Week 2: Is that Wilson or Wade?

'80s pop duo Wilson Phillips probably could have managed the clock better than Cowboys coach Wade Phillips at the end of Sunday night's Giants/Cowboys game. On the final possession of the game, with Dallas up by one and New York driving, despite holding three timeouts, Phillips never used one in an attempt to preserve some clock for a quick counter-drive, in case New York scored. The result was a game-winning field goal for the Giants on the final play of the game. Taking a page out of the book of irrelevant tactics, Phillips did, however, "put the pressure" on Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes by icing him with a timeout. Why icing the kicker is still fashionable among NFL coaches is beyond me. (My favorite icing-the-kicker moment is when Joe Gibbs tried to "double ice" Rian Lindell leading to a 15-yard penalty, and a 36-yard attempt instead of a 51-yard attempt.)

Let's examine the final drive a little more closely. The Giants have the ball 1st down at the Cowboys 47 with a little over 1:20 remaining and the clock ticking. The Giants have 2 timeouts, the Cowboys 3. The Cowboys should now be stopping the clock every chance they can. There is no way the Giants are running out of time. They are either turning the ball over or scoring. There is almost no downside for the Cowboys to try to preserve the clock. The upside is a chance for a quick counter-strike if the Giants score. This is obviously an enormous contrast with a certain loss if the Giants score. Now, it's quite possible the Giant's are able to get into field goal range and run down the clock, even if the Cowboys do use their timeouts, but why give it to them? It was incredibly stupid for the Cowboys to let the clock run.

I can understand why most NFL coaches aren't able to managed the clock correctly. Maybe they just aren't good at it, maybe they have to pay too much attention to the on-field action to worry about it. What I can't understand is why they don't hire somebody to stand on the sidelines to do it for them. They have assistant coaches, under assistant coaches to prepare for the game, why not a "time management" coach to give their team the best chance to win during the game?

(On a related note, I was happy to see, my team, the Seattle Seahawks using all their timeouts on defense, down by 13, with a little over 5 minutes left. They at least gave themselves a realistic chance to get the ball back, score, get an on-side kick, and score again. Nothing but the first step of this sequence happened, but this was due to on-field execution, not clock management. It's encouring to see good time management from the Hawks head coach. It's not encouring to see them give up two 70+ yard TD runs to Frank Gore, or to see their starting QB go down with a possibly serious injury, but that's another story.)