The Perils of Vanity: When Coaches Refuse to Run Out the Clock

By Ramzy Nasrallah on February 8, 2017 at 1:05 pm
Atlanta QB Matt Ryan is hit while throwing during Super Bowl LI against New England
Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
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The biggest collapse in NFL history required a lot of bad luck.

But luck alone doesn't make history, let alone win football games. There are plenty of moving parts working together that allow self-destruction to happen. Moving some of those parts less - and more s l o w l y - would go a long way toward preventing such catastrophes.

The 1992-93 Buffalo Bills didn't come back from 35-3 deficit in the 3rd quarter to beat the Houston Oilers because of sheer luck. They needed Houston, a team that had just trounced them 27-3 the previous week to be complicit. The Oilers graciously obliged and became collaborators in their own demise.

Here's how Houston - on a 59-3 scoring run against Buffalo - gave away its commanding lead in a span of just nine minutes that ended its season and created the defining game of a now-defunct franchise:

HOW TO BLOW A 32-POINT LEAD: HouSton vs. BUFFALO | 1993 AFC WILD CARD GAME
LEAD TIME LEFT WHAT STUPID THING DID HOUSTON DO WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
35-3 HOUSTON 13:19 3rd  Oilers squibbed kickoff; Buffalo started at midfield. 10-play TD drive
35-10 HOUSTON 8:54 3rd Buffalo onside kick recovered by Buffalo's kicker on the Houston 48 4-play TD drive
35-17 HOUSTON 7:56 3rd Houston: Pass, Run, Pass, 25-yard punt. Bills' ball @ Houston 41 5-play TD drive
35-24 HOUSTON 4:21 3rd Houston: Pass intercepted. Bills' ball @ Houston 23 4-play TD drive
35-31 HOUSTON 2:00 3rd ***Both teams, now stunned, traded punts for 14 minutes***
35-31 HOUSTON 3:08 4th Houston unable to handle a field goal attempt; Bills recover @ 26. 8-play TD drive

Bills' backup QB Frank Reich gets most of the glory for leading Buffalo to all of those touchdowns under extreme duress in large part due to being a career clipboard holder which makes it a Disney-grade tale of triumph, but also because quarterbacks will always be the Lancelot in football's Camelot. However, the Oilers OC Kevin Gilbride afforded Reich so many unnecessary opportunities to become that hero. He couldn't have done it without them - he wouldn't have had the chances.

The Oilers gave the Bills a short field on each of its touchdown drives until the go-ahead one, which itself was a momentum drive coming after Houston was incapable of getting a field goal snapped properly. Whenever they had the ball, they gave it back as quickly and stupidly as possible.

Instead of grinding out yards and running the clock with a big lead, Houston ended the day with 50 passes against just 19 rushing plays.

Warren Moon threw 50 passes that afternoon. He handed off just 19 (!) times. Oh, it was also windy as hell in Buffalo which aided clock-stopping incompletions and actually caused the botched field goal, sending the snap flying past the holder. Fifty goddamn passes

As good and resilient as Reich and the Bills were, Houston's game management was so criminal the coaching staff should have been brought up on charges. The pass-first Oilers had a healthy Lorenzo White in the backfield, were quite capable of handing off to him - and even if he got stonewalled - going 3-and-out on rushing plays burns significantly more clock than doing it with incompletions or turnovers, which was what the Oilers did.

That brings us to another catastrophe that hits a little closer to home - the biggest comeback in Nebraska football history, which benefited from similar negligence

Hahaha only a willful idiot could fail to run out the clock with El Guapo available and a 3-TD lead.

Oh nooooooooo...

THE BAUSERPACALYPSE: OHIO STATE AT NEBRASKA, 2011
LEAD TIME LEFT OSU BURNED JUST AND THEN SCRIMMAGE
27-6 OHIO STATE 9:05 3rd 1:09 off the clock Fumbled OSU 24
27-13 OHIO STATE 7:00 3rd 2:40 1 incompletion OSU 35
27-20 OHIO STATE 1:23 3rd 2:52 3 incompletions. Why. NEB 37
27-20 OHIO STATE 11:20 4th 0:54 what in the hell 2. STOP THROWING OSU 29
27-27 TIE 7:22 4th 0:53 1 OSU 37
27-34 NEBRASKA 4:52 4th 0:50 2 OSU 22

The night in Lincoln Ohio State's emergency quarterback repeatedly heaved the ball into the Memorial Stadium stands with both a lead and a Carlos Hyde at his disposal. Nebraska's offense dutifully accepted short field after short field along with the gracious and completely unnecessary clock stoppages handed to them by Ohio State OC Jim Bollman. That sucked; let's move on to current events.

We've reached the Super Bowl from this past weekend, which may have been the most arrogant squandering of a victory in football history.

The Oilers were facing Buffalo's backup, who is literally known for nothing other than what ended up happening in that game. Ohio State was facing Taylor Martinez and had to sub in Joe Bauserman for the injured Braxton Miller (all the more reason the Buckeyes should have been handing off, but whatever) and the stakes weren't exactly high that evening.

The Falcons were facing Tom Brady with a 25-point lead late in the Super Bowl. They were already mentally planning parade routes.

Atlanta proceeded to run the ball only five more times for the rest of the game. Their offensive possessions are bolded, below:

THE NIGHT ATLANTA HANDED WILLIAM SHERMAN A BUNCH OF TORCHES AND GASOLINE
LEAD TIME LEFT WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED AND THAT RESULTED IN
28-3 ATLANTA 8:31 3rd Got sliced up by Tom Brady. It happens. 13-play TD drive (PAT failed)
28-9 ATLANTA 2:06 3rd Recovered onside kick; started on the NE 46. 3 plays, -15 yards and a punt
28-9 ATLANTA 14:51 4th Sliced up by Brady. Maybe stop giving him chances. 12-play FG drive
28-12 ATLANTA 9:44 4th Three plays, -2 yards, Matt Ryan sacked & fumbled Patriots' ball on ATL 25
28-12 ATLANTA 8:24 4th Brady again. Maybe keep him on the bench longer. 5-play TD drive (2-pt conv. good)
28-20 ATLANTA 5:56 4th Six plays, 45 yards. Sack, penalty, incompletion. Patriots' ball on NE 9
28-20 ATLANTA 3:30 4th Let's give Tom Brady a chance to tie the game. Sure. 10-play TD drive (2-pt conv. good)
28-28 TIE 0:57 4th Pass, Pass, Spike, Incompletion, Punt. Overtime. New England won.

They ran the ball five times, one of which was a Matt Ryan scramble on a passing play. Coincidentally - during that closing stretch - New England scored five times.

Ryan was also snapping the ball with double-digit seconds remaining on the play clock throughout all of this. Each moment ticking off the clock was a down payment on an Atlanta ticker-tape parade. The Falcons methodically transferred dozens of them, interest-free, to Boston's parade fund instead of hoarding them.

It's a little too easy to say they choked; that implied that they crumbled under pressure. But Falcons OC Kyle Shanahan was calling so many clock-stopping plays that it makes more sense to suggest Atlanta got cocky with its own ability, shelved one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL and subsequently allowed Brady too many opportunities to be Brady.

This type of crushing self-defeat will definitely happen again - hopefully to a team you don't like. Luck is a welcome perk in any sport, but one of the most valuable elements of a comeback - especially in football - is a play-caller with the lead who lacks the discipline to simply play keep-away and allow the game clock hog the spotlight. 

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