In football, as in life, there is a time for everything. There is a time to go for it. There is a time to ask her out. There is a time to punt. There is a time to offer a helping hand. There is a time to spike the ball. There is a time to let the machine get it.
Choosing the wrong time to do something can quickly end a drive, stall a relationship or lose a football game. Last Saturday, Jim Tressel and Charlie Weis learned that the hard way.
In Ann Arbor, Notre Dame led Michigan 34-31 with 2:29 remaining. The Irish faced a 2nd and 10 from their own 29. Weis called two consecutive pass plays. Both of which were incomplete. The incompletions stopped the clock, allowing Michigan to preserve its last two timeouts.
As you probably know by now, Michigan proceeded to drive 58 yards and score the winning TD with 11 seconds left on the clock.
Michigan was starting a true freshman at QB in Tate Forcier. Charlie Weis had the opportunity to force Michigan to use its remaining time outs and force this 18-year-old kid to try and win the game with no safety net.
On the 3rd play of the winning drive, Forcier was sacked and called time out. Imagine the pressure if that had happened and he had to get the other 10 players back on the line, with the clock running while trying to get the next play from the sideline. He may have gotten them into field goal range, but you can bet they wouldn’t have had time to reach the end zone.
There’s a time to be aggressive and a time to play the percentages. Charlie Weis had it backwards. So, did Jim Tressel.
The first quarter ended in Columbus with the score tied at seven and OSU facing 4th and goal on the USC one yard line.
To that point, USC had five yards of offense (zero if you include their false start penalty) and no first downs. The Trojans lone score was a two yard drive following a Terrelle Pryor interception, and it took the Trojans four plays to punch it in. In short, the Buckeye defense was dominating.
Jim Tressel kicked the field goal for a 10-7 lead. The message was clear. The Buckeyes were afraid of USC. Tressel had the end of the quarter time out to gather the offense and say, “We’re punching it in right here!” Not only would that have shown confidence in his offense, it would have shown the same confidence in his defense. If they failed to score, USC would have taken over with 99 yards in front of them, with a true freshman QB trying to run a play in his own end zone at the enclosed (i.e. loudest) end of the Horseshoe.
Last year, with a veteran USC team, on the road, you kick the FG. When you have USC in your house, in front of a rabid, record crowd with Matt Barkley at QB, you turn up the heat. Tressel let USC off the hook and sent the wrong message to his team.
Coaching is not the only reason ND and OSU lost. Terrelle Pryor missed open receivers. Notre Dame allowed a 94 yard kickoff return for a TD. However, the decisions of Weis and Tressel, while appropriate at other times, in other games, with other teams, were the wrong choice Saturday. Ultimately, I believe it cost the Irish and Buckeyes a victory.
Games of the Week:
West Virginia @ Auburn – Last year, Auburn failed to score 20 points in 7 of their 12 games. Thru two games in the Gene Chizik era, the Tigers are averaging 43 points per contest. The Mountaineers have tussled with Liberty and East Carolina, before pulling away for comfortable wins. WVU outgained Auburn 445-260 in a 34-17 win last October in Morgantown. The Big East could use some more Mountaineer magic, but I think the Tigers will prevail.
Nebraska @ Virginia Tech – The Hokies played Bama tough in week one, but are still 1-1 as expected. The Huskers are hoping to make a big statement in Blacksburg. Big Red hasn’t won a game like this in almost a decade. In fact, the Huskers have dropped nine straight to ranked opponents. The Hokies have Miami next week. Even if Nebraska isn’t what it used to be, they are too big a name program to have Va Tech looking ahead. I expect a VT victory.
Florida State @ BYU – The Noles followed up their heartbreaking loss to Miami by eking out a win over 1-AA Jacksonville State. BYU is riding high as the non-BCS flavor of the month. (Sorry, Boise. Your win over OU was nice. Their win over the other OU was better.) BYU has its sights set on the BCS and maybe (if things break right) Pasadena. Strange things happen when big programs go to Provo. FSU should win… but I have a hard time believing they will.
Upset Alert – OhioState vs. Toledo – This one is not being played in Columbus. Instead, the Buckeyes and Rockets will tangle in Cleveland. OSU had circled the game with USC on the calendar the minute they returned home from the Fiesta Bowl in January. They better be able to forget about last week’s heartbreak fast. As great as the OSU defense played for the first 53 minutes last week, they came up short when it mattered most. OSU has actually allowed four TD drives of 80+ yards so far this year. Toledo scored 31 in a loss to Purdue and hung 54 on Colorado. Don’t be surprised if the Rockets scare the daylights out of the Bucks in Clevelandon Saturday.
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