Clock Management

[RiverDog]

We have the ball at our own 45 up by 4 points, 34-30, with about 3:40 remaining in the game, 4th and 4 with the game clock running. Michael Dickson punts the ball with about 18 seconds remaining on the play clock.

Why would we let him kick the ball with that much time remaining on the play clock with the game clock running? We could have burned another 15 seconds off the game clock, and as we saw, the game wasn't decided until there was less than 10 seconds remaining.

Someone needs to slap me in the face, I guess.

[NorthHawk]

I was thinking similarly. We seem to make a lot of what I think are mistakes with clock management, but maybe all teams do and
I just don't notice because I only see them once or twice a year.

[Hawktawk]

We had no timeouts left at about the 3 minute mark having called our last one on 3rd and 19 as the clock ran down. Had the Vikes converted another TD that might have been the death knell.

[RiverDog]

We had no timeouts left at about the 3 minute mark having called our last one on 3rd and 19 as the clock ran down. Had the Vikes converted another TD that might have been the death knell.

Good point. The odds of converting on 3rd and 19 are about the same as 3rd and 24, so the smart play would have been to go ahead and take the delay of game penalty. Those 2nd half timeouts are like gold.

It's these types of decisions that really burn my arse.

[Hawk Sista]

The clock management was “almost” as frustrating as choking out a quick 13 points to make this a nail-biter. I realize the Vikes are a really good team, but we were strangely bad on both sides of the ball after going up 34 - 17. And with ZERO timeouts and the Vikings with the ball.... ouch. I’m glad it all worked out, but I was screaming at the tv when RW took that giant sack and we called a timeout.

[RiverDog]

The clock management was “almost” as frustrating as choking out a quick 13 points to make this a nail-biter. I realize the Vikes are a really good team, but we were strangely bad on both sides of the ball after going up 34 - 17. And with ZERO timeouts and the Vikings with the ball.... ouch. I’m glad it all worked out, but I was screaming at the tv when RW took that giant sack and we called a timeout.

Yea, we saw the old Russell on the play where he took that huge sack then called timeout (not sure if it was Russell or our bench). I guess we're not used to having 3 score leads in the 4th quarter.

Russell didn't have one of his better games. In addition to the play referred to above, he bats blocked pass higher and forward that's picked off for a TD, he had a scramble where he went into his slide 5 yards too early and short of a first down, a number of passes he tried to force into coverage. His QBR was just 51.7. Must have been those gawd awful uniforms.

[Hawktawk]

Russ has, for him, been pretty ordinary for 3 games. A pick in all 3, lower completion rates. To be fair the “pick 6” was just a ridiculous confluence of events. Russ doesn’t have a lot of batted balls to begin with and like he said he needs to work on his hops Any smart qb is going to try to bat it down , he just missed.

But here’s the deal about Russ. He plays ordinary but like all the great ones he can beat you with his C game,D game. When it counted he made the plays and the team scored 37 points. Imagine when Russ gets his fastball back , hopefully next Sunday .

[mykc14]

Russ has, for him, been pretty ordinary for 3 games. A pick in all 3, lower completion rates.

I have noticed this too. SF is ranked #1 against the pass so his overall performance in that one was actually pretty good, but I have to wonder if the other two have anything to do with Lockett's leg injury. He has only had 5 balls thrown his way in the past two weeks and only caught 1. You would have to think that he is not fully recovered from that leg injury. He hasn't had a ton of separation on those targets either. It is possible that defenses have figured out what the Hawks have been doing to get Lockett so open, but its more probable that he is still feeling the effects of the leg injury he suffered in SF. Hopefully, if he is still hampered by the injury, he heals quickly and RW's play picks up as well.

[RiverDog]

Russ has, for him, been pretty ordinary for 3 games. A pick in all 3, lower completion rates.

I have noticed this too. SF is ranked #1 against the pass so his overall performance in that one was actually pretty good, but I have to wonder if the other two have anything to do with Lockett's leg injury. He has only had 5 balls thrown his way in the past two weeks and only caught 1. You would have to think that he is not fully recovered from that leg injury. He hasn't had a ton of separation on those targets either. It is possible that defenses have figured out what the Hawks have been doing to get Lockett so open, but its more probable that he is still feeling the effects of the leg injury he suffered in SF. Hopefully, if he is still hampered by the injury, he heals quickly and RW's play picks up as well.

Hey, mykc! Nice to see you posting again.

Some of Russell's sub par (for him) play is just the odds catching up with him. Having just one INT in 9 games is extremely improbable. You'll get two or three just off deflected passes or wrong routes. He was overdue to have a few breaks not go his way. But it's nothing to be concerned about. Russell is the last player on the Hawks I'm worried about. I'm more concerned about the mental brain farts he had yesterday than his physical play, and even that doesn't amount to much.

Lockett's lack of production over the past couple of games is almost assuredly due to his health, but we also have a new receiver in Josh Gordon on the team that we want to get the ball to. We're a run heavy team so there's not going to be a ton of passes anyway unless we're a couple scores down, and we haven't been put in that position very often.

[mykc14]

Hey, mykc! Nice to see you posting again.

Thanks! Glad to be back! Football season is over for me so now I get to be more involved in THE SHACK!!

[RiverDog]

Just a follow-up regarding our noting that Russell's performance has hit a little mini slump...not sure that's the right term or not. In any event, I was just listening to SiriusXM's "Moving the Chains", and seems that Russell is no longer the fan favorite for MVP, with Lamar Jackson now leading amongst respondents in some informal fan polling. Except as it relates to our team's success, I don't give two hoots in hell if Russell wins the MVP or not, but it is an indication that his performance in Prime Time games, ie the Niners and Vikings games, didn't impress people as much as Jackson's and that we're not alone in our observation.

[mykc14]

Just a follow-up regarding our noting that Russell's performance has hit a little mini slump...not sure that's the right term or not. In any event, I was just listening to SiriusXM's "Moving the Chains", and seems that Russell is no longer the fan favorite for MVP, with Lamar Jackson now leading amongst respondents in some informal fan polling. Except as it relates to our team's success, I don't give two hoots in hell if Russell wins the MVP or not, but it is an indication that his performance in Prime Time games, ie the Niners and Vikings games, didn't impress people as much as Jackson's and that we're not alone in our observation.

I don't know that it has as much to do with RW's performances as it does Lamar Jackson's at this point. RW played well against the Niners (except his one huge INT) and the national sentiment following that game was still that he was the MVP front-runner, but after what Lamar Jackson did to the Rams the MVP front-runner discussion definitely fell in his direction. Even his performance against SF (100 yards rushing and 100 yards passing 2 TD's wasn't all that impressive) wasn't out of this world and people were talking like it was. IMO at this point people already have their mind made up (and I don't blame them Jackson is playing at a crazy level) and they are going to follow that narrative after every game. If RW has a 5+ TD performance against the Ram he even things out but I doubt that happens... IMO he easily could have 5 more TD's this season (2 against the Eagles and 3 against the Falcons). If he has 31 passing TD's at this point in the season he would have a chance. At the end of the year Lamar Jackson is going to crush the rushing yards for a QB record and all RW is going to have is a really good statistical year. For me though, if he gets the number 1 or 2 overall seed- its all good!!

[Hawk Sista]

At this point, I’d have to say I agree with the masses. There are 4 games to go before we can say, but I’d give the nod to LJ at this point as well. RW had 1 INT and was leading the league in TDs and passer rating when he shot up in the MVP polls. He’s won the last 3, but had 3 picks, a bunch of sacks and a few brain farts. I’d still take him on my team over anyone else (yeah, there’s a little homer in me), but I see why he’s no longer considered the favorite. It’s pretty great that he’s won in this mini-slump (I agree, Riv. It’s not the right term) of his. I think it shows how spoiled we are w/ QB play these days. And it’s nice to see the running game come together w/ a 2-headed monster behind a great run blocking line.