Here's the game situation: First half, Pittsburgh has the ball inside the Hawk's 10, 1st and goal, clock running with just over 3 minutes left in the half. Hawks have all their timeouts. Steelers call a running play, Seahawks tackle the runner at the 3-yard line at 2:15 left in the half, so it's 2nd and goal from the 3, two-minute warning. Steelers run another running play, Hawks stuff it at the 3, 3rd and goal, clock continues to run. Steelers score on 3rd down with 1:09 left in the half.
If the Seahawks start using their timeouts when the Steelers had the ball 1st and goal at just over 3 minutes, even if Pittsburgh runs 3 straight running plays, we get the ball back ahead of the two-minute warning, unless the Steelers run some sort of play that eats up 15-20 seconds, pretty unlikely inside the 10.
As it turned out, we got the ball back with just 1:09 left in the half. It didn't make a huge difference in this game as we ended up punting anyway. But my point is that you have a lot better chance of scoring when you have the ball with 2-2:45 or so left in the half vs. 1:09. You can't do anything with those excess timeouts that we didn't call.
This is what I was talking about last week when we opted to kick the FG with the ball on the SF 19 without even trying to line up and pull the defense offside. Our HC doesn't have his head in the game.
If the Seahawks start using their timeouts when the Steelers had the ball 1st and goal at just over 3 minutes, even if Pittsburgh runs 3 straight running plays, we get the ball back ahead of the two-minute warning, unless the Steelers run some sort of play that eats up 15-20 seconds, pretty unlikely inside the 10.
As it turned out, we got the ball back with just 1:09 left in the half. It didn't make a huge difference in this game as we ended up punting anyway. But my point is that you have a lot better chance of scoring when you have the ball with 2-2:45 or so left in the half vs. 1:09. You can't do anything with those excess timeouts that we didn't call.
This is what I was talking about last week when we opted to kick the FG with the ball on the SF 19 without even trying to line up and pull the defense offside. Our HC doesn't have his head in the game.

