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Home > Blogs > RedHawk rumblings | Miami University sports news > Archives > 2009 > October > 13
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Miami’s costly timeout wasn’t Dysert’s fault, Haywood said
By Pete Conrad
One of the several key mistakes in the Miami RedHawks’ 16-6 loss at Northwestern last Saturday came with 21 seconds left in the first half when they were forced to expend their final timeout following an incomplete pass by quarterback Zac Dysert.
Although the game clock was stopped, the RedHawks took too long to get the next play started and were forced to call timeout to avoid a penalty when the play clock came close to running out.
The loss of that timeout came back to haunt Miami. After Dysert completed a 22-yard pass to Brayden Coombs to the Northwestern 18-yard line, he spiked the ball with 11 seconds remaining in the half.
Dysert then scrambled around, looking for a receiver, found none, and decided to run. He was tackled in bounds at the 11-yard line with 3 seconds left and, with no timeouts remaining, the clock ran out and prevented Miami from attempting what probably would have been a 28-yard field goal.
Miami coach Michael Haywood said the fault for using up that final timeout lay with him and his staff, not Dysert. The next play that had been called was complicated and time-consuming, not an ideal situation for a redshirt freshman like Dysert.
“You cannot do that with a young quarterback,” Haywood said. “He gets in the huddle, he calls the play, and then he has to call it again.
“That cost us a field goal opportunity,” he said.
And maybe a touchdown.
“You can get two plays off in 11 seconds,” Haywood noted.
A false-start penalty earlier in the half when Miami had the ball at the Northwestern 28-yard line also cost the RedHawks a chance to score three and maybe seven points.
And in the third quarter Miami was on the march again, with a second-and-7 from the Northwestern 42-yard line, when the WIldcats stripped the ball, recovered the fumble and returned it 27 yards to the RedHawks’ 27-yard line. Four plays later Northwestern scored a touchdown, a possible swing of 10 or 14 points.
Those three sequences cost the RedHawks, potentially, a total of 28 point (three touchdowns they might have scored but didn’t, one touchdown the Wildcats might not have scored but did).
