Week 2 of the 2016 NFL season is in the books, and it might have turned out differently for some teams if their head coaches made better decisions.
One coach got away with his mistake. Others weren’t so lucky. One coach who was hailed for his gutsy decision in Week 1 got a cold splash of reality in Week 2.
Let the second guessing begin.
Raiders
Jack Del Rio’s bold decision to go for two in New Orleans gave the Raiders a dramatic 35-34 win over the Saints in Week 1.
In Week 2, Del Rio gambled one too many times.
The Raiders trailed the Falcons 28-21 at Oakland and faced a fourth-and-2 from their own 49-yard line with just over seven minutes left in the game. Del Rio decided to go for it, but Jalen Richard gained just one yard. It took the Falcons five plays to double their lead. Tevin Coleman ran 13 yards for a touchdown with 4:41 left.
The Raiders lost 35-28. Had Del Rio punted with seven minutes left, there’s a chance the Raiders could have been 2-0 for the first time since 2002.
Packers
The Packers trailed the Vikings 10-7 with five minutes left in the third quarter Sunday night at Minnesota. They had a chance to tie it with what would have been a field goal of about 31 yards.
Instead, Mike McCarthy decided to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the Vikings’ 14-yard line at noisy U.S. Bank Stadium. James Starks was short, and the Vikings drove 87 yards for a touchdown and had all the points they would need in their 17-14 win.
If McCarthy had been that daring in the 2014 NFC championship game at Seattle, he’d have had a shot at a second Lombardi Trophy.
Bengals
The Bengals had the ball at the Steelers’ 3-yard line trailing 17-6 with 2:24 left in the third quarter. C.J. Uzomah caught a pass from Andy Dalton in the end zone, but it was ruled incomplete because he was out of bounds. Replay showed, however, that Uzomah might have had a knee, or some body part between the foot and knee, inbounds.
Marvin Lewis didn’t challenge the play, and the Bengals settled for a field goal.
Nobody upstairs was gonna tell Marvin Lewis that was a Touchdown?
— Patrick Claybon (@PatrickClaybon) September 18, 2016
The Bengals would have been down four, not eight, on their final drive had the call been overturned. That would have put a little more heat on the Steelers defense. But as it was, the best the Bengals could do was tie. Those hopes ended when Robert Golden recovered a Tyler Boyd fumble on another questionable officiating call to seal a 24-16 home win for the Steelers.
Lewis does know how to reach for the red flag and throw it on the field. He’s done it 81 times in his head coaching career and been successful 38 times. That’s better than his playoff record, so he should have given it a try on Sunday.
Browns
Hue Jackson said after he was hired as Browns head coach that he would call his own plays.
Maybe he should re-think that and also brush up on his clock management.
After blowing a 20-0 first-quarter lead, the Browns needed a touchdown to win when Justin Tucker’s field goal gave the Ravens a 25-20 lead with 2:53 left.
The Browns managed to run only two plays before the two-minute warning. Both were passes nowhere near the sideline. The Browns had one timeout left, but were forced to burn it when Cameron Erving was injured with 55 seconds left.
Corey Coleman caught an 11-yard pass on fourth-and-3 with 34 seconds left, and the rookie was the only Brown with the sense to run out of bounds to stop the clock. But two plays later, C.J. Mosley intercepted Josh McCown to lock up the road win for the Ravens.
Jets
Jets coach Todd Bowles already has pointed the finger at himself for this one, and he got away with it anyway.
Matt Forte scored on a 12-yard run to give the Jets a 36-24 lead over the Bills with 4:02 left in the game on Thursday night in Buffalo. Nick Folk kicked the extra point to make it 37-24. Bowles later admitted he should have gone for two to give the Jets a tidy 14-point lead. By keeping the lead at 13, the Jets would have lost if the Bills scored two touchdowns and kicked two extra points.
The Bills did score one touchdown to make it 37-31, then got the ball back for one final play from their own 15. But there was no miracle finish.
Bowles said he was occupied with the defense when making the decision to kick with four minutes left. Doesn’t every coach not named Mike Tomlin have a chart that maps out when to go for two and when to kick the extra point? Can’t the Jets name some sideline lackey the “two-point man” whose only job is to tell the coach when to go for two?
There might be some go-for-two quizzes at the Jets’ meetings this week.
