DGDB&D: a Texans blog.

Time keeps on slippin’ slippin’ slippin’ into the future

Oct 2, 2007 2007 Season, Anger, Gary Kubiak might be high, Houston Chronicle

The whole clock discrepancy issue from the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game really irks me, only because I feel like that is an incredibly simple thing that should be monitored not only by the teams but by the referee (or the booth) as well. The ref has that buzzer that they use when the booth is going to review a play, so why couldn’t he be buzzed before the Texans ran the next play? Why couldn’t Kubiak throw the red flag on the field before the snap, just so he got the ref’s attention. I mean, if this article is to be believed, Kubiak knew the time was gone, he just didn’t make sure they put it back.

“I talked to the official next to me, I said, ‘Y’all know y’all ran the clock during that play,’ ” Kubiak said. “He was aware of it. He said, ‘I’m going to go tell them,’ and so I assumed it was getting corrected. But after we came to the line of scrimmage with our next play, they did not fix the clock. After you run a play, there’s nothing you can do.

“So we just felt like there should’ve been those eight or nine seconds — however many ran off that should’ve still been on the clock — and we’ll turn it into the league, and they’ll make their assessment of the situation. But there’s nothing you can do once you run a play.”

“Eight or nine?” Fourteen, Gary. 2:30 to 2:16 is 14 seconds. Even if you didn’t know the exact number while you were on the field, the fact that you “reviewed the situation Monday” should have informed you.

Then again, even the article doesn’t get the number right.

The officials ruled a no play because Atlanta called a timeout prior to the snap. But the clock had been running and about 10 seconds had elapsed.

I realize that I am being somewhat anal about this and that “about 10″ could include the number “14″ under a generous interpretation (though “over 10″ would have at least been more informative) and even that it’s really not germane to a discussion about Kubiak’s knowledge whether Megan Manfull gets the number right. Still, when poor clock management has been a staple of the last two games (at least), hearing the coach say he “knew” the clock was wrong and that he just assumed the refs would fix it is not exactly heartening. When he goes on to show that he still has no idea how much time they actually lost, you sort of have to doubt either his claim to have reviewed the tape (perhaps leaving some subordinate to review it and contact the league) or his attention to detail. Neither of those scenarios lends itself to believing that the clock management issue is any closer to being resolved.