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Couple Observations from The Game: Clock Mgmt & MSU Play Calling

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rosycheeks's picture
November 9, 2014 at 9:59am
17 Comments

Couple things I haven't seen discussed:

1) The MSU straight-ahead running game was dominant when they went to it, but they got away from it in the 3rd quarter, then the deficit was too big in the 4th quarter. All night I had a feeling that if they kept going with Langford up the middle, he was going to break a long one. I was happy when the ball was in Cook's hands.

2) Poor clock management is a major pet peeve of mine, and there were two types of poor management by OSU last night that I hope doesn't bite them eventually. First, holding a 12-point lead in the 4th quarter, OSU was snapping the ball with double digit seconds left on the clock. Do that five times and you've given the opponent an extra minute to get back into the game. That legitimately could have cost OSU last night if they didn't dominate the line on offense when running out the clock. Second, and this is the truly baffling and inexcusable one: With 42 seconds left and 3rd-and-5, OSU only needed to run the ball, let the clock run down, then snap it one final time on 4th down. But no. You could see Urban hatching something with JT, and what he was hatching was ridiculously stupid. JT's toss downfield on 3rd-and-5 made no sense, stopped the clock, provided no opportunity to convert, and allowed MSU to get the ball back. Granted, it was over at that point no matter what, but that kind of boneheaded clock management can cost a team.

Overall, great game, and I'm not looking to nit-pick unnecessarily. Coaches and players both brought it last night.

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