What Were They Thinking: Tomlin sinks Steelers; Ryan puts on bad-challenge clinic

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

Tomlin leads Steelers to a loss

Mike Tomlin clearly isn't familiar with the phrase "less is more." The Pittsburgh Steelers head coach overthought several critical decisions against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, costing his team a win.

Instead of kicking a routine field goal to start the second quarter and go up 6-0, Tomlin called a fake that fooled no one. Once holder Landry Jones shifted along with the rest of the unit, the Seahawks did the same and it was evident they were well-prepared for the play. Instead of calling a timeout, though, Jones heaved a prayer to an offensive lineman who was covered by Jeremy Lane. The Seattle corner caught an easy interception and returned it deep into Steelers' territory, setting up a touchdown. That was essentially a 10-point swing in Seattle's favor.

Fast-forward to late in the fourth with the Steelers down five and facing a fourth-and-3 at the Seahawks' 3-yard line. Tomlin, who usually shows little hesitation going for two at about that same distance, inexplicably decided to kick a field goal. So Pittsburgh was banking on getting a stop and the ball back with enough time for one more drive, instead of going for the lead right then and there.

After the field goal, the Steelers still had two timeouts and the two-minute warning at their disposal. After stops on first and second down set up third-and-long, Tomlin has the opportunity to use one of his timeouts and force a Seattle third-down play with 2:50 left. But Tomlin let 40 seconds run off the clock before the Seahawks had to run a play. What a waste. Doug Baldwin scored a touchdown on the next play to put the game out of reach.

Tomlin seems to make every simple decision more complicated than it needs to be.

Ryan needs a lesson in challenging

Rex Ryan put on a clinic on how not to use your challenge flag Sunday.

With the Bills up 10-0 in the second quarter, Alex Smith found Jeremy Maclin for a 37-yard gain down to the Buffalo 3-yard line. However, the ball clearly hit the ground and a challenge would have negated the play. Ryan, though, left the flag in his pocket and the Chiefs scored a touchdown on the next play.

In the third quarter with the Bills now down five, Tyrod Taylor threw an incomplete pass to Robert Woods that clearly hit the ground. Woods, like every receiver in the history of football, got up and pleaded his case that there is no way he could have dropped the ball. In a terrible lapse in judgement, Ryan listened to Woods and threw the challenge flag. The officials wasted little time in declaring the play stood and it cost the Bills a critical second-half timeout.

The Bills had possession of the ball, so there was no rush for Ryan to throw his flag in that instance. Clearly, someone on the sideline or upstairs needed to take two seconds and tell Ryan not to waste his timeout.

Campbell channels his inner Philbin

Dan Campbell has seemed to get the Dolphins playing with more emotion since taking over for Joe Philbin, but he was all too eager to throw in the white flag Sunday.

Trailing the Jets 28-7 with 11:21 to go in the fourth quarter and Miami facing a fourth-and-3, Campbell sent out the punting unit to boot it back to New York. Why not take a risk and go for it? There was nothing to lose.

The Jets scored when they got the ball back and that was all she wrote.

Quick Hits

• Arizona threw a pass on first down with a little over a minute to play while trying to run out the clock against the 49ers. They got lucky by completing it inbounds, but the Cards needlessly risked giving the ball back to San Francisco.
• The Eagles called a timeout on defense while the Lions were in hurry-up mode before the half on Thanksgiving. The stoppage saved Detroit a bunch of time and with the way Philly's defense has played of late, they don't need to be helping the opposition.
• The Rams were called for delay of game on a fourth-and-10 they were going for in the fourth quarter with all three timeouts in their pocket. Someone on the sideline, namely Jeff Fisher, had to use one there to save the five yards. They didn't convert.