The Human Element
Hear it here!
Bizarre!
That’s what I would call some of the football happenings we’ve seen lately.
We all have been trained to know that on any given day any team can beat another, but the circumstances are hard to believe.
Second-guessing is easy, we all do it, but you have to wonder how head coaches who are paid to be right the first time can screw up the obvious.
Let’s start with the game between the Eagles and the Jaguars in London.
The Eagles looking to break a 2-game losing streak had the unbeaten Jags put away in a see-saw affair with a 48-yard field goal, to take the lead 17-16 with only 8 seconds remaining.
Game over, right? Not so fast, sailor.
Philly kicked off and Jacksonville’s Ameer Abdullah fielded it cleanly, charged upfield, and barreled 53 yards before he was tackled with ONE second on the clock. How’s that for bad luck, or bad coaching? If Abdullah had been tackled one second later, it would have been regarded as a close call for the Eagles, but a win, nevertheless.
Instead, with one second left, Jacksonville’s Cam Little connected on a 57-yarder that won the game 19-17. Jags win, Eagles stunned. A kick through the end zone never would have been a factor.
I’ve never seen two field goals in 8 seconds. Of course it didn’t have to happen. All Philly had to do was kick the ball out of the end zone, then make the Jags start from the 30, with no timeouts remaining. In other words, game over. Why didn’t Eagles head coach make that decision? Okay, maybe his kicker can’t hit it that far, so why not send all his players to the man with the ball?
No way he returns it far enough with only 8 seconds on the clock to try a winning field goal.
After the game Nick Sirianni took full blame for what he termed “a bad decision”. But he never went into detail. That was a case of defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
Dan Quinn, the head man in Washington (it was a bad day for head coaches in the NFC East), saw the clock ticking down to zero when he had a chance to win an overtime game against the New York Giants. The Commanders were in field goal range to end it, but they had to run just one more play, a run, with the clock running (12 seconds) and no timeouts left. Why? They were on the Giants 24-yard line. A chip shot to get the W. But they felt they had to run one more play and it cost them. Instead all fairness to head coach Quinn, you have to trust your quarterback to be savvy enough to throw the ball away to save one second to still set up the field goal, but Jayden Daniels seemed to have no idea.
The Giants did the same thing on their previous possession. Instead of simply ending the game with a winning field goal at the Washington 24, they handed the ball to Cam Skattebo, who had picked up 14 yards prior to the 2-minute warning. This time the burly bruiser fumbled, and there went the Giants hopes. Why not kick the 3-pointer and walk off with a great victory. The Giants came back from a 14-point deficit in the final quarter to send the battle into OT. They could have won, and so did the Commanders. So it ended in a tie, as the 15-minute overtime session ended. Bad taste for both teams. A bit less for the Giants, who settled for the tie in a division game on the road. It won’t hurt this crew who battles every week. A tribute to their head coach, John Harbaugh.
Unfortunately his brother Jim took another one on the chin as the Chargers lost to the Broncos.
Expected to be strong contenders, the Chargers are now 0-5. We’ve seen teams rally from those kind of disastrous starts, but the Chargers play in the same division as the Chiefs and the Broncos. They may be too deep to climb out. Coach Harbaugh took all the blame, again, for bad decisions he wouldn’t explain.
Coaches are expected to manage the game correctly, but we saw two who didn’t and there are others who also make decisions that make you scratch your head. The answer, of course, is that coaches, like players, and officials, are human and make mistakes.
That’s what makes it all worthwhile to watch. It’s not automatic. How about the official who failed to call, what was obvious to me and others, pass interference on the Georgia player that might have allowed Alabama to score the go-ahead touchdown with 3-and-a-half minutes remaining in the game. No flag was thrown and Georgia held on to beat the Tide in ‘Bama and move up to the #1 spot in the country. When I see a defensive back run and guard a receiver without looking up to play the ball, I see pass interference.
He’s not defending the play, he’s trying to keep up with the receiver. Big difference.
It’s always fascinating to me to see the head coach screaming at the officials on the field, but in the post-game comments always say his team had many chances earlier so that an officials’ ruling would not have been significant. It happens all the time. Head coaches learn not to claim they lost because of an officials’ call. But I feel they do. It’s part of the human element in all sports.
But a wild time on the gridiron and there’s more to come.
Unlikely Jags FG
Dan is disgusted
Bad no call
