@curtdog I agree, rewatching it, it was like what is going on. Even live too. However, I think Cig's worst performance as at ND in the playoff game, but his end of game management was close to that yesterday.
Thank you for reading Hoosier Huddle
This article provides an excellent breakdown of the clock management at the end of regulation.
We've got the best coach in the college game, but this was a huge blunder.
"If Minnesota finds a way to get a defensive stop in regulation and win the game, Indiana is teetering on the edge of the College Football Playoff — likely having to win the Big Ten to get there."
Curt Cignetti's clock management nearly costs Indiana critical game
Our coach made a mistake. He’s not perfect.
This is hardly breaking news.
Glad we won but Cig had some baffling clock decisions at the end that nearly cost us the game.
Letting Minnesota run the clock down to 24 seconds when you could have had a minute or so whether they make the kick or not.
Not calling a timeout after Beckers catch with 13 seconds left. Somebody needs to tell him he was not out of bounds and the clock will roll. Had Marsh caught that pass the game would have been over right there with no chance for a field goal.
I would hope they have someone on staff that can help with these clock decisions at the end of the game.
I also think we should have gone for it on the 4th and 1 at the Minnesota 17 (or so) instead of kicking the FG with 3+ minutes left. Cig said everyone wanted to go for it, but he 'overruled' them.
Even setting aside the issues we had experienced on FG attempts in this game...........had we made it, absent a TO, the worst we likely would have done was OT. We could have taken our time and made Minnesota use up their TOs to have any time left.
Had we not made it, with a defensive stop we had them backed up and would have gotten the ball back with decent time left and good field position.
He "F'd" the end of that game up, clock management wise. But he's obviously not the type that is going to publicly own that. He's made some iconic, incredible calls, and great clock management decisions, in numerous games. And he's had a handful of questionable/bad moments. I don't think there's any trend, or narrative... other than he usually knows best and makes great decisions, but is human, and is capable of making mistakes. Not calling a timeout to save time during Minny's last drive in regulation was a mistake. Not figuring out if Becker was down inbounds or out of bounds, was a mistake. That's fine. We overcame them and won.
I have a theory about clock management: old coaches tend to be much worse at it than young coaches. Cig has been a head coach for 15 years. He's been the head coach for slightly less than 200 games. Generally, about 1/3rd are one score games--and not every one score game has important clock management implications--and only half of the games where the clock management was a key would have fallen on Cig, as opposed to the other team.
So, he's probably only had to game that out, in real time, with game pressure, something like one or two dozen times. Even fewer with the two minute warning, which didn't exist in college until...last year?
Young coaches, on the other hand, who played a lot of video game football when they were younger, have faced those situations hundreds of times. Starting when I was a kid, I've "coached" teams through those end game decisions hundreds of times. It isn't always intuitive, and adding the two minute warning a couple seasons ago makes it more complicated. He certainly made the wrong decision there, but everyone messes it up sometimes. I still can't believe we won, but I'm glad we did.
@curtdog I thought it was pretty clear. He thought the play for longer than a 58 yarder was not to call it and gamble on the miss, which he thought was more likely, than allowing them to go for it, get the first down and now have more time to get an even more makeable FG. He thought if he stopped the clock for them, they might decide not to kick and go for the first down, which he didn't want. I don't recall what the distance was on 4th down (I thought it was 4th and 2, but heard someone say it was 4th and 8). If it was 4th and 8, I'm shocked he didn't trust his D the most to stop them and try and force their hand towards going for it. Regardless, he did explain it and it is understandable, even if you don't agree. Personally, I thought he should take the timeout and preserve the clock, but I also feel foolish critiquing any decision Cig makes, and after all, it did work!
Nobody talking about using a TO in the 3rd Quarter? I hate when he does that. It almost always comes back and bites us to some extent.
@curtdog I thought it was pretty clear. He thought the play for longer than a 58 yarder was not to call it and gamble on the miss, which he thought was more likely, than allowing them to go for it, get the first down and now have more time to get an even more makeable FG. He thought if he stopped the clock for them, they might decide not to kick and go for the first down, which he didn't want. I don't recall what the distance was on 4th down (I thought it was 4th and 2, but heard someone say it was 4th and 8). If it was 4th and 8, I'm shocked he didn't trust his D the most to stop them and try and force their hand towards going for it. Regardless, he did explain it and it is understandable, even if you don't agree. Personally, I thought he should take the timeout and preserve the clock, but I also feel foolish critiquing any decision Cig makes, and after all, it did work!
It's ok to criticize while still being respectful of the Coach and the program.
It was a brain fart, plain and simple. We're all guilty of that from time to time.
There's no rational justification for not calling the timeout to stop the clock in that situation. The clock mismanagement put Wilson and McAteer into almost impossible situations. If Wilson hadn't quickly connected with Becker and McAteer doesn't nail the kick (just the 9th 60-yarder in the history of the Big Ten), there'd be much more discussion about this. A loss would have left us at 7-2 with no cushion for making the CFP and I'd be very nervous (more than I already am) about USC and @Washington.
Cig is the best coach in college football right now. But throw in some luck, too.
I seem to recall when we first got Cig someone in a forum was asking about the type of coach we were getting. A JMU fan responded about the one thing that drove them nuts was his use of Time Outs and clock management. We really haven't had to worry about it much the first two years but this season we are seeing some of what I think is what that JMU fan was saying. It certainly isn't the way I would do it but I guess with Cig's record and history if its working for him, who am I to say don't do it.
@kkott I actually can get my mind to understand, if not accept, Cig's rationale. But then I keep coming back to 3rd and 12, with well over a minute to go, with our defense putting pressure on Lindsey on basically every play. He should have called a timeout after the 2nd down play, and then after the short gain on 3rd down as well, to preserve the clock. I think the "willing and guiding them to kick a long FG", 2 downs before they were to be forced with that decision... ehhhhh, that's a little bit too much credit for "Jedi like powers". And also, their kicker might be the best kicker in the country, right now. Once they crossed midfield, you almost have to assume he's going to make a kick. And give yourself as much time, and thus as much of a chance to come back and answer their kick.
As it was... One of the most incredible throws and catches I think we've ever seen... and maybe isn't getting as much publicity as it should... was needed. And THEN, nearly everyone on the staff, outside eithe Shanahan or Sunseri, whoever was manically running down the sideline imploring for a timeout when they realized they had ran the clock... but nearly everyone else biffed Becker's knee being in bounds when he landed. Its just crazy how it ended up working out.
Side question... has anyone seen any alternate cameras on the long throw to Marsh? If he wasn't acting at the end of that play, it was one of the more obvious PI calls I've ever seen. The defender looked to plow through Marsh, and displace him almost all the way out of bounds, well before the ball arrived. It got overlooked because of Patty Mac's kick attempt then getting all the attention. But man, unless Marsh was acting and he actually wan't hit, that was an obvious missed call.
@kkott I actually can get my mind to understand, if not accept, Cig's rationale. But then I keep coming back to 3rd and 12, with well over a minute to go, with our defense putting pressure on Lindsey on basically every play. He should have called a timeout after the 2nd down play, and then after the short gain on 3rd down as well, to preserve the clock. I think the "willing and guiding them to kick a long FG", 2 downs before they were to be forced with that decision... ehhhhh, that's a little bit too much credit for "Jedi like powers". And also, their kicker might be the best kicker in the country, right now. Once they crossed midfield, you almost have to assume he's going to make a kick. And give yourself as much time, and thus as much of a chance to come back and answer their kick.
As it was... One of the most incredible throws and catches I think we've ever seen... and maybe isn't getting as much publicity as it should... was needed. And THEN, nearly everyone on the staff, outside eithe Shanahan or Sunseri, whoever was manically running down the sideline imploring for a timeout when they realized they had ran the clock... but nearly everyone else biffed Becker's knee being in bounds when he landed. Its just crazy how it ended up working out.
Side question... has anyone seen any alternate cameras on the long throw to Marsh? If he wasn't acting at the end of that play, it was one of the more obvious PI calls I've ever seen. The defender looked to plow through Marsh, and displace him almost all the way out of bounds, well before the ball arrived. It got overlooked because of Patty Mac's kick attempt then getting all the attention. But man, unless Marsh was acting and he actually wan't hit, that was an obvious missed call.
Yea. I noticed that and it is crazy that wasn't called PI. But the refs in general seem to be letting defenses get away with PI quite often.
@hurryinghoosiers For sure. We benefitted from that quite a lot against OSU, and did a couple times in the Minny game as well. But man, right in front of that ref, in that situation... I don't see how they can not throw that flag. If Marsh had caught the ball though, time would have ran out in all likelihood. I'm not sure we could have organized and clocked the ball in 2 seconds, after the first down reset. So many crazy weird things happened to create that ending.
@hurryinghoosiers For sure. We benefitted from that quite a lot against OSU, and did a couple times in the Minny game as well. But man, right in front of that ref, in that situation... I don't see how they can not throw that flag. If Marsh had caught the ball though, time would have ran out in all likelihood. I'm not sure we could have organized and clocked the ball in 2 seconds, after the first down reset. So many crazy weird things happened to create that ending.
we had 2 timeouts given our lack of using them earlier..would assume we could have used one while the refs were explaining the penalty