What Were They Thinking: Broncos shoot themselves in foot; Zimmer helps Bears
What Were They Thinking is a weekly post that helps you relive the foolish decisions from the week in the NFL. Enjoy the insanity.
Broncos lose focus
It's rare that we see a play that is both brilliant and foolish at the same time, but that's exactly what happened during a Jordan Norwood punt return.
The Broncos' return man made one of the most heads-up plays you will ever see against the Steelers, only to have it negated by his own team.
The brilliance of Norwood's play is that he had nothing to lose by picking up the ball and taking off in that situation. Once the kicking team touches the ball, everything after that is gravy for Norwood. Even if he were to fumble and have Pittsburgh recover along the way, the ball would still be retained by the Broncos where the Steelers initially touched it. Only positive things can happen for Denver.
That is, unless your sideline has a brain camp. The offense jumped on the field too early, costing the Broncos seven points and the opportunity to extend their lead by 14. The error would be costly, as the Steelers ended up scoring 14 unanswered points for a 34-27 win.
Zimmer gives Bears 3 points
The Vikings inched closer to punching their ticket to the playoffs with a win over the Bears, but not before head coach Mike Zimmer made a bit of a blunder Sunday.
Late in the third quarter, Minnesota held a 24-7 lead over Chicago as the Bears were driving into scoring position. From the Vikings' 33-yard line, Jay Cutler and the offense were looking at a third-and-9 to keep the drive going, but an incomplete pass brought up fourth down and a 50-yard field-goal attempt. However, Chicago was flagged for a 10-yard penalty thanks to a holding call. If the Vikings accept, it would move the Bears back to the 43 and well out of Robbie Gould's field-goal range.
Zimmer, though, declined the call and set up Gould with a makeable attempt to cut the Vikings' lead to two scores. Normally, I'm always in favor of declining in these situations to set up a fourth down, but here it made more sense to accept the penalty. By doing so, the Bears have a very low-percentage chance of picking up a fourth-and-19, and you also move Chicago outside of scoring range.
A field goal here for the Bears is crucial, since it would make the score 24-10 and only a two-possession game with plenty of time left. Conversely, it would increase the Vikings' winning percentage drastically if they could stay up by three scores.
Gould took advantage of the free 10 yards and made the kick, but fortunately for the Vikings it didn't come back to haunt them later.
Pagano throws away a timeout
There have been times this season where it appeared nobody wanted to win the AFC South, and Colts head coach Chuck Pagano continued the trend Sunday.
With the Texans ahead 13-10 and a little over five minutes to play, DeAndre Hopkins made a 7-yard catch to give Houston a first down. Everyone in the country could clearly see Hopkins made a clean catch, except for Pagano. For reasons that boggle the mind, Pagano decides to challenge the play, in a decision that was more wishful thinking than based off of sound logic.
Not surprisingly, the play stood and the Colts lost a crucial timeout that they needed to stop the clock in hopes of getting the ball back in a tight game. The Texans eventually added a field goal to hold on for the win, and took sole possession of the AFC South lead in the process.
Quick Hits
- The Bills opted for a field goal down 21-0 in the second half when they had a fourth-and-4 at the Washington 14-yard line. They later punted with five minutes left and down 35-17.
- Tennessee used its second timeout on defense with the clock stopped and 3:39 left while trailing the Pats 27-16. With the game still in reach, that wasn't the time to squander a precious timeout.
- Aaron Rodgers threw an interception against the Raiders with 2:44 to play and a 10-point lead. What on earth were the Packers doing throwing at that point instead of running out the clock?