I've read this post twice. I thought I misread it the first time. I thought perhaps Jess was writing in jest....Jess in jest...it has a nice ring. But since the whole article is not in blue font I'll give my take.
I guess I'm in the minority here but I just totally abhor this line of thinking. If a player is really gassed and can't go or if he's injured that is one thing. But the idea of "coaching flops" just isn't what I want to see out of my Alabama Crimson Tide. It is just too sleezy!
Address the problem by better player personel or use a time out to catch your breath, but I'm just not in favor of this way of thinking!
Ok, I said how I feel. You are welcome to fire away!
I don't think anyone particularly likes the idea of it.
However, if offensive coaches are going to exploit the rules in an admitted attempt to both gain a tactical advantage over the defensive coaches by preventing substitutions as well as get away with certain penalties, e.g. motion, alignment, linemen down-field, etc., then the defensive coaches have to respond somehow. And the latter is a much more important issue than the first, in my opinion.
If the rules committee(s) and/or officials won't take official action to ensure proper pace of play, ignoring the potential player safety aspect for the moment, so that the existing rules can be fairly and properly enforced then the defensive coaches will have to do something to slow the pace down at times. And, unfortunately, there aren't nearly enough timeouts for that to be an effective method. So, the only options left to the defensive coaches are, one, having players commit intentional penalties in order to stop the clock - which has a very obvious down-side - and, two, having players force the officials to stop the clock by going down.
So, what would you prefer...
...to have the defensive coaches and officials do nothing and continue to allow these offenses to intentionally, regularly get away with uncalled offensive penalties?
...or to have defensive players committing intentional fouls in order to stop the clock, giving away field position and risking personal fouls and/or ejections?
...or to have defensive players hit the ground, aka "flop", when they need to leave the field but aren't being allowed to do so by the actions of the offense?
Take your pick.
