Before the Bengals-Steelers game last Sunday became a kicking mess caused by long snappers, Cincinnati had a chance to avoid calamity. With a few minutes left, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow hit receiver Ja’Marr Chase on a pass that replays showed to be an obvious touchdown—except, the officials on the field placed the ball just short of the 1-yard line.
Correcting this clear error would have merely required Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor tossing a red piece of cloth, otherwise known as a challenge flag, onto the field. It would have taken a little time to have the play overturned and ruled a touchdown.
Instead, the Bengals offense ran to the line and got stuffed. They wound up turning the ball over on downs, while Pittsburgh eventually prevailed in overtime after Cincinnati missed a pair of kicks following an injury to its long snapper.
This NFL season is barely one week old. There have already been dramatic moments and crazy finishes. Behind many of them: questionable coaching decisions.
Across the league, these miscues are offering reminders about the various ways coaches can swing games. Not challenging a play was just one of the apparent gaffes. There were also instances of clock mismanagement plus a steady dose of head-scratching decisions involving kicks, punts and fourth-down calls.
Denver Broncos first-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett already regrets the choice he made that defined his debut, a 17-16 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Late in the fourth quarter, quarterback Russell Wilson led the Broncos down the field and reached the Seattle 46-yard line with just over a minute left. (Yes, Wilson plays for Denver and not Seattle now.) Facing fourth-and-5, Hackett faced a decision that doesn’t seem so hard for him in retrospect.
”Looking back at it,” he said this week, “definitely should have gone for it.”
Instead of letting Wilson, the nine-time Pro Bowl passer, the team traded two first-round picks to acquire, attempt to convert, the Broncos sent their kicker onto the field to try and achieve one of the longest kicks in NFL history. It predictably missed.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor made a couple of questionable decisions during a Week 1 loss to the Steelers.
Photo:
Michael Hickey/Getty Images
Taylor, coming off last year’s Super Bowl appearance for Cincinnati, had a thornier kicking decision in overtime against the Steelers. The Bengals had gotten the ball to the Pittsburgh 11-yard-line for third-and-8, only needing the short field goal to win the game. It’s a normal situation to kick, but these were completely abnormal circumstances: the injury to the Bengals long snapper led to a missed extra point that would have won the game in regulation.
It was still just third down, so Cincinnati could have put the ball in Burrow’s hands for one more play to try and get a first down and reach the end zone, an outcome that would eliminate the kicker entirely. The Bengals opted for the third-down field goal. The snap from the backup long snapper was troubled again. The kick wasn’t good.
Taylor, afterward, explained that he thought it was the best call because if the snap was off, the holder could have spiked it and they’d have another down for another attempt. “Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out for us,” he said.
Somehow, this wasn’t the end of the Bengals’ strategic miscues. On the next possession, they lined up to punt with just over a minute remaining, and the problem wasn’t their decision to kick the ball away. It was how quickly they did so. There was just over a minute remaining, with the game clock running and about 14 seconds left on the play clock that they could have wasted. Those seconds proved crucial on Pittsburgh’s game-winning drive.
Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase caught a pass that was ruled short of the goal line against the Steelers. The Bengals did not challenge the call.
Photo:
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
The most problematic punt, though, was one that should have never happened at all. With a 26-24 lead late in the fourth quarter, the Atlanta Falcons had the ball on the New Orleans Saints 42-yard line facing fourth-and-1. One statistical model said Atlanta would have an 86% chance of winning by going for it and trying to seal the game—or just a 70% chance with a punt.
The Falcons punted. The Saints quickly took the lead with a field goal before Atlanta’s desperation 63-yard attempt as time expired was blocked.
“There’s a part of me that wanted to go for it,” Falcons coach Arthur Smith said afterwards. “Hindsight is 20/20.”
The curious thing about hindsight is how it colors even the decisions that appear indisputably brilliant. The New York Giants scored a touchdown to put them down 20-19 with 1:06 left against the Tennessee Titans last Sunday. They could have tied the game with an extra point and hoped to win in overtime. New Giants coach Brian Daboll risked attempting a 2-point conversion—and they converted to take a 21-20 lead.
A decision like that, though, doesn’t just change the score of a game. It changes behavior. If the game were tied, with little time on the clock, the Titans might have opted to play conservatively and win in overtime. But down 21-20, they had no choice but to try and race down the field. Different models disagreed about whether the Giants made the right call.
It didn’t take long for the Titans to get the ball into scoring range. With 18 seconds left, they had gotten the ball to New York’s 27-yard line for a high-probability kick. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill rushed to spot the ball on the right hashmark on the next play to set up a game-winning field goal attempt.
The Giants left the field looking like geniuses because the kick sailed wide left.
Write to Andrew Beaton at [email protected]
Tennessee Titans kicker Randy Bullock missed a 47-yard field goal and the Giants won 21-20.
Photo:
Mark Zaleski/Associated Press
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