Costly Coaching Kills Teams In Crunch Time

Over the last decade, there have been some of the most controversial NFL playoff coaching decisions of all time. Who can forget the 2015 SuperBowl when Seattle Seahawks’ Head Coach Pete Carroll called a pass play on the one yard line with Marshawn Lynch, arguably the most dominant goal line running back in the league, never getting the handoff. And let’s not forget bonehead move number two by Atlanta Falcons’ Head Coach Dan Quinn during the 2017 SuperBowl refusing to run out the clock on the Patriots twenty-three yard line with four minutes to go up 28-20. History often repeats itself and this postseason we’ve seen numerous games shift momentum and cost teams their season due to a lack of proper coaching in key scenarios. Here are some critical and confounding mistakes made by various head coaches this postseason sending some teams home early and causing the blood to boil in their loyal fans. 

In the first round of the playoffs, America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys, were in the midst of a potential game winning drive late in the fourth quarter against the San Francisco 49ers. It’s unclear what was going through Head Coach Mike McCarthy’s mind as Dak Prescott ran a QB draw up the middle from the forty yard line with 14 seconds left and eventually couldn’t get another play off resulting in a 49ers win. How much did this play really do for them? Fans all over the world were left speechless as the Cowboys were already in range for one, and probably two, hail mary’s. The odds of Dallas pulling off a miracle were low but the fact that the Cowboys didn’t even have a chance to take a shot at the end zone is unacceptable. This is yet another blemish on the coaching career of Mike McCarthy as he continues to struggle in the playoffs even when coaching Hall of Fame Quarterback Aaron Rodgers. How many chances do we give a guy who repeatedly makes bad coaching decisions?

One week later, another obvious decision was blown in the AFC Divisional round by Bill’s Head Coach, Sean McDermott. The Bills v Chiefs matchup was arguably the best game we’ve seen in the last few years as it was back and forth all night. Rising star and Bill’s quarterback Josh Allen, led an electric drive with a minute left resulting in a touchdown with thirteen seconds on the clock putting the Bills up by three. With only thirteen seconds left, the clear decision was to squib the ball to the Chiefs and waste four or five seconds giving them time for only one play. There’s no doubt McDermott wants his decision of kicking the ball out of the endzone back as this major coaching blunder gave the high-flying Chiefs just enough time to hit two big plays and eventually score the game tying field goal and overtime touchdown sending the Bills shuffling off to Buffalo. While not squibbing the ball was the major error, McDermott made a second significant mistake choosing to rush four players instead of three which gave the Chiefs more room in the open field to find holes. The Bills had no business losing this game and McDermott let his team down. McDermott is obviously a great coach and has had back to back phenomenal seasons in Buffalo, but these unforgivable mistakes will sting for years and leave The Bill’s Mafia heartbroken again. 

And if those two coaching snafus weren’t enough, this past Sunday we saw another questionable decision made by long-time and SuperBowl winning Chiefs Head Coach, Andy Reid in the AFC Championship Game. Reid has established himself as one of the best minds and truly elite coaches in the NFL for years now but even with all of the experience, sometimes in the moment, it all goes wrong. To set the scene, the Chiefs had dominated the visiting Bengals scoring touchdowns on all three first half possessions. The Bengals were on life support as the Chiefs reached the two yard line with five seconds left in the first half. Gunslinger Patrick Mahomes led a great drive to end the first half and a decision had to be made. Take the field goal and go up 24-10 or go for the dagger and score a touchdown. Reid decided to keep the offense on the field which led to Mahomes making a costly mistake and hitting speedy wide receiver Tyreek Hill in bounds as the clock expired. An offensive genius like Reid got greedy and not taking the points to go up two TDs was simply not the right decision. Why give the Bengals a chance of gaining momentum heading into the second half? If you take the field goal and go up two touchdowns, the Bengals have to play nearly perfect football regardless in the second half with no momentum to build off of. Instead, Bengal’s cornerback Eli Apple who trailed Hill along the line from right to left stopped Hill short of the goal line making what now can be called a game saving stop leading to an enormous momentum shift in the game. Sometimes, one play in a game can change the outcome and Reid’s decision coupled with the Bengals grit and belief, is why the Bengals are heading to the SuperBowl in sunny SoCal and the Chiefs and their loyal fans are left shaking their heads in cold, snowy, depressed Kansas City. In the end, for Reid and Kansas City, sometimes getting greedy comes back to bite you. 

While there are many plays that lead to a win or a loss, there are those one or two plays, and more importantly, those one or two coaching decisions, that result in a W or an L. No coaches are perfect, and mistakes happen, but the flawed decisions of Carroll, Quinn, McCarthy, McDermott and Reid are certainly head scratchers for seasoned veterans and intelligent men who couldn’t handle the moment and have to live with that the rest of their careers. Hopefully, other coaches will learn from these costly mistakes and avoid painful, heartbreaking, and unnecessary losses in the future.