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Belichick tells awesome Brady story about timeouts, clock management originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Questionable timeout usage and bad clock management in general have been hot topics in the NFL this season.
One of the most glaring examples happened on Thanksgiving when Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus cost his team valuable seconds at the end of its game versus the Detroit Lions. The Bears lost, and Eberflus was fired the next day.
And then on Sunday night, Falcons head coach Raheem Morris didn’t use all of his timeouts to help rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr. as he was trying to lead Atlanta down the field for a potential game-winning field goal. The Falcons had to settle for a 56-yard field goal attempt at the end of regulation, which fell short. They ended up losing in overtime, thus weakening their playoff chances.
Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked about these clock management blunders during his weekly Monday appearance on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show.
Belichick called it “mystifying.” The eight-time Super Bowl champ explained that if he had three timeouts for a two-minute drill, the general rule he followed was using the first timeout between two minutes and one minute, the second timeout between one minute and 30 seconds, and the third timeout under 30 seconds.
“You really didn’t want to have two timeouts with 20 seconds left. And you didn’t want to use two of your timeouts in the first 30 seconds of a two-minute situation where you didn’t need to,” Belichick said.
Belichick also told McAfee a fascinating story about changing the way he used timeouts starting around 2013 or 2014 when former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady told his coach he preferred to have more time on the clock than more timeouts.
“I had always wanted to save it for the end,” Belichick said of his timeouts. “Especially if you need a field goal, so you didn’t have to run the no-huddle field goal team on. You could just take a timeout and…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/belichick-tells-awesome-brady-story-154455102.html
Author : NBC Sports Boston
Publish date : 2024-12-31 16:25:00
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