[Austroturf]

Somehow, when we had the ball with 3 minutes and change remaining, I had this horrible premonition that Shaw would turtle, we would kick it back and Washington would win on a last second FG.  Turned out to be a TD and 2-pt. conversion, but the result is the same.  Another L.  Just sad.

Note that we actually tried a pass play on third down.  I had my brother texting me asking why do we didn’t try to run on third and four (answer, because we don’t have a good run game).  But turtle going on third down would have given the ball back to Washington with 2:20, left, not 3 min, and might have forced Washington to pass a few more times.  Who knows, maybe Morris, who has a ton of INts this year tries to squeeze one where it shouldn’t go and we intercept it to seal the game.

Either way, it was really bad clock management by Shaw.  The only time he should have called time out was on a fourth down right before the kicker was to kick.

BC

Yes, but running Austin Jones twice into the pile on the first two downs didn't do much to move the clock, since UW had two TOs in their pocket.  Our problem is a fundamental inability to move the ball (265 yards total offense), but when you need to move the ball downfield to seal the victory and have no run game, and then you decide to run it twice when you know the opponent can stop the clock, then it's almost a decision to hand the ball back with plenty of time, which we did. And Sanborn's miserable punt did not help matters.

[Austroturf]

Somehow, when we had the ball with 3 minutes and change remaining, I had this horrible premonition that Shaw would turtle, we would kick it back and Washington would win on a last second FG.  Turned out to be a TD and 2-pt. conversion, but the result is the same.  Another L.  Just sad.

Note that we actually tried a pass play on third down.  I had my brother texting me asking why do we didn’t try to run on third and four (answer, because we don’t have a good run game).  But turtle going on third down would have given the ball back to Washington with 2:20, left, not 3 min, and might have forced Washington to pass a few more times.  Who knows, maybe Morris, who has a ton of INts this year tries to squeeze one where it shouldn’t go and we intercept it to seal the game.

Either way, it was really bad clock management by Shaw.  The only time he should have called time out was on a fourth down right before the kicker was to kick.

BC

Yes, but running Austin Jones twice into the pile on the first two downs didn't do much to move the clock, since UW had two TOs in their pocket.  Our problem is a fundamental inability to move the ball (265 yards total offense), but when you need to move the ball downfield to seal the victory and have no run game, and then you decide to run it twice when you know the opponent can stop the clock, then it's almost a decision to hand the ball back with plenty of time, which we did. And Sanborn's miserable punt did not help matters.