Tony Sparano, Jason Garrett, Bill Cowher, Time Management

One of the faults that Tony Sparano has is his use of the clock in the final two minutes of the half/game. This includes his use of timeouts. If anybody saw the end of the Cowboys/Cardinals game from this past weekend, they'd see a horrible use of the clock by Cowboys' head coach, Jason Garrett. You probably have heard about him calling a timeout at the end of regulation to ice his own kicker (essentially). But what you may have missed was the final 30 seconds of the game that led up to the 49 field goal attempt.

To review, with the score 13-13 and the Cowboys driving, they are faced with a 3rd and 11 from the Cardinals 43 yard line and the clock is moving. They have TWO timeouts left. The Cowboys had just completed a pass inbounds with 55 seconds left. Instead of using a timeout here, the let 24 seconds run off the clock, snapping the ball with 31 seconds left on this critical third down play. Romo completes the 3rd down pass all the way to the Arizona 32 yard line with 25 seconds left on the clock. Instead of calling a timeout here, the coach decides against it. Instead he instructs Romo to spike the ball with seven seconds remaining. The Cowboys have no choice but to kick the field goal. All this before Garrett decides to call timeout on his own kicker (who had promptly made his 49 yard field at the same moment the timeout is called). Of course, after the field goal is attempted again and missed, the Cowboys go on to lose in overtime to a substandard Arizona team that gets the ball first and scores a touchdown.

The point was made by Bill Cowher on the radio today during an interview on Sirius. Here's the quote:

Of course, this brings to mind our own coach and the question of how would he have handled that situation? I know, most of you will answer with he wouldn't have had two timeouts left to begin with. I think we pretty much know that he would NEVER throw the ball given 8 men in the box. He would not tell the quarterback to use his judgement in reading the defense. That he would call a timeout with 25 seconds left making sure he had the right personnel on the field to line up correct. After a third down situation, you'd think he'd have to switch personnel to run the ball. That he would pretty much RUN the ball into the wall of the defense and then subsequently take the timeout. With a few seconds left. I just found this extremely interesting that Bill Cowher, some that many have said is conservative with regards to his offense, is second guessing a conservative approach by a current NFL head coach. Bill Cowher, conceivably the next Miami Dolphin head coach.

This winning trend that we've enjoyed this last month and a half should not distract us from the task at hand once the final seconds tick off the clock of week 17. I bolded portions of Cowher's quote to emphasize the most important part. We all know what kind of coach Tony Sparano is, how he thinks at the games most important moments. We know that Sparano is not going to take the risk. I'm fairly certain Cowher would.

And if we have a shot to get Bill Cowher as our next head coach, we have to take it. Just like trading up for Matt Barkley. Those are the two most critical moves in our recent history.