I may have missed it, but was Dabo asked about his bizarre

Sep 29, 2021, 10:42 AM

clock management near the end of regulation against NC State?

To set the stage, Clemson had 2 timeouts left, and it was 2nd and 7 for NC State at the Clemson 34.

NC State runs the 2nd and 7 play, and the play ends with 1:03 remaining. NC State gained 4 yards on the run to make it 3rd and 3 at the Clemson 30.

The obvious thing to do there is to take the 2nd TO right away with 1:03 remaining. it would be 3rd and 3, Clemson could get a stop, and Clemson could take their final TO. NC State would then have a choice on 4th down to either kick a FG or go for it.

In all situations, Clemson would want as much time left on the clock there. If NC State kicks a FG and makes it, Clemson would need their own score. If NC State kicks a FG and misses it, CLemson could still try to score and win in regulation. If NC State goes for it and misses it, again, Clemson could still try to score and win in regulation.

The only situation where Clemson may not want to give NC State more time is if NC State gets a 1st down on either 3rd or 4th down. I don't really buy that though as NC State had over a minute left, 2 of their own TOs, and they were already in FG range. Giving time to NC State should not have been a major factor.

What Dabo ended up deciding to do was, to me, pretty strange. After the 2nd and 7 play, he let 23 seconds go off the clock before he called a TO with 40 seconds to go. This, to me, is like the worst decision possible as he basically wasted a TO and wasted the clock. I just don't understand the rationale at all, so I was wondering if he has commented on this at all?

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We actually jumped offside before the 3rd and 3, to give them a 1st down - though it was a controversial call (the NC State player who also jumped to cause the whistle wasn’t lined up in front of our guy who jumped). The decision by Dabo didn’t end up mattering, but it just seemed, logically, poor.

I still think you have to call the TO right away even if you don’t have the most faith that you will stop them on the 3rd down. If NC State gets the 1st down, they had enough TOs to run 3 more plays with 40 seconds left. If they don’t get it we want as much time as possible.

I don’t know if anyone saw it, but a similar thing happened in the Syracuse-Liberty game last Friday. Liberty had the TO to get the ball back with at least some time (less than 30 seconds, but still) after a potential game-winning ~30-yard FG. Instead they let Syracuse run the clock all the way down to 1 second, and Syracuse was able to kick the walkoff game-winner.

I may have missed it, but was Dabo asked about his bizarre

Re: I may have missed it, but was Dabo asked about his bizarre

Yes. Dabo blew that one ...

Re: I may have missed it, but was Dabo asked about his bizarre

Re: I may have missed it, but was Dabo asked about his bizarre

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