I was listening to the radio on the way home today and a good point was reenforced: Why did Mike Nolan call the timeout at the end of the first half? Minnesota punted with 51 seconds left and on the subsequent play, Frank Gore ran to the left end for 7 yards. It seemed to be a clear sign that they were just gonna run out the half and be done with it. Then he calls a timeout with 18 seconds left. Odd but maybe he just figures why not take a few shots. So the next play: Run up the middle for 3 yards and the final 18 seconds run out. Eh???
Mike Nolan and the player personnel staff have shown themselves to be very good evaluators of talent. However, Mike Nolan's game decisions have been known to leave people shaking their heads. Poorly chosen timeouts...even more poorly chosen situational play-calling...Even sending out the wrong personnel at times. One radio commentator made a good point in saying that maybe Mike Nolan has too much going on in his head. He seems to be a bit of a control freak, just based on what I've seen and heard. Obviously I'm not there every day but it just seems to scream that.
Simply put, while the players have to improve, Mike Nolan ALSO has to improve his game. A combination of player and coaching improvement would be enough to turn this team into a playoff team in the near future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think the Nolan was hoping the offense could break a random big play. His game plan in that last possession of the first half must have been along the lines of: run the ball; protect the ball; if something big breaks, take it and run with it.
I think part of it is giving a vote of confidence to Gore, but trusting him not to fumble, but at the same time run hard and hope for daylight.
The media makes big deals out of these things. People aren't happy when he just burns the clock and goes in. Then people aren't happy when he takes shots (albiet really conservative ones). But throwing the ball would have been a whole lot riskier.
I think the timeouts were okay. He wanted another shot at the endzone (or uprights), but didn't want to run the risk of throwing into the Viking defense.
Post a Comment