So about that Boldin challenge...

[bst3975]

If the idea is to take a TO, then take a TO. Then with the extra time, your people in the booth can tell you if you should throw the flag or not. You have up to the next snap to throw the flag, any time. Throwing the flag blindly uses up the TO and the challenge.

Good point.

[Flacco's_Haircut]

If the idea is to take a TO, then take a TO. Then with the extra time, your people in the booth can tell you if you should throw the flag or not. You have up to the next snap to throw the flag, any time. Throwing the flag blindly uses up the TO and the challenge.

We did that once I remember and lost the challenge and 2 timeouts

[Gabrosin]

This was a good challenge, in spite of the poor outcome. The two factors involved with every challenge are chance of success and prospective gain. The prospective gain here was pretty big. With the biggest plays (scores and turnovers) automatically reviewed, it makes sense to aggressively challenge long completions and first downs. Thus, even though the chance of success was poor, the challenge was worthwhile.

Could we have used the timeout? Sure. But we also could have used the stop if the challenge went our way. The inexcusable timeout was to start the third quarter.

[Captain Offense]

If the idea is to take a TO, then take a TO. Then with the extra time, your people in the booth can tell you if you should throw the flag or not. You have up to the next snap to throw the flag, any time. Throwing the flag blindly uses up the TO and the challenge.

The problem with this theory is that since the threshold for turning over a call is subjective, you are now in a position that it has to be 100 % clear before taking the risk. I myself (as well as numerous announcers) have looked at a review and figured it would go one way only to go the other. When you are relying on the three blind mice to go under the hood, you had better be ready to bet the house if you are risking a second TO. If you figure you are calling a TO, then there is no loss to use the challenge for a lot of other reasons than just a challenge.

[ravensintennessee]

If I'm reading this chart correctly, he is tied for 12th best percentage (49%) in winning challenges, slightly above league average (46%) (haven't checked their figure; I'm assuming the website really calculated the average, and not the mean) - not terrible, but not one of the best despite the team website's hopeful (and IMO misleading) headline. While he has the largest number of successful challenges, he also has the most challenges and the second highest number of unsuccessful challenges. I would rather have a higher win percentage than the highest absolute number of successful challenges because the high number of unsuccessful challenges means the most lost TOs, which puts pressure on comeback efforts, and with a declining D those TOs become more important.

This. He's average in terms of percentage. And we have the second HIGHEST number of upheld calls, meaning the second most TOs wasted. That combined with other questionable clock management decisions make Harbaugh's time management skills middle of the road at best in my book.

Especially for a guy who really has that as his main focus on game day--no play calling...coordinators (for better or worse) really drive this team since JH was a ST guy. I know time management is not all he does, but it's a HUGE part.

Surely the goal for time management is 0 mistakes all season. Like it is such a quantifiable science, there's almost a chart that tells you when a TO should be taken, when it shouldn't, when you need to spike when not....and I know there's infinite different scenarios that could happen, but when I am sitting at home screaming to do one thing and Harbaugh stands up at the podium later and says, "well shit maybe we should've done that" that is utterly inexcusable. That has to be considered a total failure. Not "we will learn from it" not "it could've gone either way" but "I am the head coach, that is JOB #1 and I totally blew it, and it's all my fault."

I'm not saying you can't miss challenges, but you've gotta be smart. And yes I understand a challenge just to slow the offense down, for example, yup, but Harbaugh just isn't that good at it. And I love him, honestly.