack by throwing the ball away, but on 2nd down the 10-yard loss was a killer. Certainly one could argue for running the ball there, but the fault for the sack has to rest with Jefferson. The 3rd down play call for a screen pass is one of those things where if it works right, we’re all talking about how much of a genius he is. That’s the sort of play that very easily could have gotten fifteen yards and put LSU solidly back within Jasper’s field goal range. Was it the best call? Maybe, maybe not, but I have to rail against the results-oriented thinking I’ve already bitched in my Belichick post. If Ciron Black gets out and makes a block there might’ve been a decent gain on the play instead of a loss. While Les Miles and Gary Crowton’s playcalling was certainly questionable, it was also defensible.

What was absolutely and completely indefensible was the clock management. The 3rd down play ended with roughly 25 seconds left. But the clock bled down to 9 seconds before Les Miles called his last timeout. There is no reason to waste time there. LSU did not need a touchdown. All they needed was a field goal. And leaving more time would maximize LSU’s ability to get the field goal team onto the field after a first down completion that wasn’t a touchdown. Your priority here has to be on extending the game so that you can score either a field goal or a touchdown. Wasting time before calling timeout essentially forced LSU into needing a touchdown. Keeping time on the clock would have given LSU a chance to win should they get a first down short of the endzone.

And what do you know, that’s exactly what happened.

Now, could LSU have run the field goal team onto the field in the amount of time it takes to spot the ball after a first down? I doubt it. If you ask me, it seemed like it took an awful long time for the officials to get into position and mark the ball ready for play (which is the signal to start the clock). Trying to get the field goal team on would have been extremely risky, putting a ton of pressure on the snapper, holder, and kicker. But the fact that Jordan Jefferson didn’t know he couldn’t spike the ball? That’s a shitty piece of quarterbacking. And the fact that Les Miles didn’t get that into Jefferson’s head? That’s a shitty piece of coaching. With proper coaching during the timeout, Jefferson would have known he had to get a play off, and LSU would have had a play ready to go. (To be honest, I’m not 100% sure Jefferson even got the snap off before the clock expired; you have to snap the ball virtually instantly upon hearing the ready-for-play whistle.*) That was poor preparation on LSU’s part, but again, it all goes back to bad clock management in letting time burn off the clock before the timeout.

I’m getting so damn sick of having to write one of these columns every damn week. These coaches at the major-college and NFL levels get millions of dollars, huge staffs, and put in countless hours watching film and practicing, and shit like this still happens? I’m just stunned at the number of games in which coaches make horrendous clock management decisions.

* Remember that a clock showing 1 second left actually has a time greater than zero seconds and less than or equal to one second. So it could have well been a tenth of a second left, and the human reaction time isn’t quick enough to deal with that.