Doug Pederson Gives Baffling Explanation For His Decision To Call A Timeout Before Punting
The Eagles called a timeout before punting with 1:44 left.
Andy Reiderson:
“I wanted to save the time. We had discussed it prior to the play, if something negative would’ve happened we were gonna use the timeout, save the time. We would’ve gotten the ball back with 48, 49 seconds back and had a chance at the end.”
That’s moronic. If he had decided to punt before third down, then why not get the punt team ready to run out on the field and kick it, quickly, and save the timeout for when the Redskins would surely run the play clock down? That saves you literally 20 seconds if you’re prepared.
This is 8-minute two-minute drill-level idiocy. The explanation is simply wrong. You are better off saving the timeout and running the play when you control how much time runs off.
It didn’t matter, because the Redskins got a first down anyway. But this is a mind-bending strategy.