Todd Gurley showed smarts, but no class, when he did not score against Packers

On Sunday, the Rams Todd Gurley could have scored a TD in the last minute of their game against the Packers. The Rams led by two at the moment. Instead, he turned toward the middle of the field and got tackled without going out of bounds.

The Packers had no time outs and the Rames got a first down so the game, in effect, was over. They could just take a knee on first and maybe second down and the game clock would run out.

Did they get that idea from my book Football Clock Management? Yep. If you doubt that, tell me when it happened before the first edition of my book came out in the Fall of 1997.

I’ll save you the trouble. Never.

In the take-a-knee period, take a knee

My book says when you enter the take-a-knee period and you are ahead, take a knee. There are no exceptions for padding your stats with another TD. 

Class my ass

I was amused to read that Gurley showed “class” by doing it. Bull! He did it because I told all players to do it and provided the logic as to why it was a best practice. His coaches read that and told their players that was what they were to do. If they had scored a TD and missed the PAT for some reason, the Packers would have time to go back down the field and tie the game. Yes, it’s unlikely they would miss the PAT and unlikely the Packers would score a TD and two point conversion to tie in less than a minute. But there was no need to risk it.

Class my ass. My readers have my permission to tell those who said it showed class that they are idiots. It was very simple the correct way to win the game. Absolutely no class at all. Just a lack of the stupidity that prevailed in football for 140 years before my book came out.

I do not think I deserve great credit for figuring that out. It is more what the hell were the coaches thinking for over a century before I pointed it out to them and explained it so they were persuaded?

https://www.johntreed.com/…/football-clock-management-5th-e…

https://ftw.usatoday.com/…/todd-gurleys-smart-and-classy-mo…