Clock management remains Andy Reid's nemesis

"I goofed."

If only the coach could apply those same skills to his game management.

Football is certainly the most democratic of sports. On one team alone, forty-something players and more than a dozen coaches each play a part in a game. Still, while the players and how they perform is, in general, the great decider, sometimes the best managers can influence the outcome.

And Reid, whether it was his fault or not, has never been described as the Vince Lombardi of NFL coaches. A chorus of critics believe this defect - call it a fatal flaw - will forever keep the Eagles from winning a Super Bowl. There's already one great example of that.

Even with perhaps his greatest assemblage of players - a group some have predicted will be in Indianapolis in February - Reid's clock-management skills could derail his and the Eagles' chances of finally winning a title this season.

He has many detractors, more than just the standard fare of fans, talk-show hosts, and columnists. NFL Network analyst Mike Lombardi wrote last year that Reid was "my all-time worst game manager." The former Raiders general manager later told the New York Times that the Eagles coach "should outsource [game management] to India."

"I think any time you watch an NFL game or a college game in your mind you're managing the game," Lombardi told The Inquirer. "So when you've worked with the Raiders or a Bill Belichick, game management is one of the things that becomes important to you. . . . And in the NFL, there's no passing the buck. Andy controls the game."

John T. Reed is considered by many to be the expert on clock management. In 1997, he wrote the book, Football Clock Management - now in its fourth edition - after he became a high school coach and was fascinated by the subject. Reed, a graduate of Harvard's MBA program, is now read by many NFL coaches.

The Eagles, he said, own a copy of his book. Reed has never met Reid, nor has he evaluated him. But he said members of the Eagles organization have consulted with him at various times after certain decisions by Reid.

"I'm told that he takes it very seriously and makes an extremely conscious effort to get clock management right," Reed said. "I suspect that he agrees with the vast majority of my rules. What I'm worried about is that he's getting a bad reputation from people shooting from the mouth."

Reid, for one, believes he's gotten much better as a clock tactician.

"Yeah, I think so," the coach said recently.

Prior to Super Bowl XXXIX, Reid said essentially the same thing, comparing his improvement with his first season with the Eagles when a field-goal attempt was missing one important piece - a kicker. That self-assessment, of course, rang hallow several days later when Donovan McNabb infamously ran the slowest two-minute drill in Super Bowl history.

The quarterback, in many ways, is as responsible for clock management as the head coach. For years here the question was always: Who was more liable for the Eagles' unhurried play-calling and wasted timeouts - Reid or McNabb? The evidence always seemed to point in both directions.

Coincidentally, when Reid faced McNabb for the first time last October after he traded him to the Redskins, both coach and quarterback erred for their side. McNabb burned two timeouts early in the second half and ran out of bounds late in the game when he shouldn't have.

Reid, on the other hand, took a costly delay-of-game penalty when his offense failed to get a play in during a fourth and goal just before the half. The Eagles eventually lost, 17-12, and afterward during the postmortem news conference Reid explained that a new spot from the officials and a quick start to the game clock resulted in the flag.

"I'm not here to complain about the officials," Reid said then. "I'm not here to complain about anybody else. I goofed."

Reid often bristles when questioned about his handling of games. Sometimes the postgame explanations have been worse than the decisions themselves. But, ultimately, he takes the arrows even if the fault lies elsewhere.

"We're better off going in another direction," Reid said recently when a reporter brought up the importance of the quarterback in clock management. "Just put it on me. I'm good. I got to get better on that. It's my responsibility to get it done and do better. I'm self-critical on that, and I evaluate."

Reid said he evaluates his coaching the same way he did his writing when he was a columnist for the  Provo Daily Herald  while a student at Brigham Young. "I knew when I wrote a good article," he said. "I knew when I wrote a bad article."

Writing on deadline is a lot like calling a football game.

"You're in a time element with emotion," Reid said. "And so, the time element being [and he snaps his fingers] the clock is running during the game, the emotions and the adrenaline of the game, so it's a high-octane moment for a few hours. So you go back in a calmer period and you look at it and you correct yourself."

Reid has always been praised for his preparedness. Give him an extra week to plan for a game, and he'll usually win it. But when decisions need to be made like right now! he occasionally goofs.

"You should script all those situations in practice so that nothing comes as a surprise," Reed said. "And a coach can work with his coaches on certain situations in his own office. There's nothing in the collective-bargaining agreement that prevents coaches from practicing this [stuff] in March."

But there's only so much you can prepare for.

"Situational football is always difficult to practice because you just don't always know what the situation is," Lombaradi said. "And then you add the clock, the pressure, the crowd . . . it's just not the same."

While Reed considers clock management "generally a coach's activity," many NFL coaches insist that the quarterback is just as responsible. Bill Walsh was likely considered a successful game manager because he had Joe Montana at the controls. The perception of Reid could change with Michael Vick now running his offense.

"It's [the quarterback] as far as the clock management," Vick said.

During the Eagles' two-minute drill, Vick said, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg may provide the plays getting in and out of the huddle. But the execution rests on the quarterback's shoulders. In practice, Vick is responsible for all the calls and all the timeouts.

"For the most part, [Mornhinweg] will give us the liberty to do certain things," Vick said, "and he'll chime in depending on what the situation is down and distance."

Reid, though, is at the center of it all. He can hear every coach with a microphone in his headphones. He has two switches that allow him to mute either the offensive or defensive coaches and one to turn a group back on. Still, there are about three or four voices in his ear at a time.

Doesn't that get distracting?

"I can tune the whole world out," Reid said.

For someone perceived to be unable to juggle more than one thing at a time, Reid is famous for his multitasking ways to those close to the coach. On the practice field, he may be intently watching practice. But he'll notice out of the corner his eye a photographer's camera placed on the ground or a reporter leaning against a wall - two Reid no-nos.

Vick has taken to calling Reid the "wizard," because he "knows everything and sees everything," the quarterback said. "My God, you could be 200 yards away, and he'd be like: 'Why didn't you carry out the fake?' "

Vick's answer: "Where was you at?"

Reid: "I see everything."

Over his 12 seasons, Reid has also been the recipient of criticism over his challenges. While it's just one facet of management, the choice of when to challenge a call on the field could significantly impact a game.

Reid has an above-average record. Of 73 challenges, he's had 30 overturned for a 41 percent success rate. The league average since 2000 is 37.1 percent. Giants coach Tom Coughlin, by comparison, has been better over his career, at 50 percent. Patriots coach Bill Belichick has been worse, at 39.7 percent.

But the numbers don't take the situations into account. Two years ago, Reid incorrectly challenged two calls in the second half of a game against the Cowboys. Down by 20-13 with less than five minutes remaining, Reid had kicker David Akers attempt a 52-yard field goal on fourth and 11 at the Dallas 34.

The kick was good, but when the Cowboys got the ball back they ran seven straight plays that killed the clock because the Eagles were out of timeouts - two of them lost because of failed challenges.

"They were kind of toast either way," Reed said. "But in that case my rules say they should have gone for the touchdown because you can't be sure you'll receive the ball again. Even if you try the onside kick, the probability is low you'll get the ball back."

Reed and Lombardi believe each team should employ a clock manager. Reid does not have one - or at least won't admit to one. Belichick started using one several years back.

"I think you have to have somebody, especially if the coach has some part in calling the game," said Lombardi, who was an executive in Cleveland when Belichick was the Browns head coach.

The most egregious example of the Eagles' clock futility came seven seasons ago against the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Trailing, 24-14, with 5 minutes, 40 seconds to play, the Eagles started from their own 21 but were put-putting around instead of hitting the gas.

Years later, when NFL Films released audio of Belichick on the other sideline as the Eagles were stuck in neutral, he said with bewilderment: "Is that scoreboard right? What are they doing?"

Belichick has had his dubious moments in big games as well. It seems every coach has. In Super XLII, Reed contends, the Giants would have never scored the game-winning touchdown with 35 seconds left if Belichick had milked the clock more after New England took two second-half leads.

Two years ago in a regular-season game, with the Patriots leading the Colts by six points, Belichick gambled and went for it on fourth and 2 from his own 28 with 2:08 to go. New England came up short, and Peyton Manning took over and scored the game-winning touchdown.

"There are always lessons to be learned," Lombardi said. "Earlier in the season against the Falcons, [Belichick] went for it under similar circumstances and it worked."

Last season, Colts coach Jim Caldwell called a costly timeout against the Jets in an AFC wild-card game. Ahead, 16-14, Caldwell took a timeout with 29 seconds left and New York barely in field-goal range. The extra breath allowed the Jets to reverse their play from a run to a pass, and an 18-yard completion set up a game-winning, chip-shot field goal.

Reid has had his share of late-game victories because of effective clock managing. Reed pointed to the 2007 game against the Cowboys when running back Brian Westbrook took a knee just shy of the goal line with the Eagles ahead, 10-6, with just more than two minutes remaining.

"Another player [tackle Jon Runyan] supposedly told him to go down," Reed said. "But that comes from coaching and always reminding your players to be clock-conscious."

Reid, too, is conscious of the criticism of his game management. He said he's just as hard on himself.

"If you're real with yourself you can do that," Reid said. "I do this as a profession."