What Were They Thinking: Whisenhunt goes ultra conservative; Bradley punts game away

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

Whisenhunt sinks Titans

It's no mystery why Ken Whisenhunt is 4-28 in his last 32 games.

The Tennessee Titans head coach was at his conservative best Sunday against Buffalo, kicking the ball away with multiple good opportunities to go for it.

In the game's opening drive, Whisenhunt decided to punt facing a fourth-and-2 at Buffalo's 36-yard line. Sure, it was the first possession and maybe Whisenhunt didn't want to risk giving the Bills some momentum early on with a potential fourth-down stop, so let's give him a break.

Next possession, the Titans punted on fourth-and-9 in Buffalo territory. Alright, not an easy conversion. We'll give him another pass. Tennessee then got the ball back and Whisenhunt decided to kick a chip-shot field goal from the Buffalo 3 on fourth-and-2 instead of trying for a touchdown.

Two possessions later, the Titans were looking at another fourth-and-2 at Buffalo's 39, and boom goes the punt. So to recap, Whisenhunt chose to kick on three separate fourth-and-2 plays, twice when Tennessee was inside the Bills' 40 and once inside their 5-yard line.

When you've won four times in your last 32, why not take a risk and try something different? The Titans lost by one and you have to think if Whisenhunt went for it on those opportunities, at least one of them would have worked and led to some additional points.

Whisenhunt is the guy who draws eight in Blackjack and refuses to hit.

Bradley does his best Whisenhunt impression

The Jacksonville Jaguars drafted punter Bryan Anger in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft - five picks before Russell Wilson by the way - so Gus Bradley apparently wanted to show him off Sunday.

With the Jags down 14 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and 7:33 left to play in the game, Bradley decided to punt on fourth-and-4 from his own 28-yard line. With that little time left, there is no use punting. The odds of the Jaguars actually getting two more possessions, going on a pair of touchdown drives, and stopping the Bucs twice in seven minutes were slim.

There was nothing to lose by Bradley going for it.

Instead, the decision essentially handed the game to Tampa Bay, as Jacksonville only had one more possession. Despite finding the end zone on that drive, they still lost by seven. But hey, at least Anger has a good leg.

Reid is back for another encore

Like a good act in Vegas, Andy Reid has officially taken up residence on What Were They Thinking.

In a colossal showdown with fellow poor game-manager John Fox, Reid's persistence paid off Sunday and he came out on top. The Kansas City Chiefs held a 17-12 lead in the game's final minute as the Chicago Bears were driving. Jay Cutler drove to the Chiefs' 13-yard line when he hit Martellus Bennett for a 6-yard gain as the clock continued to move with 57 seconds left.

At that point, the Bears only had one timeout left, but time should have been irrelevant for Chicago. With almost a minute to go and standing at the Kansas City 7-yard line, the Bears could easily have taken several shots at the end zone and didn't need to concern themselves with the time running out. Kansas City, however, should have been trying to preserve time in case Chicago scored. The Bears were either going to score in the next three plays, in which case the Chiefs needed all the time they could save for a comeback, or they were going to get stopped, in which case Kansas City could just take a knee for the win.

Reid, though, decided not to use a timeout, meaning more than 30 seconds ticked away before Cutler ran another play, which was a go-ahead touchdown pass to Matt Forte that made it 18-17. After a two-point conversion failed, it only left the Chiefs 18 seconds to try and get into field-goal range. Those 30-plus seconds would have been a huge help to the Chiefs.

Quick Hits

• The Browns essentially did the same thing as the Chiefs, but fortunately for Cleveland, Baltimore only tied the game with a field goal, allowing Cleveland to eventually win in overtime.
• After the Bills committed 17 penalties last week, they were flagged for offside on the opening kickoff Sunday, negating a fumble recovery.
• The Bucs had the ball at their 35 with 29 seconds left prior to halftime and all three timeouts, but chose to just run the clock out.
• The Rams didn't use a timeout with 37 seconds left in the first half to force a Green Bay punt. Instead, the Pack just let the time expire and St. Louis missed out on another possession.
• Detroit kicked a field goal in the fourth while down 35-7 at the Arizona 22-yard line.
• Colin Kaepernick called a timeout with two seconds left in the third and time still on the play clock. He could have just let the quarter expire and saved the timeout.
• Bernard Pierce forgot what team he was on and decided to block for the Bucs on a punt return.