I had some difficulty deciding what to write about today, for there was much in recent days that raised my ire:
- Oil company executives having to defend their prices in front of Congressmen who can spend as much of other people’s money as they want, raise taxes on other people’s money almost as much as they want, and give themselves a pay raise almost whenever they want, with a less than a ten per cent chance of being voted out of office.
- A convicted sex offender, who at 31 had sex with a girl he knew was 15 years old, whining about still being on Florida’s list of sex offenders, offering this perfectly valid analogy in his defense: “As a child, when you’re born, you spill milk on the table. You’re scolded for that and then it goes away… You don’t bring it up for the rest of your entire life.”
- A nearby sandwich shop called “Poor Boy”—they can’t even spell “Po’” correctly—using a picture of a jumbo-sized Vienna beef hot dog with relish, mustard, sport peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers on a poppy-seed bun to advertise their wimpy, watery little dogs with ketchup, mustard and onions on plain-old, poppy-seedless buns.
I suppose there’s terrorism, politics, rioting, and starvation to complain about also. But what irked me more than anything else this week was…
…the lamentable clock management in the fourth quarter of the Clemson-Florida State game.
Now, don’t get the wrong idea: I’m glad Clemson won, 35-14. As far as I know, this is my alma mater’s biggest victory over FSU, ever. When I was a freshman at Clemson, we lost to FSU57-0, and I had to hear about it from my friends at FSU. So it’s nice to beat the crap out of them.
But even when you’re up 35-14 going into the fourth quarter, there are certain precautions you need to take to secure victory—especially against a team that throughout the season has played its best football in the fourth quarter. For example: you want the clock to run out as soon as possible, therefore you should run plays that keep the clock moving. You shouldn’t pass the ball, because you risk an interception or an incomplete pass, which stops the clock. You should run the ball, but you shouldn’t run it out of bounds, because that stops the clock also. It’s real simple: run the ball up the middle over and over again and milk the clock.
So, what happened? After Clemson made it a three-score game, FSU had six possessions. In just over 15 minutes. That’s horrible. But it only happened because Clemson didn’t burn enough of the clock when they had the ball. Here are Clemson’s last five possessions of the game, beginning with four seconds left in the third quarter:
1. Three plays, only 55 seconds off the clock. This was obscene, considering that with a 25 second play clock, you should take at least 75 seconds off the game clock per possession. To make it worse, one of these plays was an incomplete pass to start the quarter—in other words, the clock was already stopped at 15:00, and Clemson ran only three seconds off it before it stopped again.
2. Three plays, two of which were incomplete passes, only 64 seconds off the clock. Their longest time-burning play was the punt.
3. Three plays, one of which was an incomplete pass, 78 seconds off the clock. And they called a timeout.
At this point, there were 8 minutes and 23 seconds left in the game, which would turn out to be insufficient for a comeback. If Clemson had run the ball on every play, as they should have, at least 48 more seconds would have been off the clock—probably more, since the play clock doesn’t start immediately after the previous play.
4 and 5. Clemson got smart on their last two possessions: three plays each, six runs up the middle, 2:22 burned on the first one, 2:28 on the second one, bringing the clock down to 42 seconds.
Yes, Clemson won. Big. Whipped the Seminoles. Badly. It just ticked me off to see Tommy Bowden’s utter lack of killer instinct—he did enough to win the game, but he didn’t guarantee it. He thought he could outsmart a very simple formula: run it up the middle, take time off the clock, keep the ball away from the other team. Tommy didn’t choke the life out of the Seminoles when he had the chance, and gave them six chances to get points back in the last fifteen minutes. And suddenly it became obvious why Clemson lost four close ones this year:
Clemson’s players are good, but Clemson’s coach sucks…
…just not as bad as the Seminoles do.
P.S. If you hoped for a post with more political relevance, intellectual depth, or emotional insight, get over it. Clemson beat FSU.
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 12th, 2005 at 7:06 PM.
5 Responses to “Both beggar and chooser.”
- apushisfun Says:
November 13th, 2005 at 3:52 PM
well, mr. v it would of been nice to read about some interesting topic of the political nature or some intellegent topic that would be worth discussing. But i will gladly quote when you said: “Clemson beat FSU.” It sort of has a ring to it. Clemson beat FSU
- Neurotik Says:
November 14th, 2005 at 6:06 PM
Dear g-d what is with you people and football, college football of all things
- guess who Says:
November 14th, 2005 at 7:24 PM
How dare they falsely advertise hot dogs and misspell PO Boy. It’s a disgrace to all things southern!
- Vincent Viscariello Says:
November 14th, 2005 at 7:51 PM
Dear “Neurotik,”
You misspelled “G-d.” As far as “football, college football of all things,” well… de gustibus non est disputandum.
- craziness4now Says:
November 16th, 2005 at 5:50 PM
Mr. V!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so i finally decided to create one of these things just so i could make posts for you. b/c i just adore you that much. im sure you’re happy now. so now you have to figure out who i am.without looking at the profile, b/c unfortunately my email address gives it away! anyway, im right along with you about the Clemson/FSU game. Clemson kicked some tail, even though they didnt do it how you wouldve liked at the end. I dont really care all that much about Clemson (sorry..bows head in shame), but im a gator fan…so anything against thenoles is good for me. thats enough for now. but use those skills of yours to figure out who i am.
