Look around the league for the past, well, I don’t know, however many years. Clock management and finishing games are two areas where teams struggle more than succeed. I think it’s human nature to “take your foot off the gas” so to speak when you feel like something is coming to an end in your favor. Focus, alertness, instinct, all start winding down, and you start coasting. Let’s go into “Prevent!!!!” although we have numerous examples of that style of defense biting teams in the arse. I believe the prevent defense invented “garbage time points and yards”, but I digress.
Anyway, I think the teams that finish consistently play the fourth quarter with respect to their opponents. They make sure there is no comeback opportunity.