Stupid Like A Fox!

John Fox, my junior high science teacher, who once challenged a kid to a fight during class, probably could have done a better job managing the Panther offense than did John Fox, the Panther's head coach, during the Monday night game against the Cowboys.

With 5:07 left, down by two touchdowns, the Panthers took over at their own 20. At the two minute warning they had the ball at the Dallas 40. Needing two touchdowns, they used over 60% of the remaining clock to get halfway to the end zone once. (A few plays later they turned the ball over on a fumble.) They had two timeouts and inexplicably never called one during the drive. I guess John "stupid like a" Fox was saving them. After all, it's pretty important to use your last timeout, down 14, when the other team has the ball, 1st down, with 46 seconds left. Making the opposing quarterback take a knee twice instead of once, in that situation, is huge.

Not only did the Panthers not use their timeouts, they never took a serious shot down field during their last drive. (This might be more the fault of quarterback Jake Delhomme than John Fox, though.) Their longest pass was 12 yards on a running back dump off. You have to start going for some high risk / high reward plays in that instance. Especially, if you have a game-breaker like Steve Smith and two big, physical jump ball targets like Muhsin Muhammed and Dante Rosario. There is no excuse for being so conservative in that situation. If you turn the ball over taking a shot, so be it. Putting off a loss is not the same thing as going for a win. I don't think most NFL coaches understand this.