BSUSeahawk
KFFL Refugee
Extend the game as long as possible? Not sure I agree there. What you're trying to do -- especially with a team like the Rams -- is get 2 possessions to their 1. And on their 1, you need to make a stop. It's exactly the way it worked out. It could have certainly not worked out that way (is there a fail safe strategy??), but I think it's awfully tough to say it was mismanagement when it went exactly as planned with us having a decent chance to win the game at the end....and the clock isn't what killed us.
By using 4 minutes of clock, you forced yourself into a scenario where you HAVE to prevent LA from getting a single first down, while using every timeout. And if you happen to succeed at that (which is no easy task), then you have to go 75 yards down the field in 1:24 with no timeouts. Just because the game was lost due to a turnover on downs doesn't mean that time wasn't a factor - it absolutely was. They burned the 1st down play on a spike and were limited in the field they could use because of the lack of timeouts.
They have to get one defensive stop no matter what. By scoring sooner the first time around, you give your offense a much better chance the next time.