{"id":25,"date":"2012-02-06T20:39:24","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T20:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jcannonsports.com\/?p=25"},"modified":"2012-02-06T20:39:24","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T20:39:24","slug":"why-are-five-yards-worth-one-timeout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":"Why are five yards worth one timeout?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published September 15th, 2011 at CSNBayArea.com<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been watching sports pretty carefully for quite a few years, and while I would never claim to know everything about every sport, I have a pretty good understanding of the basics. Football teams throughout professional and college football have been making the same mistake over and over again, and I\u2019ve decided it\u2019s time that I help them out a little bit.<\/p>\n

My mission here is to reduce the number of timeouts that are wasted by quarterbacks as the play clock runs down. On the surface, it seems like a good decision. I mean, nobody likes penalties, and if you can avoid them, why not do it?<\/p>\n

Well, here\u2019s why not. Let\u2019s start with some math:<\/p>\n

Average number of yards per team, per game, in the NFL last year: 336. Number of timeouts per team, per game, in any NFL game: 6<\/p>\n

Okay, now to make the math a little easier, let\u2019s say you\u2019re not an average NFL team, let\u2019s say you\u2019re below average, and you gain 300 yards per game. A five-yard penalty represents 1\/60th of your total yardage. Any one of your timeouts represents 1\/6th of your allotment, unless it\u2019s the second half, in which case it\u2019s 1\/3rd, unless you only have two or one, in which case it\u2019s even more.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019re taking a precious commodity, something you have 6 or less of, and spending it to save yourself 1\/60th of the yardage you can expect to gain in the game. Does that make any sense at all? If you\u2019re an average team, or a good one, 5 yards represents even a smaller percentage of your average output.<\/p>\n

Now, before you all lose your mind; please understand that I know there are times when it makes sense to do this. 3rd-and-1 in the fourth quarter, for instance. Sometimes your field position might dictate that you really couldn\u2019t stand to lose the five yards, perhaps because it would move you out of field goal range. I can think of several more instances where it would pay to spend that timeout, and I\u2019ll list a few later in the column.<\/p>\n

My point, however, is that no QB seems to give it that much thought. Can you remember a time in the past few years when you saw a QB look up at the play clock, see it running down and just take the five-yard hit? I sure can\u2019t! It\u2019s reflexive now, and not just in the pros. The colleges have caught the bug, too, and now their stadiums have the play clock on display so they can waste perfectly good timeouts to save five yards.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a real-life example of what I\u2019m talking about. Monday night, in the 3rd quarter, the Raiders burned a timeout facing 3rd-and-8. What are the percentages of making a 3rd-and-8?\u00a0 About 35%. They actually did convert that play for a first down, and later in the same drive they burned their second timeout on 3rd-and-16! What\u2019s the percentage of making 3rd-and-16? Are you kidding me?<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s like the Raiders made a bad bet, got lucky, and then they made one that was ten times worse. They threw incomplete on the 3rd-and 16, and wound up having to punt after burning two timeouts on the \u201cdrive.\u201d It didn\u2019t cost them the game, but it sure could have!<\/p>\n

So did ESPN\u2019s analysts say this when they were calling those timeouts? Nope. Did the Raiders\u2019 announcers talk about it? Nope. Oh, you may hear a broadcaster lament the \u201cclock management.\u201d The 49ers have been raked over the coals over the past couple of years for not getting their plays in on time, but the issue is always with the sideline getting the play to the QB. The lost timeout is just considered the cost of mismanaging the clock, as if the option of taking the penalty doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

How important are timeouts? I guess I need to point this out, because people seem to have forgotten. You can survive on offense without timeouts in a catch-up situation, because there are several ways to stop the clock. On defense, however, you\u2019re dead in the water without timeouts. If you\u2019re down by two scores late in the game, and you get one back, you need your timeouts to have any chance to get the ball back. If you don\u2019t have three timeouts, or at least two and the 2:00 warning, you pretty much need to recover an onside kick to win that game, and once again we\u2019re talking about a very low percentage play.<\/p>\n

Even in the first half, timeouts are important. They can be the difference between getting a field goal team on the field at the end of the half and not being able to do so. Let\u2019s not forget that if you don\u2019t have any timeouts, you can\u2019t challenge a referee\u2019s call, even if it\u2019s obvious to everyone in the stadium that it would be overturned.<\/p>\n

So I thought, in order to help out, I would lay out a few tips on when to take the timeout and when not to:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t take the timeout if:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s first down; It\u2019s second down and more than two; It\u2019s third down and more than five; It\u2019s the first quarter, or the first drive of the third quarter; You\u2019re inside your own 40; It\u2019s your last one of the half or game.<\/p>\n

Always take the timeout if:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s third or fourth down and the five yards would move you out of field goal range; It\u2019s third and less than five; It\u2019s second and one or two; You\u2019re behind by more than three TD\u2019s anytime in the game, or two TD\u2019s in the second half.<\/p>\n

The bottom line here is that at any particular point in the game, the timeout may be more valuable, or the yardage could be more valuable. Many factor too into that, and I think coaches have just bailed out on the whole question by telling their QB\u2019s to just call the timeout every time. I also think there\u2019s an opportunity for teams with the patience to teach the QB just a few guidelines to go by (perhaps mine would be a good start), and let them make that decision when the time comes. I think they\u2019ll be grateful to have those timeouts in their pockets when the game is on the line.<\/p>\n

Agree, disagree? I\u2019d love to hear what you think on this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published September 15th, 2011 at CSNBayArea.com I\u2019ve been watching sports pretty carefully for quite a few years, and while I would never claim to know everything about every sport, I have a pretty good understanding of the basics. Football teams … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.jcannonsports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}