[OutsiderFan]

I do believe his clock and game management have in the past been awful. However, like all things David Shaw, he seems to eventually learn he has to change. The problem is I can't think of any situation where he hasn't been late to react or evolve.

Some people moaned about the before half USC drive and using last time out with 16 seconds left on clock. Context matters.  It was 1st down. The ball was inside the 10 yard line. If you run them right, a play with that short of a field takes 4 seconds. So there was easily time to run three plays and kick a FG if forced.  There were two objectives: Score a TD and leave USC no time to do anything before half time. Both were accomplished. It's almost like some people were complaining at the prospect of the worst case scenario happening than they were confident Stanford could execute properly. Could have been a bad snap that resulted in a fire drill to spike the ball with 1 tick or two on the clock if they could even get it off in time. Could have thrown a pass to receiver tackled in bounds before the goal line, be forced to spike it and settle for 3. But a clean snap from Center and quick routes to the EZ were in order, and that's what was executed. Not having a timeout with 16 seconds left on First & Goal from the 9 was arguably beneficial.

Watching the Niners game on Sunday, I couldn't help but notice the play clock going down to 1 second before the ball was snapped on moving clock, on most snaps Garoppolo took. If your goal is to run clock down before snapping, it's got to be difficult for the sideline to detect if a timeout is needed because it appears the ball won't be snapped in time, or if everything is under control and it will be snapped before a delay of game penalty.

[OutsiderFan]

I do believe his clock and game management have in the past been awful. However, like all things David Shaw, he seems to eventually learn he has to change. The problem is I can't think of any situation where he hasn't been late to react or evolve.

Some people moaned about the before half USC drive and using last time out with 16 seconds left on clock. Context matters.  It was 1st down. The ball was inside the 10 yard line. If you run them right, a play with that short of a field takes 4 seconds. So there was easily time to run three plays and kick a FG if forced.  There were two objectives: Score a TD and leave USC no time to do anything before half time. Both were accomplished. It's almost like some people were complaining at the prospect of the worst case scenario happening than they were confident Stanford could execute properly. Could have been a bad snap that resulted in a fire drill to spike the ball with 1 tick or two on the clock if they could even get it off in time. Could have thrown a pass to receiver tackled in bounds before the goal line, be forced to spike it and settle for 3. But a clean snap from Center and quick routes to the EZ were in order, and that's what was executed. Not having a timeout with 16 seconds left on First & Goal from the 9 was arguably beneficial.

Watching the Niners game on Sunday, I couldn't help but notice the play clock going down to 1 second before the ball was snapped on moving clock, on most snaps Garoppolo took. If your goal is to run clock down before snapping, it's got to be difficult for the sideline to detect if a timeout is needed because it appears the ball won't be snapped in time, or if everything is under control and it will be snapped before a delay of game penalty.