A Decade Without Dad
November 24, 2014Ohio State wins; Hudson beats Mentor—again
November 24, 2014Sunday’s Cleveland Browns game against the Atlanta Falcons was not a fine showing of head coaching skills. I wondered aloud on Twitter if Falcons coach Mike Smith had been fired yet, and I wasn’t just making a joke. I still like Mike Pettine and his team seems to rally around him and play for him, but he’s had some “rookie” moments to be sure from a head coaching standpoint. Pettine hasn’t been a clock star by any means, and his decision-making has waffled between conservative and reckless at the end of halves.
So let’s just start with the play that starred both Mike Smith and Mike Pettine in dueling dumbness. Which play is it to which I could possibly be referring?
The Browns attempted to end the first half with a 60-yard field goal by Billy Cundiff. Sure, the game was indoors, but it was crazy. Pettine was quoted as saying that he spoke to his kicker during the game and Cundiff told him, “I got this.” There are about a million jokes to be had, and it was pretty clear for everyone that Cundiff indeed did not “got this” because he missed a mulligan attempt—which brings me to Mike Smith.
Who—I ask you loudly—ices a kicker at the end of the first half when he’s about to attempt a 60-yarder? Who ices a kicker attempting a 60-yarder who is 8-for-28 lifetime from 50-plus? Mike Smith of the Atlanta Falcons will ice your kicker at the end of the first half as he’s about to attempt a kick from Savannah, Georgia.
But that’s not even close to the dumbest thing we saw on this very play.
Mike Pettine saw his team snap the ball through Mike Smith’s timeout. He saw his kicker plaster the ball as best he could. He saw the ball come up woefully short as Devin Hester caught it in the end zone. If the timeout hadn’t been called, Pettine knew that Hester could have been using his all-time return abilities to take that ball and let his feet scream in the other direction toward a game-changing score for the Falcons. Mike Pettine saw all this and he still allowed Billy Cundiff to kick it, for real this time, after Mike Smith gave him the gift of all gifts. Mike Pettine got a mulligan on a bad decision, and he Tin Cupped it straight into the water again.
Why? Mike Pettine’s kicker told him, “I’ve got this.”
Thank goodness for the hustle of Joel Bitonio. Thank goodness that Billy Cundiff and Spencer Lanning weren’t hurt in their attempts to cover the return. They were both in harm’s way as Bitonio stopped Hester after 70-ish yards.
Thankfully the Browns won, or maybe people would be calling for Pettine’s head right now. They surely have to be calling for Mike Smith’s. The Browns won the game, technically. Brian Hoyer threw the ball four times on the way to a Browns game-winning field goal, but it was a gift by Mike Smith that they even had the chance. No, I’m not talking about the softest defense I’ve ever seen. I’m talking about the fact that the Browns had far more time and timeouts than they ever should have had, if not for the clock bumbling of Mike Smith. A Twitter sampling…
Here's a gem from #Falcons coach Mike Smith: "The score was not what we wanted it to be."
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) November 23, 2014
But… RT @knoxbardeen: Mike Smith also said that had he not called the time out with 44 seconds, the #Browns would have.
— Scoops (@ejmaroun) November 23, 2014
The NFC South is a dumpster fire. Mike Smith is the Mike Smith of bad clock management.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) November 23, 2014
Game ball to Mike Smith. End of half (Pettine) and end of game (Smith) worst clock management I've ever seen. Smith has cost his team 2 gms
— Aaron Goldhammer (@HammerNation19) November 23, 2014
Mike Smith continues to mishandle late game clock situations. Why are there still 44 seconds and Browns have all their timeouts? #Falcons
— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) November 23, 2014
I can't get over Mike Smith icing Cundiff on 60 yarder…then Pettine trying it again & almost giving up Hester TD.
— Christopher Hansen (@ChrisHansenNFL) November 23, 2014
So, here’s what happened.
The Falcons had the ball with 2:42 left and a two-point deficit, 23-21. They had amazing field position thanks to an awful Brian Hoyer interception at the ATL 45. The Falcons rushed once, passed once, and hit the two-minute warning at the Cleveland 46. They’re in great shape, but the Falcons should have been concentrating on getting into field goal range with as little time left on the clock as possible. In an ideal scenario they’d be snapping the ball for their game-winning field goal attempt with about seven seconds or less.
The drive stalled a bit and on second and nine, the Falcons passed to Harry Douglas for seven. Third down and two from the Cleveland 35 with 0:55 on the clock and that’s when Mike Smith called timeout. Forget the clock, because the Browns surely would have called timeout there (right?). Instead of it costing the Browns one of their three timeouts, they got to keep it. Then Smith doubled down on the clock-saving techniques for the Browns when he threw long for Devin Hester. Justin Gilbert barely got his head around and it fell incomplete.
The Falcons kicked the field goal and went up one point on the Browns, but the Browns had 0:44 seconds to make their move and all three of their timeouts. There’s no way in the world the Browns should have had all three of their timeouts there. I get throwing on third and two. It’s gutsy, but I’d never kill a coach for trying the pass on third down there. Worst case though, the Browns should have only had two of their timeouts.
There’s no telling if the Browns would have been able to navigate the game-winning field goal drive from their own 20, but it would have been incredibly more difficult. As it was, the Browns were able to work the middle of the field because they had timeouts. They were able to comfortably work the middle one last time with 16 seconds left and still had time to spike it with six seconds left. The Browns accepted Mike Smith’s gift and won the game on Billy Cundiff’s 37-yarder.
One more tweet for you. Falcons owner Arthur Blank grabbed a front row seat for Mike Smith’s presser after the game.
Arthur Blank grabbing his front row seat for the Mike Smith post game pic.twitter.com/01hWEi27Kd
— Craig Sager II (@CraigSagerJr) November 23, 2014
You can’t assume that’s good news for Smith, and I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if he was fired. Yes coaches can only do so much as they put players in positions to make plays, but at some point the bad choices by a coach start to submarine the delicate chemistry of confidence. If a team doesn’t believe in the guy setting the stage, they stop performing.
For Mike Pettine Sunday’s win over the Falcons looks like a learning opportunity because the Browns won. For Mike Smith, it’s another match on the seat of the chair he is sitting in—for now.
31 Comments
I said it in the winners/losers, but Mike Smith should be fired immediately. I get that he helped rebuild the franchise in the wake of whatever that Petrino-Vick mess was. But the team is a dumpster fire 2 years in a row and Les Miles thought that was bad clock management.
Bitonio’s play was amazing. But I’m not sure why no one has given Lanning any credit. Bitonio never catches Hester without Lanning’s sort-of tackle. Lanning is having one of the strangest seasons I can ever remember for a punter, and it has had almost nothing to do with punting.
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Pettine’s biggest mistake at the end of the first half was not taking a timeout with like 40 seconds to go. He calls one of his 3 timeouts there, and we have another 17-20 seconds of clock to move the ball into range for a closer last second FG attempt. The Cundiff 60 yd attempt(s) decision was either awful or a justifiable risk depending on what Cundiff has proven he can kick in practice. Weather was obviously not a factor. If he can hit 60 yd kicks, then sure. If he cant, then that was a horrible decision. If Pettine doesnt know how far Cundiff can kick it, then shame on Pettine for being unprepared.
Pettine does deserve credit for saving all 3 timeouts in the second half. How many old Browns teams would have wasted a timeout sometime in the 3rd quarter for getting a play late into the huddle or having a personnel mixup or doing that stupid play where we fake like we’re going to go for it on 4th down trying to get the defense to jump offsides, and then call a TO instead of just taking the 5 yd delay of game?? The answer is every Browns team coached by anyone not name Pettine.
Smith is an idiot. I have no defense for him.
Worse than all this for Pettine was the inexplicable no timeout after Josh Gordon gained 19 yards with about 49 seconds left in the second quarter. He let 20 seconds vanish and still took two timeouts into the half.
If he calls a timeout properly he allows his team time to drive the ball farther and we avoid the 60-yard FG scenario altogether.
Oh, clarkharry86, you cray!
I love how Bitonio just gets up and jogs to sideline satisfied that he’s completed his latest job assignment
Is Arthur Blank a spitting image of Uncle Leo or am I crazy? Hello!
Excellent article, Craig. They held a clinic out there, and Pettine was bailed out by a guy who outmatched him brain cramp for brain cramp. I can picture Blank sitting there in the front row staring daggers at Smith.
I don’t get why clock management issues still happen in the NFL. Billion dollar teams, countless employees, razor thin margins between success and failure – yet every week there’s egregious mismanagement that your average 12-year-old playing Madden on Xbox Live is smart enough to avoid.
Mike Smith seems to be self-destructuing, kind of like Jeff Fisher before his sabbatical. He had similar in-game head-scratchers last week and today the Atlanta columnists are calling for his head. His time out was insanity. The third down pass would have been ok only if it was one easier one to complete; there was no freakin’ need for a home run ball with a kicker like that.
With both Smith and Pettine, isn’t this why they pay dozens of assistants handsomely, to check their algorithm charty thingies and tell them “time-out after this play” or whatever? Or maybe they are rejecting sound advice coming through the headphones.
Re the near-disaster before the half on the second FG attempt: Pettine said post-game that Cundiff overheard that he would be iced so he purposely short-legged it. Meaning, it was not an indication of his best effort. Still stupid beyond belief but maybe a little easier to defend. Also, Bitonio needs to save this video. So one day Fat Grandpa can tell the kiddies,”I was 300 pounds, but I could run faster than the whole lot of you!” And prove it.
Dayum, I’ve never see 300 pounds move that fast.
Technically, Mike Smith won the bad coaching competition.
Re Bitonio: Some idiot former player analyst on the halftime desk said that Bitonio was “a backup, so he was well-rested to make that play.” You know, because when you don’t ever pay attention to a team, you just assume that a huge rookie from a school you don’t pay attention to must be a backup, and not one of the best rookie o-linemen in the game. Idiotic idiots say idiotic things.
I can forgive that a bit more if it’s a studio guy. I hate when the in game announcers don’t know our players. Where’s your prep? Where’s your professionalism?
Or had too many men on the field like those coaches for the 2014 Browns in September. Saved the other two 1st half timeouts for chili dog coupons for the varsity.
Brandi makes Jarrod save his timeouts to buy more storage lockers. Go Browns!
Sure sure. It just got my ire up for some reason – maybe because none of the other “experts” at the desk corrected him. That, and I’m just weary of all of the endless commentary and opinions. (He says, offering his opinion in the form of commentary.)
I’ll give Pettine a break because the browns never seem to burn their TO’s like the Clowns of the last 45 years, Shottenheimer specifically. The end of the first half had me cussing Pettine like at no other time that I can remember. Brutal, just brutal! The win cures all ills for this week at least.
BTW didn’t the last drive timeouts each let 2 or 3 seconds tick off before the clock stopped? I mean you have to be on the officials ass ready to call time BEFORE the play is even blown dead.
That GIF really shows him well.
I’ve always wondered why these NFL and college big time programs don’t have a game management coach who is in charge of timeouts, penalty declining, two minute drill management, etc. How many times do you see a stupid college coach take a 10 yard holding penalty after his d has held a team to 3rd and 7. The stupidity runs rampant, not including the beyond the box metrics of going for it on 4th down like Frowns hit on a while back.
I call BS on the overhearing the icing.
Yeah , but we kind of want yours if it’s halfway decent. We are stuck with what the networks shove us.
Brandi biguns?
I’m really on top of my game if my stuff is halfway decent!
He deserves better than womack
Whatever defense Smith was in at the end of the game was horrible as well. On the long pass to Gordon, Hawkins was wide open past him. If Hoyer hits Hawkins its game over. They weren’t covering underneath or deep.
Indeed.
Please tell me you got it. PLEEEASE…
http://climbingcollective.com/wp-content/gallery/joes-valley-first-ascents/theporkchopexpress.jpg
Dumb me, didn’t even cross my mind though it should have
Only the greatest movie Evar!
Coach Pettine on timeouts and 90 yard field goals. Sounds good!!