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What Were They Thinking: Browns make Jaguars look good; Chargers discard a timeout

Andrew Weber / USA TODAY Sports

What Were They Thinking is a weekly post where you get to relive the foolish decisions from the week that were in the NFL. Enjoy the insanity. 

Browns get aggressive too early

It's not easy for a team to appear on this list three times in the same week, but the Cleveland Browns refused to be denied on Sunday. 

They got the party started early, when they opted to go for it facing a 4th-and-1 at the Jacksonville Jaguars 24-yard line, with a six-point lead late in the first half.

Kicking a field goal and taking a nine-point lead over a winless team seemed to make a lot of sense, but head coach Mike Pettine had other ideas. Pettine decided to go for it, and the Browns ran a play-action pass out of the pistol formation, of all things. Not shockingly, a slow-developing pass play failed in a 4th-and-short situation, as Brian Hoyer's throw fell incomplete.

The Jaguars promptly took the ball and marched down the field for a touchdown, giving them their first points of the day. Instead of making it a two-score game in his favor, Pettine gave a winless team a lot of needless momentum. 

Andrew Hawkins can't be bothered to recover a fumble

Flash forward to early in the third quarter with the Browns still trailing 7-6. 

Hoyer is sacked at his own 37 and loses the football. The ball falls forward out of his hand, making it hard to tell if it was a fumble or an incomplete pass. Nevertheless, it bounced right to Browns receiver Andrew Hawkins, who for whatever reason, decided not to pick it up. 

The Jags alertly pounced on the ball and after a review it was indeed ruled a fumble. Jacksonville quickly turned that into a field goal to grab a 10-6 advantage. 

Even if Hawkins thought it was an incomplete pass, why not pick up anyway just to sure? His carelessness cost his team a possession and three points. 

Pettine and Shanahan team up to sink the Browns

The Browns were still trailing 10-6 early in the fourth quarter when they started to panic. 

Facing a 4th-and-5 at the Jacksonville 43-yard line, Pettine goes for it and again offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan leaves you scratching your head about the play calling. 

Shanahan called a quarterback option and Hoyer rolled to his right before pitching it to Ben Tate, who lost two yards.

First of all, Cleveland probably should have punted when you consider the situation. Picking up five yards isn't impossible, but it's far from a sure thing as well. There was still almost a whole quarter play and the Jaguar offense wasn't exactly marching up and down the field all day. Blake Bortles threw three interceptions and pinning that offense deep would have likely resulted in the Browns getting the ball back with plenty of time left in a one-score game.

Secondly, an option with Brian Hoyer? With the athleticism of Johnny Manziel in there it may have been a different story, but Hoyer's speed can probably be best described somewhere between slow and sluggish. His attempt at an option was fooling no one and this play was doomed from the start. 

Pettine said after the game the Browns weren't even supposed to run a play there and instead simply try and catch the Jags in a bad substitution and get them to burn a timeout. Although, the offense certainly seemed to believe they were going to snap the ball based on their reaction.

So to recap, the Browns ran a pass play on 4th-and-1 out of the pistol formation and an option with a slow quarterback on 4th-and-5. What would they have done if they faced a 4th-and-10? Run a quarterback sneak?

Giants with some curious clock management

It's hard to imagine what Tom Coughlin was thinking at the end of the first half yesterday against the Dallas Cowboys. 

The Giants stopped the Cowboys on third down at the Dallas 31-yard line with 33 seconds left to play in the second quarter. The clock was moving so Coughlin opted to use the first of his three timeouts to stop the clock. So far nothing out of the ordinary here. You might as well make the Cowboys punt and see if you can come away with good field position and a chance to score before the half. 

Dallas punts to the New York 29 and now things get bizarre. After an Eli Manning pass falls incomplete, the Giants are looking at only 14 seconds left well inside their own territory. At this point, taking a knee and heading to the locker room tied at 14 with a 5-1 team on the road is probably the wisest choice, but the Giants decide to run a draw with Peyton Hillis. 

Still, Hillis gains nine yards and the clock continues to move, so one would think the Giants will now just let the time run out and head to the half. However, for some unknown reason, Coughlin calls a timeout with four seconds left. 

The Giants were at their own 38 at this point and were too far for away for a Hail Mary attempt, so stopping the clock here is peculiar to say the least. However, the can still simply take a knee and get to the half. 

New York lines up in shotgun, though, and runs another draw to Hillis to make sure the clock expires. They escaped the whole sequence unscathed, but took a few unnecessary risks along the way.  

Stopping the clock with four seconds left to run a draw play makes no sense here. Only bad things can happen in this situation, especially in shotgun. The snap could have went over Manning's head or Hillis could have fumbled, giving the Cowboys a chance for a defensive score. 

If you are New York, you have to ask yourself what's the best outcome for us here? I've got news for you, Hillis isn't breaking off a 62-yard run for a touchdown, so why even run the play and risk a mistake?

Chargers throw away a timeout

The San Diego Chargers saw their five-game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs thanks to a late field goal. 

On said field goal, Chargers head coach Mike McCoy opted to freeze Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos: an unwise decision. 

Santos lined up for the kick with 26 seconds left to play and the clock stopped. The Chargers have all of their timeouts remaining, so McCoy decides to burn one in an attempted freeze situation. A move that probably has little or no impact on the kick. 

It's one thing if it's the final play of the game and any timeouts you have are going to be meaningless, but here it's far more important for the Chargers to keep them for a potential tying drive. 

After Santos made the kick to give the Chiefs a 23-20 lead, the Chargers got the ball back with 21 seconds to play at their own 20-yard line. It's not an ideal scenario to get it downfield for a tying field goal, but with three timeouts left it's realistic to think you can at least get into position to try a Hail Mary. 

The Chiefs would likely be playing prevent, giving you plenty of time to pick up chunks of 10-15 yards per play over the middle. With all three timeouts and more than 20 seconds left, there's a possibility to run three plays, using all your timeouts, to get the ball near midfield with a couple of seconds left to try a throw to the end zone. 

Instead, the Chargers were left with just two. Philip Rivers had to force the issue and was intercepted. 

There's a time and a place to freeze a kicker, and this certainly wasn't it. 

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