They were kicking into the wind and even with those 10-15 yards it would have been an extremely difficult kick. Seven to eight seconds is an eternity in football, and I doubt that much of the clock would have run off if they were not successful on fourth down.
Well it would have been no more than 5-6 seconds, which means one more play for Colorado. The WVU kicker was nailing em from 60 in practice, so I would think he could make a 50 yarder into the wind.
All in all, you got to take that chance to get in field goal range with that 4th down play, and they botched clock management not leaving them enough time to at least attempt to do just that.
The point is they didn't botch it. It was a decision, not indecision like the announcers thought. They didn't throw a hail mary because the clock ran down to four seconds, they ran the clock down to four seconds to run a hail mary.
That couldn't be further from the truth. The head coach was about to have a heart attack on the sideline with the clock running down so much, and proceeded to curse out his coaches. Not sure why since it was his fault. Indecision was extremely evident at that point.
There was indecision in the first few seconds but after that they decided what to do. You really believe they were confused for twenty seconds. :lol: Stewart was watching the clock and standing right next to the ref and then proceeded to call a timeout to set up the final play.
The play ended at about the 15 second mark, so the indecision was for about a 10 second period. Stewart was totally lost as to what to do. He was not in control at that point. I felt sorry for him for a moment, but then thought to myself, he's an idiot.
I agree with islstl, here. It seemed clear to me that the sideline was in disarray throughout the last minute of the game. There did not seem to be anyone taking the leadership role, namely the HC or QB. As others eluded to, beginning at the 44 sec. mark (not 32 sec. as Jesse Palmer was trying to purport; I think JP was trying to make the right point but missed out on the exact sec mark) they made several poor decisions. In my view, these were not intentional efforts in order to set up a hail mary. Who does that? That is such a low percentage play overall (unless you are the Atlanta Falcons against the Saints). If the purpose at the end was to let the time run down to set a hail mary, then that is probably even more concerning than the poor clock management concern. I also agree with the poor, predictable play calling, esp. late in the game - Devine right, Devine up the middle, White left....... Don't see Stewart sticking around after this year, either. Like Miles, he is a very sincere man with very good intentions, but he looks to be in way over his head as a HC at this point.
What do you think the assistant coaches meant when they were sticking their hands out. To me it was an unmistakable halt, wait, or stop and they were telling their players not to call a timeout. At the same time Stewart was looking up and to the right. It seems fair to assume the he was watching the clock. Looking back at it, if it were a team I was pulling for I would have rather have called timeout sooner and tried to get into field goal range in regulation. Whether or not it was the right call, I do believe it was what they intended to do. For what it's worth, here's CFN's Matt Zemek's take - Instant Analysis: West Virginia-Colorado
