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I'm not sure if this ties in with the Time Out logic in any way whatsoever, but I decided to put it in its own separate posting in case.

In the last game, San Diego was down by 7 with 50 seconds to go in the game, at their 20 yard line, with all 3 time outs.

In 18 seconds, they used all 3 time outs with completed pass plays of 4 yards, 8 yards, and 1 yard. Only one of those plays listed pressure being applied, that being the last one.

In the remaining 32 seconds, SD completed passes of 4 yards and 3 yards, with no pressure listed.

Now, it seems to me that a team would want to be trying to chuck it a little further down the field, especially with no time outs left... Yes, the risk of a pick is there, but you're not gaining anything with dink-and-dunk plays either. Plus, an incomplete pass is almost as good as a time out at this point... So if you're really desperate, heave it out of bounds in the vicinity of a receiver, and take the play clock to reset.

Am I making sense, or am I just out there?

That does make sense and is a good point. Right now it uses your regular play calling rules, but it would make sense to begin to override that with longer passes in this situation. You _can_ do it by making rules, but I might think about adding some increasing probability for long passes in this situation.

Yeah, I know it's something rule-settable... But at the same time, it seems like it should be something that's just built-in... But the situations are variable.

I was just thinking about it, and I can see a situation where you would be more inclined to dink-and-dunk if you're only down 2 or 3 just to get into Field Goal range with little risk of turnover ("Play for the tie", as Madden would likely say).

But if you were down from like 6-8 points, maybe even 9 (enough time on the clock, and onside logic?), you'd be more likely to go longer to make the chunks you'd need to score quick. I think you'd really want to think about spikes more at this point, too; I hardly see those at this point.