Last night, the Bucs called their final timeout when the Bills got a 1st down with 2:12 remaining in the 4th quarter. This timeout saved them 12 seconds as the clock would’ve run to the 2 minute warning.
The Bills proceeded to run the ball on 1st, (brought them to 2 min warning); 2nd (brought them to 1:15) 3rd down bringing the clock down to about 40 seconds for the Bucs.
Alternatively, if the Bucs let the clock run from 2:15 (when the Bills got a 1st down) to the 2 minute warning, and THEN called a timeout on 2nd down, the clock would be 1:55 and 3rd down. Then, they run a play on 3rd down that milks the clock to 1:10… this would give the Bucs an additional 20-30 seconds.
TLDR: why call a timeout to save 12 seconds, when you can save 40 seconds?
I mean the real question, in this case, was why weren’t they calling timeouts earlier when they were bleeding time during their last scoring drive.
Arthur Smith sure did it two weeks ago
Dennis Allen with 2 timeouts, a minute and a half to go, and entering the red zone needing 1 score to tie/take the lead (intense hurry up offense)
Mike McCarthy, 2 timeout, 15 seconds to go before the half, runner downed at the 15 “TIMEOUT! Wait…no, i wanted the timeout with 3 seconds left to try a field goal”