This Weekend in NFL Stupid highlights the dumbest moments and decisions in football throughout the season. For Week 5, we start with a slew of bad situational coaching decisions.
Trailing by three points in the fourth quarter, Hue Jackson wasted his team’s second timeout in order to decide to go for it on fourth down
I don’t hate the decision to gamble on a 4th-and-2, but make up your damn mind right away and get a play in. Waffling before calling a timeout just shows you weren’t ready.
And naturally, the Browns failed to convert on the fourth-down play inside the Jets’ 5-yard line. That play might have been the difference between a win and a loss.
The Giants punted twice inside the Chargers’ 40-yard line on back-to-back drives
The first came on a on a 4th-and-5 from the Chargers’ 38-yard line, netting them 35 yards. The second came on a 4th-and-7 from the 36-yard line, resulting in a touchback that gained the defense only 16 yards.
I don’t care how many of your receivers are limping, it’s just bad math. You might be more likely to fail than succeed on fourth-down gambles or field-goal attempts there, but it’s absolutely not worth it to sacrifice those odds in order to give your defense an extra 15-35 yards.
Besides, you’re 0-4. What have you got to lose?
And later took a delay-of-game penalty before a two-point conversion attempt
They failed from the 7-yard line. Ben McAdoo is terrible.
Down 10 points in the fourth quarter, the Raiders punted on a 4th-and-3 from the Baltimore 44-yard line
Jalen Richard: "When are we going to get tired of getting our ass whooped?" #Raiders
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) October 9, 2017
The odds are good you’re going to convert there, and even if you don’t you’re only sacrificing 24 yards versus a touchback (which is what happened). Jack Del Rio thought it was worth not trying to convert a very manageable fourth down in order to buy his defense a couple dozen yards while needing two scores in the fourth quarter. It’s absolutely bonkers.
The Colts don’t understand how to manage the clock either
Just over a minute to play in regulation in Indianapolis. Colts lead the 49ers by seven points. San Francisco faces a 4th-and-goal at the Indy 5-yard line. Clock is beginning to run following San Francisco’s third-down play. Colts have two timeouts available. They do not use one.
The 49ers would find the end zone to tie the game on fourth down, but instead of having about a minute to respond the Colts had just 20 seconds after San Francisco kicked off. They bailed on regulation without attempting to run a play. Had they lost in overtime, they’d be kicking themselves.
The fact this is a touchback…
Change that damn rule. It’s too punitive. Dude dives for the end zone and loses possession before breaking the plane? Unless the fumble is recovered by the defense, the offense should get it back where the fumble occurred, just as it would if the ball went out of bounds.
This phantom unnecessary roughness penalty on Blake Martinez cost the Packers four points
What an awful, awful call by the refs. Blake Martinez's arm hits Dez and they call it helmet to helmet. A 4 point swing. #Packers #Cowboys pic.twitter.com/OTtEWjcD3b
— Stephen Watson (@WISN_Watson) October 8, 2017
Good thing they have Aaron Rodgers.
And by the way, the Cowboys left Rodgers too much time
Always stupid. At least force them to use all of their damn timeouts!
