Week 3 of the 2016 NFL season is complete and it was another week that was influenced by questionable coaching decisions.
There’s plenty of season left, but some of these coaches might look back on these mistakes and realize it’s one of the reasons they’re watching the playoffs on their couch.
Browns choosing to kick in overtime
Hue Jackson takes the cake this week when it comes to bad coaching decisions.
Since the overtime rule was changed in 2011 to give both teams a chance to possess the ball unless a touchdown is scored on the first possession, it’s not unheard of for a team to win the coin toss and decide to kick.
But it’s awfully risky, especially for a coach like Jackson who’s still seeking his first win in his new job.
The Browns were down 24-14 in the fourth quarter Sunday at Miami, then tied the score to force overtime. They had a chance to win the game in regulation, but kicker Cody Parkey missed a 46-yard field goal with four seconds left. It was Parkey’s third miss of the game.
Cleveland won the toss to start overtime but Jackson chose to kick. The Dolphins didn’t score on their first possession, but won on Jay Ajayi’s 11-yard touchdown run after the teams traded punts.
It’s hard to figure out why Jackson didn’t want the ball to start overtime. His team erased a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit and had the momentum. Plus the Browns possessed the ball for 37:22 in the game compared to 29:12 for Miami. They gained more than 400 yards on the Dolphins’ defense in regulation and could have taken advantage of a fatigued unit. Instead, the Browns gave the Dolphins defense a breather and fell to 0-3.
Jets not giving the ball to Matt Forte in the red zone
The Jets were 0-for-4 in red zone opportunities in Sunday’s 24-3 loss at Kansas City.
If they had mixed up their play-calling in that area, the game might have turned out differently.
Trailing 17-3 late in the third quarter, the Jets got to the Chiefs’ 5-yard line. Matt Forte, who leads the team with three touchdowns, all on the ground, was averaging better than four yards a carry. He finished with 65 yards on 15 carries. But instead of handing the ball off to his running back, Fitzpatrick threw an incomplete pass. Then he threw an interception, his second of six interceptions in the game.
The Jets threatened again in the fourth quarter. Still trailing 17-3, they reached the Chiefs’ 6 with eight and a half minutes left. Again Fitzpatrick threw an incomplete pass followed by an interception.
Throwing two passes didn’t work the first time the Jets were that close to the end zone. What made them think it would work the second time?
Derrick Johnson returned a Fitzpatrick interception 55 yards for a touchdown to ice the game for the Chiefs with less than four minutes left and the Jets fell to 1-2.
Lions not challenging a spot
The Lions trailed the Packers 34-17 early in the fourth quarter in Green Bay when on 2nd-and-20 Matthew Stafford fired a pass to Marvin Jones that looked like a first down at the Packers’ 18-yard line.
Despite his own first-down signal, Jones was marked short and the Lions were faced with 3rd-and-1. After a penalty and a sack they were forced to kick a field goal that made the score 34-20 with 12:35 left in the game.
Had Jim Caldwell challenged the spot on Jones’ reception, the Lions might have had a shot at going in for the touchdown and getting to within 10. Jones caught a 35-yard touchdown pass to narrow the Lions’ deficit to 34-27 with 3:34 left but the Lions never saw the ball again.
Caldwell’s failure to throw the red flag didn’t necessarily cost the Lions the game, but after his team trailed 31-3 in the first half the coach needed to do all he could to keep the momentum going. The Lions’ rally fell short and they dropped to 1-2.
Lack of targets for Kelvin Benjamin
Panthers’ wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin caught six passes with one touchdown in Week 1 and seven passes with two touchdowns in Week 2.
He was thrown to just once, however, and had no receptions in Sunday’s 22-10 home loss to the Vikings.
Cam Newton was sacked eight times and pressured 17 times according to David Newton of ESPN. Newton talked about how many of Benjamin’s routes require a five-step drop for him to get open. That seems to limit the situations in which Newton can throw to his best wide receiver. Perhaps the Panthers need to add a few pages to their playbook.
Kelvin Benjamin’s first target comes with 2:34 left in the game
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) September 25, 2016
Benjamin caught 73 passes for 1,008 yards and nine touchdowns in his rookie season. He missed last year with an injury but seemed to pick up where he left off in the first two weeks of the 2016 season. But instead of looking his way Sunday Newton threw to Ted Ginn Jr. three times and Corey Brown four times. A 31-yard pass to Ginn set up a field goal and a 3-0 lead in the first quarter and a 27-yard connection with Brown aided the drive that increased Carolina’s lead to 10-0.
But the Panthers went scoreless in the game’s final 50 minutes, suffered their first home loss since 2014 and dropped to 1-2.
Buccaneers’ timeout usage
A rich man can’t take his unspent money with him when he dies. The Buccaneers had an unspent timeout in their pockets when they walked off their home field as 37-32 losers to the Rams on Sunday.
Tampa Bay had good field position at its own 44 with 1:42 left and two timeouts remaining. With 49 seconds left, Jameis Winston threw a 12-yard pass to Charles Sims for a first down at the Rams’ 15. That might have been a good time to use a timeout. Instead, Dirk Koetter’s Bucs let 23 seconds tick off the clock before running their next play. Winston’s incomplete pass stopped the clock with 21 seconds left.
#Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said he second guesses his decision not to call a timeout after Charles Sims reception.
— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) September 26, 2016
Another incomplete pass ran the clock down to 14 seconds. Now the Bucs faced a third down and those two timeouts were an embarrassment of riches. An illegal contact penalty gave them a new set of downs at the Rams’ 15, but with only nine seconds left. Had the Buccaneers used one of those timeouts, they’d have been able to run at least another play. Instead, Winston threw another incomplete pass and the Bucs called timeout with the clock already stopped. Then on the final play, Winston couldn’t find anyone open and made a half-hearted attempt to run the ball into the end zone before Robert Quinn snuffed it out.
Being frugal with timeouts cost Koetter and the Buccaneers as they fell to 1-2.
