I was wrong about the challenge in the moment, it was essentially a long time out which was fine.
I wish I had the confidence to say "what a brilliant, no risk move by Kliff".....I just don't think he is well thought out as a game manager. I think much like many of us...he only grasped the "oh it was going to be a time out anyway" angle of it after the fact. I like Kliff as an OC...I just don't think he is a game manager, or player manager for that matter. I think he panics.
I'm not saying he did it to get a long extended timeout, I don't think he did. I think he did it because he knew he was going to have to use a timeout anyways to make them run at least one play before the 2 minute warning. It's 3rd and 18 with 2:54 left if we don't challenge that play the clock is going to run because it's a run play. They were snapping the ball at 1, it's a 40 second clock so they're going to snap about 2:15. My guess if if we don't stop it they run the ball so the play then ends and they let the clock go to the 2 min warning. after that they kick the FG so we get the ball around 1:50 instead of 2:19. that extra 30 seconds, and it may have been more was needed. One timeout doesn't save you that much time at that point in the game.
So it was a gamble if for some luck there's an angle that shows it's our ball, great, if not, we're stopping the clock anyways.
But as it worked out, we got an extended break for the review, and then Seattle threw the ball on 3rd down for some reason and helped us even more.
if we score on that last drive and win in OT, Pete Carroll is being asked right now why in the world did you throw the ball on 3rd down