Vic Fangio explained why he called a timeout on Sunday to help bail out the Las Vegas Raiders.
Fangio’s Denver Broncos were leading the Raiders 31-24 and the clock ticking in the final minute. The Raiders had just thrown a pass to Theo Riddick to bring the ball down to the one. The clock was running and the Raiders were having issues getting the right players on the field for their 4th-and-goal play. Time was possibly going to run out and give the Raiders a delay of game penalty.
Luckily for them, Fangio called a timeout with 27 seconds left in the game. The extra time allowed the Raiders to set up a play and run it in for a touchdown. They took the lead on a 2-point conversion to go up 32-31, which was the final score.
So why would Fangio do that instead of let the Raiders take the penalty? He said he wanted to make sure his team was in the correct personnel.
Fangio, on the timeout call at the 1 on fourth-and-1: “I wasn’t sure what personnel they had in there and wanted to make sure we had the ideal personnel for us."
— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) January 4, 2021
What a blunder.
Fangio was too focused on his own team to realize that his opponent wasn’t set up. That’s just a poor job of coaching.
Denver finished the season 5-11, which is Fangio’s second losing season. He is now 12-20 in two seasons as Denver’s head coach.
