Clock Management

[Diomedes]

By the subject of this thread, I mean awareness and strategic use of time, including the expediency of play calling, and the use of timeouts.  Especially the latter two.

I think the Andy Reid Eagles outright suck at this part of the game.

When I think about last season in particular, the things that pisses me off the most are poor clock management/lousy efficiency of play calling.  Reid's addiction to the pass was infuriating, the piss-poor performance of many players was frustrating, and the injuries exasperated me, but it was the inefficient--and downright stupid--management of the clock that most drove me nuts.

The Eagles make the T hand sign as though timeouts come in sets of ten, and rush plays into the huddle with all the dispatch of a DMV clerk renewing your driver's license.  By contrast, I think of the Colts.  It's occured to me that I don't hate Peyton Manning so much for his symphony conductor routine at the line of scrimmage, as I hate him for having the time to do it.  Dungy knows what he's doing, and so does his quarterback; they execute the plays like they mean it.  In Philly, play calling and clock management are treated with startling disregard for economy.  There's no rush, and apparently no awareness of the clock.  How many times have we seen McNabb call a timeout, obviously surprised to see the clock ticking perilously low?  It's enough to make a guy get snippy and post comments on a messageboard.

By way of looking to see exactly how bad these bastiches are, I went looking for stats on clock management.  I didn't find much in my search of the Internets.  But I did find that the NFL gamebooks have all the tiemout data you could want, if you're willing to harvest it yourself.

I remember a lot of timeouts taken at plainly stupid times, (and often followed by play calls that don't exactly announce themselves as brilliant enough to have required a time-out to stop the clock so they could be dreamt up).  So, using the gamebooks available at NFL.com, I recorded every timeout the team took, marking elements such as what down followed the timeout, who had the ball, whether the timeout stopped the clock or not, what the score was at the time of the timout, who led, what quarter it was, how much time was on the clock, etc.  It took a long time to compile.

Once I finished, I realized a couple things:

• First, all these numbers mean dick without another data set to compare them against.
• Second, I really need to see the games again to judge whether any given timeout was as farging horrible as it looks in the numbers.

No way I'm collecting the same data for all NFL teams.  Perhaps I'll get ambitious and compile the stats for the NFC East.  Probably not.

Here then are some probably worthless statistics.

Total timeouts in '05: 69
Total possible (including OT timeouts): 98
Percentage of possible timeouts actually used: 70.4%

Fewest timeoutss taken in a game: 1 (Week 12 vs. Green Bay, also Week 13 vs. Seattle.  In the latter game, the timeout was a penalty after Reid lost an instant replay challenge; without that, he probably wouldn't have called any timeouts.)
Most timeouts taken in a game: 7 (Week 14 v. Giants (OT))

Average number of timouts taken per game: 4.3

Timeouts taken in first quarter (percentage of all timeouts): 7 (10.1%)
Timeouts taken in the second quarter (percentage of all timeouts): 25 (36.2%)
Timeouts taken in third quarter (percentage of all timeouts): 8 (11.6%)
Timeouts taken in fourth quarter (percentage of all timeouts): 28 (40.6%)

Timeouts taken in 1st and 3rd Q combined: 15 (21.7%)

Timeouts taken while the Eagles led (percentage of all timeouts): 13 (18.8%)
Timeouts taken while the score was even (percentage of all timeouts): 10 (14.5%)
Timeouts taken while the Eagles trailed (percentage of all timeouts): 46 (66.7%)

There are three types of lies - lies, damn lies, and statistics. - variously attributed

[Displaced]

Good goobity woop Dio.  That was a long post.  I really believe you when you say you have no cable now.

I do agree with you about the in game management style or lack thereof employed by AR.

to be sure he is the most succesful head coach the Eagles have had since the 60's but all the timeouts, the throwing the ball on third and long with two minutes to play, and overall play calling leave much to be desired.

[Geowhizzer]

God gracious, Dio- you out of the good stuff tonight? 

More seriously-

Anecdotal evidence along is enough to convict the Reid regime of pissing away time outs at inoppertune times. 

And, as you said, even the number of TOs taken pales in comparison to the utter frustration of watching the Eagles putter around while driving during the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl, when there should have been plenty of time to score, kick off, have a defensive stop, and get the ball back again with plenty of time to make a last run.  Instead, we witnessed the Keystone Cops as Reid and co. treated it like it was the first quarter of a preseason game.

I love Reid for putting the Eagles back on the map, but he frustrates me not so much in that he has these limitations, but that he seemingly refused to learn from them.

[Sgt PSN]

And, as you said, even the number of TOs taken pales in comparison to the utter frustration of watching the Eagles putter around while driving during the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl, when there should have been plenty of time to score, kick off, have a defensive stop, and get the ball back again with plenty of time to make a last run. Instead, we witnessed the Keystone Cops as Reid and co. treated it like it was the first quarter of a preseason game.

It was the same exact thing in the first half as well.  For as detail oriented and organized as Reid is.....and I do beleive he is an extremely thorough and detailed individual....he has been absolutely horrible when it comes to getting plays into the huddle in a timely manner.  And it's not even during the hurry up offense.  I don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I've seen the Eagles burn a TO in the first quarter because the play didn't come in fast enough.  Reid's been a head coach for 7 years now and not getting the plays in fast enough is simply inexcusable. 

Watching the Eagles in the 2 minute offense is an even bigger tragedy.  It's like watching a monkey trying to farg a football. 

[reese125]

he has been absolutely horrible when it comes to getting plays into the huddle in a timely manner.


...and if the Eagles decide to pass as much as they did last year...expect the same kind of tardy play calling again. No balance means off-balanced play calling.

Im just hoping he runs more play-action this year

[PhillyPhreak54]

Wow, good research, Dio.

1. It isn't Dungy's coaching that allows Manning to have so much time. It's Tom Moore and Peyton. Moore has had Peyton doing that since before Dungy got there. Dungy's offense in TB wasn't close to that

2. Andy's weakness is his gameday moves. He is awesome up until the game starts and his awesome when the game goes as planned. But as soon as a wrench is thrown in there, its like he cannot adjust to what is going on.

One of the biggest culprits is the farged up way he gets plays in to the QB.

- He looks over the play chart for the next play as the current play is being run. He solicits opinions from his OC during this time as well and sometimes they are still figuring out what to do as the play ends and the play clocks is re-started.

- Once his mind is made up he tells the designated play caller (used to be Morningwood) who then relays it to Donovan. That takes way too much time. He needs to cut out that middle-man. Once he decides on the play he should radio it in to Donovan.

[Diomedes]

As far as I'm concerned, these problems are inexcusable in an NFL coach/coaching staff.  Timeout usage is not all that hard to nail down.  Many of the times the Eagles burned timeouts, they followed it up with a worthless play call that did not merit a break to devise.  Is Reid indecisive under pressure?  What's the problem?  It can't simply be that he's got a middle man in the play calling.  Does he read his whole color coded play card before he calls a play?? 

I may actually collect stats for NFC East teams, just to see if any other team takes 20 percent of their timeouts in the first and third quarter.  I don't know, maybe they do.  But I got a hunch they don't.

Nothing about this team upsets me as much as this crap.

[PhillyPhanInDC]

I am pretty sure that the taterskins had some TO issues this past season, as well The Angel's first season. I'd like to see how the other teams in the NFC East stack-up.

Damn good stuff btw Dio.

If there was one sure fire thing that always bothered me about Reid and Co., it was time management. It seems at times that they are totally confused or ignorant to the play clock or the state of the game clock.

The other issue with time management/play calling I have is that when they have a decent lead, they seem to be unable, unwilling, or not confident in their ability to kill the clock and call plays that seem to ensure that the opposing team's offense gets the ball back as soon as possible.

[QB Eagles]

It was sickening seeing how they managed the clock last year. After that debacle in the Super Bowl I figured that would have been one of their top priorities to straighten out.

[shorebird]

I remember a lot of timeouts taken at plainly stupid times, (and often followed by play calls that don't exactly announce themselves as brilliant enough to have required a time-out to stop the clock so they could be dreamt up).

Alright now. Just because a timeout was called did not mean we saw a first down, more often than not it seemed like it was usually an incomplete pass. Sometimes it was like the other team knew what play Reid was going to call before Reid called it.

It is inexcusable the amount of time that it takes to get a play in, especially with the technology used today with radios right in the helmet. Take that with McNabb looking like he has all the time in the world and it seems like the line barely has time to get set.