Here’s a Thought…
Ok. There are seven seconds left in the game. The Cowboys have the ball at the 43-yard line. Why is Buffalo rushing four lineman? There’s a 100% chance the play is a three step drop. There is no way the Bills are getting a sack or a quarterback pressure. There is also a 100% chance the play is going to the sideline and so there’s little chance of batting the pass down. Still, the Bills rush four and leave the 8-yard out pattern wide open. Of all the mistakes the Bills made in the last minute, this is the one I’m calling them out on.
Here is what the Bills should have done. (Be prepared to have your mind blown) The Bills should have rushed nobody. They should have dropped all four lineman into pass coverage. Think about it. Not rushing the passer would have let the four Buffalo lineman cover the short 5-10 yard zone, and there would have been no downside. The Bills didn’t need to get pressure because there were only sevens seconds left, and after dropping back to pass Romo wouldn’t have time to scramble to the sideline. There would have been nowhere for Romo to to throw the ball and he would have had to throw it away and hope there was still time left on the clock. Pulling this off would have required Dick Jauron to think outside the box in the heat of the action, but it would have been the right move.
The other lesson the take away from this game is that the NFL really has to do something about coaches calling last second timeouts to ice kickers. Just in case you’re worried, there is a solution and it’s quite simple: Do what baseball does.
Usually if a hitter at the plate asks for time, the umpire will grant it. However, the umpire does have the authority to say “no”. The NFL just needs to copy baseball and give referees the authority to not grant timeouts. If a coach says he wants to call timeout three seconds before the snap the referee should be able to say “no, if you want to call a timeout, do it now.” That’s it. End of problem. Roger Goodell, the ball is in your court.
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