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Posted 11/13/2008 at 12:33 PM
Well, we all saw it Monday Night. The San Francisco 49ers get a first down between the one and two yard line with 56 second to go. The Niners are trailing by five 29-24 so most assume with no time out left that they will pike the ball to kill the clock. Okay, maybe it wasn’t what I would have done off the bat but it’s the play in vogue for the NFL. The problem is that it takes 26 seconds to stop the clock as Mike Martz sends player substitutions into the game to pike the ball and stop the clock. This makes NO sense to me. If you are going to send in players run a passing play to the flag or post, just don’t give up 26 seconds when there is under a minute left to spike the ball. You are already giving up a play by making substitutions and now you don’t even run a play. What followed was even worse, with no timeouts left Martz decides to ‘trick ‘em’ and calls a running play with Frank Gore. Gore goes down around the one but there is an official review being called for the NFL booth. After wasting 26 seconds by failing to line-up and pike the ball Mike Martz now runs the ball with no time outs and gives the Niners only one play from inside the two yard line with 56 seconds to go. Now with the clock stopped because of the review, Martz assumes (once again) that the ball will be placed at20the one, it wasn’t, it was placed outside the three yard line. Then the Niners run a dive that had no chance with Michael Robinson (Who?)The officials put four seconds on the clock so the 49ers actually had time to pike the ball and huddle up before running a final play be it a pass or run. It is amazing to me that these guys get paid such big money to make such horrible decisions when the pressure in on.
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