This weekend in NFL stupid

A lot of great things took place during the first month of the 2014 NFL regular season. But so did a lot of stupid. We wrap up September with a rundown of some of the stupidest occurrences from Week 4.

The stupidest usage of timeouts

Up two points on Philadelphia in the fourth quarter, 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh made a gutsy decision to go for it on 4th-and-2 at the Philly 48-yard line. Really, it’s a good call in terms of percentages, especially the way his offense was rolling.

But no, they were trying to draw them offside. Not a terrible strategy either, but instead of taking that five-yard delay-of-game penalty, quarterback Colin Kaepernick used San Francisco’s second timeout. In the fourth quarter of a one-score game, that’s uncool. And had the Eagles scored late — as they almost did — it could have been a very costly decision.

That was especially the case considering that, later in the fourth quarter, Harbaugh squandered his team’s final timeout challenging a clear catch from Jeremy Maclin.

maclin

Combine that with an absolutely unacceptable and stupid delay-of-game penalty from Kaepernick on a fourth-quarter 3rd-and-3 in the Philly red zone (they’d have to settle for a field goal), and it almost felt as though San Fran wanted to lose this game.

The stupidest fourth-down decision

Midway through the fourth quarter of a game they were trailing by two scores, the Saints lined up to punt on 4th-and-9 at their own 41-yard line. Punting in that situation is basically football suicide. So everyone figured it’d be a fake… and it was. And the Cowboys were there to shut it down.

I don’t usually have a problem with plays like these and I know hindsight is 20/20. If it had worked, we’d probably be praising Sean Payton. The problem I have with this is that the Saints had a much better chance simply converting the 4th-and-9 on a regular play from scrimmage.

It took the offense a total of seven plays to score touchdowns on the previous two drives. They finally had the Dallas defense where they’re used to having them. Just let your future Hall of Fame quarterback throw it to one of his many primo receivers.

Payton got fancy and lost.

The stupidest penalty

It’s just amazing that, based on the rulebook, a dangerous hit to a quarterback’s head is penalized the same way this is…

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That was 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct to Antonio Brown. The NFL has to relax on celebration penalties. Harmless moments.

The stupidest coaching decision

On the Jets’ opening drive against the Lions, running back Chris Ivory ran nine times for 51 yards. Yet Jets offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg ignored him on the following two drives and gave him just eight carries the rest of the day. New York lost by a touchdown.

Stupid.

The stupidest officiating moment

It looks as though referee Terry McAulay simply named the wrong player here, because this was clearly hands to the face on Jordan Mills, not Julius Peppers:

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One more stupid call, just because

How the hell is this not a push-off on Antonio Brown!?

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The stupidest pass

Good thinking, Bears. Nine seconds left in the half and no timeouts and Jay Cutler throws a route one yard short of the end zone in the middle of the field.

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Zero points for you. Halftime. And at that point, it was still a game.

Finally, everything Kirk Cousins did

But especially this…

pick

 

About Brad Gagnon

Brad Gagnon has been passionate about both sports and mass media since he was in diapers -- a passion that won't die until he's in them again. Based in Toronto, he's worked as a national NFL blog editor at theScore.com (covering Super Bowls XLIV, XLV and XLVI), a producer and writer at theScore Television Network and a host, reporter and play-by-play voice at Rogers TV. His work has also appeared at Deadspin, FoxSports.com, The Guardian, The Hockey News and elsewhere at Bloguin, but his day gig has him covering all things NFC East for Bleacher Report.

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