Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley made a lot of questionable calls on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. He opted to re-kick a punt that resulted in a long return, he decided against using a timeout on the game-tying drive, and he called a timeout late in the first half that allowed Rex Ryan the time he needed to bring his field goal unit back onto the sidelines and run it down our throats for a touchdown instead of a field goal try.
Understandably, the media had some questions for Gus after the game. But when asked about the timeout, Gus looked like he was giving a book report on a book he'd never read with a blank sheet of paper in his hands.
this exchange ... whew pic.twitter.com/d2xLHGcVcC
— Made By Tim (@MadeByTim) November 28, 2016
Here's the full exchange of the transcript:
Ryan O: "At the end of the first half you called timeout with about a minute to go and it looked like [the Bills] were going to kick a field goal. Were you thinking of trying to steal a possession there at the end of the first half?"
Gus: "In the first half... when there's about 42 seconds left?"
Ryan O: "Yeah. Instead of letting them run the clock out, what was the thinking on calling the timeout there?"
Gus: "Um... why didn't we?"
Ryan O: "You called a timeout."
Gus: "Why did we?"
Ryan O: "Yeah, at the end of the second quarter..."
Gus: "Yeah, there was about 40 seconds left and we talked about calling a timeout to get the ball back but we decided not to do it."
First, Gus doesn't seem to remember he called a timeout in the beginning of the clip. That's... well, it's something. But then he says they decided against calling a timeout, when they most definitely did.
This is the head coach. He has a lot of in-game responsibilities, sure, but few are more important than clock management and using timeouts. And that field goal-turned-touchdown was one of the most important plays of the game.
Go Jaguars.