Mac Can't Manage the Game

[SoulfishHawk]

Mac managed to WIN.

 

[RiverDog]

I was questioning the clock management too. We’ll get the ball back with at least two minutes. I think you try to put yourself in the best position. Yeah it can backfire like it may have. But last week’s was a questionable situation too. Not even trying to draw them off. And going and getting it probably wins the game. They scored anyway and we still had a chance to win.
And I’m very happy with the win mostly how they played last week until it went south. Pitt blew up a few plays like that too or worse today.

That's why I titled the thread as I did because I was coupling yesterday's decision, or non-decision, to let the clock run to barely a minute left in the half with last week vs. the Niners when he didn't even try to pull the D offside before attempting a 37-yard field goal.

Prior to his hiring as our HC, Macdonald has never been a head coach of a football team at any level, not in high school, not in college, and not in the pros. He's calling his own defensive plays, so one has to wonder if he isn't so engrossed in his play calling that he loses track of the game situation. As we talked about in other threads, a lot of coaches call their own plays according to their roots of either offense or defense, some being very successful at it.

But is this the right thing for our team? Are we getting better quality play calling with Mac vs. the DC, and if so, is the difference good enough to offset the question of Mac losing track of the game situation? Plus, if he's so engrossed with play calling, is he taking the time to talk to his offense while the defense is on the field, get an intangible feel for how that part of the game is going?

 

[samwize77]

I still think having the time outs are more important. A team has to start adjusting play calling, limiting the playbook, and areas of the field available. We had a lead, and the less time on the clock the better. Its football, and anything can happen. But with less time on the clock fewer things CAN happen.

 

[RiverDog]

I still think having the time outs are more important. A team has to start adjusting play calling, limiting the playbook, and areas of the field available. We had a lead, and the less time on the clock the better. Its football, and anything can happen. But with less time on the clock fewer things CAN happen.

First off, we wouldn't have been out of timeouts. If he called them ahead of the 2-minute warning, the clock would have stopped on third down, preserving one of them. He would have had roughly 1:55 and one timeout vs. roughly 1:00 and 3 timeouts. Also, since the Steelers scored on 3rd down, he still would have had two timeouts had he called his first one ahead of the two-minute warning on first down.

So, he would have had the ball and two timeouts with 1:50 or so on the game clock vs 1:05 or so with 3 timeouts, depending on what happened on the ensuing kickoff. He should have at least called his first timeout before the two-minute warning. It's unlikely that he's going to need all three timeouts.

Secondly, we don't know whether or not he made a conscious decision not to call the timeouts. It's possible that he could have just plain not been paying attention, a scenario that would fit with the narrative that he's consumed with play calling.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

All a matter of opinion, but I couldn't worry about Coach Mike if I tried.
I HIGHLY doubt he wasn't paying attention. This guy seems like he is VERY detail oriented.

 

[RiverDog]

All a matter of opinion, but I couldn't worry about Coach Mike if I tried.
I HIGHLY doubt he wasn't paying attention. This guy seems like he is VERY detail oriented.

Well, he wasn't too detail oriented in that loss to the Niners and the 4th down decision to kick the FG. There's no reason why he shouldn't have at least tried to pull the defense offside...unless you think that there's a big enough difference between a 37 yd FG attempt and a 42 yarder that it wouldn't be worth the 5-yard delay of game penalty.

These past two games have caused me to wonder out loud about Mac's attention to detail.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Cool, do you. They just won a huge game. I'll go ahead and enjoy it.

Side note: Hawks are 20-4 in 10am (PT) games since 2018.

 

[HawkRiderFan]

Well he actually did use timeouts right before the half last week vs the Niners before they hit the upright. And that got the Hawks within range for a 3. So if the insinuation is he's in over his head in general and unaware of those situations, that would be wrong. Maybe he had his reasons this time - time left on the clock, Darold having just thrown a pick etc. And those reasons can be debated, disagreed with for sure.
But I wouldn't be questioning whether he can manage a game overall or not. He was doing the little things right last year too.

 

[RiverDog]

Well he actually did use timeouts right before the half last week vs the Niners before they hit the upright. And that got the Hawks within range for a 3. So if the insinuation is he's in over his head in general and unaware of those situations, that would be wrong. Maybe he had his reasons this time - time left on the clock, Darold having just thrown a pick etc. And those reasons can be debated, disagreed with for sure.
But I wouldn't be questioning whether he can manage a game overall or not. He was doing the little things right last year too.

Not that I necessarily agree with everything, but I think that's a fair take.

As far as last year goes, I can't remember of any instances where Macdonald IMO mismanaged the game. The main reason why this one stuck out was due to the previous week's obvious blunder that has caused my radar to go up.

 

[Sperrydogg]

IMO most coaches would have called our first timeout after first down and ahead of the 2-minute warning. But at the very least, you call it on 3rd and goal from the 3 with 1:50 left and again on 4th down if they ran the ball and didn't score.

I don't think Mac has confidence in his offense. Sure, we could go 3-and-out and the Steelers could score again. But who wouldn't want the ball on their own 30 with 2 minutes left in the half? He didn't have enough confidence in our offense to get a yard on 4th down last week and it arguably cost us the game.

I think Mac is learning to have confidence in this offense. I don’t mind saving timeouts till the last 30 seconds