The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I could only follow the game online, but on finheaven, a lot of people were criticizing Gase for calling a timeout before the Chargers attempted the field goal attempt.

What was the situation?  I remember Rivers ran the ball to centralize the kick. Were the Chargers then trying to spike the ball?

Did they have any timeouts left at that point?

My issue with the coaching was on the Dolphins last drive.  When it was first down at the 39, they seemed to play for the VERY long field goal attempt.  Gase was right to have faith in Cody Parkey, given his history, (which I knew nothing about), but given the history of the defense collapsing at the wrong times, I think he should have tried to get the ball further down field and try to eat more time off the clock to try to make the kick the almost final play of the game.  The Dolphins have lost so many games on missed kicks over the years.  It's nice to see it go the other way the last two seasons.  If it continues, it bodes well for the Dolphins this season. 

The timeout was probably right, but there was a chance that the Chargers might have screwed themselves. The field goal unit was trying to get out on the field, but Rivers was having none of it and knew exactly what to do (as opposed to whoever sent the field goal unit out). Personally,  I think there was plenty of time for Rivers to assert his will and spike the ball with a couple seconds left on the clock. Calling a timeout gave the Fins a final, desperate, chance to win the game, had the field goal actually been good.

The timeout is not right under any circumstance. LA screwed up and Gase bailed them out. Gase got lucky

I agree.  I get what Gase was thinking in that he would save a couple seconds (maybe) to try to score if the FG was good and the Fins got the ball back.  But the odds of making a desperation play as time expires to score are astronomical.  Gase is obviously a LOT more football intelligent than I am, but I disagree with his call for the timeout in that situation. 

You need to weigh those (small, but non-zero) odds of a Hail Mary against the odds that a 13-year veteran QB will screw up spiking the ball in a situation where they are already at the line of scrimmage.

The odds of a Hail Mary are low.  The odds of Rivers messing up the spike are MUCH lower.

Help me out on this one,anyone know where there is Gif,or video of the play before the kick? I was in the WTF WHY,We F'd Up! How could you camp on the time out.

My last meeting last night someone who watched the last 2 mins of the game said to me,If Rivers spiked it, would the Dolphins have gotten busted with 12+ men on the field? I said...I don't know...I remember people shuffling on,a bit on both sides? I was concentrating on the clock ticking down,figuring he was getting ready to spike it...

Looking at the play by play, LAC completed a pass, called their last timeout, Rivers ran the ball for 0 yards (centering the ball?), then MIA called their second timeout.  There is effectively zero chance that Rivers would have messed up a spike in that situation, and there definitely would have been 0:00 remaining if Gase hadn't taken the timeout.

Gase's decision was certainly much better than the alternative: wait until Rivers spikes it at 0:03, then waste a timeout "freezing" the kicker.

Look, the decision to take the timeout was likely made before the Chargers started trying to shoot themselves in the foot. Under normal circumstances, it's the right call as per Spider's arguments.

Should they have reconsidered once Chargers' kicking unit started coming on to the field? Yeah, maybe.

I have a pretty ironclad rule that prevents me from second-guessing coaches of undefeated teams...

Not true. What if Gase called timeout to get Miami's FG unit team on the field to have a better chance at blocking the kick? That's a perfectly reasonable explanation for a timeout in that situation.

WHAT? The Chargers were rushing there FG unit on the field. Miami could have done the same with their FG block unit

Good point.  I really hadn't looked at it from that perspective.  I was thinking that with half the field goal team on the field and only 10 seconds on the clock, even if he did get it spiked, the field goal team wouldn't have gotten off the field in time and they would have been flagged which would make the kick longer.  But the Fins might not have gotten their guys off the field in time either.  But after thinking about what you and several of the other guys said, I can definitely see your point. 

This probably wouldn't have mattered under any circumstances.  However, when the clock is ticking and things are scrambled, I'd prefer to be the team that didn't have to get it together to score points.  I say that, although the smallest of mistakes, that it would probably have been best to let the clock run and make the Chargers do the right thing.

Doesn't mean they are going to get onto the field and lined up in time to block the kick or that everyone gets off in time to prevent a penalty and a potential 2nd chance at the FG. The timeout ensures that will happen. There was a perfectly reasonable explanation for the timeout. Now, I don't know if that's why the timeout was called, but the fact is that calling the timeout worked. Miami got it's FG unit in the game and lined up. They didn't get penalized for 12 men on the field AND LA missed the kick. Why are we even discussing it?

Because every analyst in America on Monday said Gase got lucky and nobody understands why he called timeout to let LA to line up....lol. But you know better ::)

After watching the replay a couple times. It looks to me that there would have been 2 seconds left if Miami didn't call the timeout. Assuming of course Miami didn't get a penalty due to substitutions. At the time I thought it was a bone head move to call a timeout. Looking back I still do. There is no guarantee that they wouldn't have gotten a penalty or worse trying to spike the ball in a hurry with all the mass confusion the Chargers had going on.

Even if they spiked the clock in time, they still had the exact same field goal to make. Which in the end they didn't, so the outcome would have been the same. My rational is that the opposing team should have to fight us, the field goal, and the clock. Adding in a running clock adds another layer of complexity for them. Anyhow, it worked out so I'm happy. Hopefully, they learn a lesson and implement something if this situation arises in the future. Unless of course, this was their planned contingency in this situation.

There is absolutely no way to know this.

No, not 100%, but then again this whole "why did he call the timeout" discussion is hypothetical. Anyhow, regardless of whether Miami called a timeout or they spiked the ball. The kicker still had to make the same kick from the same distance. The only difference would have been whether the kick was attempted on 3rd or 4th down. There are no other variables that would lead me to believe that he would have made it if they stopped the clock on a ball spike vs Miami calling the timeout.

Well I can't take all the credit. I actually heard that theory being put forth on Monday I believe it was. I guess not EVERY analyst in America on Monday was saying Gase got lucky.