Jeff Saturday isn’t alone when it comes to poor clock management decisions
Jeff Saturday might be completely unproven as an NFL coach, but he has at least one thing in common with his 31 counterparts.
He seemingly has no idea how to manage the clock and is facing criticism for his decision-making at the end of the Indianapolis Colts’ 24-17 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
With the Colts trailing by a touchdown in the final minutes, Saturday and the Colts allowed precious seconds to run off the clock without using any of their full allotment of timeouts remaining.
The most egregious moment was after a 14-yard scramble by quarterback Matt Ryan to set up a crucial third-and-three situation. It was not until after Jonathan Taylor was stuffed that the Colts finally called their first timeout. By that point, 90 seconds had run off the clock after the two-minute warning with the Colts gaining only 14 yards in that time. They were still 26 yards from the end zone with only 30 seconds to play.
In both real time and in hindsight it was baffling decision-making because it left the Colts with almost no margin for error and perhaps rushed some of their decision-making.
Saturday defended the lack of timeouts by saying the situation was not a time crunch and he felt they had plenty of time to get a score. There is also an argument to be made that perhaps he did not want to score too quickly and wanted to leave Pittsburgh with as little time as possible for a potential game-winning drive of its own. But even that might be a generous defense of Saturday’s coaching.
It would be easy to use this as an example of Saturday’s inexperience hurting the Colts, and a big strike against owner Jim Irsay’s decision to hire a coach with zero coaching experience.
But that would also be unfair given the reality that every coach in the league — even the best coaches — seems to receive criticism for their clock management.
Saturday wasn’t even the only NFL coach this weekend to be put in the crosshairs for their end-of-game decision-making. Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles — a veteran of 78 NFL games as a head coach — was also crushed for how he handled the end of their overtime loss to the Cleveland Browns.
Even head coaches with Hall of Fame track records are not immune to the criticism. Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, for example, is known almost as much for his struggles managing the clock as he is for consistently winning games and playing for Super Bowls.
So why does this happen to every coach in this position?
It’s the ultimate arm-chair coaching scenario, where fans think just because they know when to call timeouts in their Madden game that it can easily translate to real-life situations.
It’s also easier to know what to do when you do not have to face any of the consequences or deal with real-time decision-making. NFL coaches have hundreds of decisions to process in real time with a limited amount of time to make them. When you have 10 different voices in your ear, trying to make the right personnel and play call decisions, while also analyzing the other team’s situation, it is probably very easy for things to get lost. And they always do.
Maybe Saturday will not work out as an NFL coach, but it is not going to be because of what happened on Monday.
It just makes him like every other NFL head coach.
