NFL Week 17: Neil Reynolds on drama and controversy of season finale
Sunday 5 January 2014 11:23, UK
The NFL regular season concluded on Sunday night with Week 17 offering up so much of what had come before in the previous four months - outstanding play, late drama and the odd officiating blunder to add to the controversy.
Chargers ride their luck
The San Diego Chargers should buy a few lottery tickets this week because their luck is most definitely in. And, most importantly, they are in the playoffs and still alive in the race for the Super Bowl. San Diego needed the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens to lose in the early games on Sunday. Then they needed to go out and defeat a Kansas City team who couldn't affect their own playoff standing and were resting most of their big-name stars.
Miami and Baltimore obliged with disappointing performances I will talk about in a few moments, but things were looking bleak for San Diego as the Chiefs lined up for a game-winning 41-yard field goal with just eight seconds remaining in a game tied at 24 apiece.
Incredibly, Ryan Succop sent his 41-yard effort wide right and the Chargers eventually won in overtime by a 27-24 scoreline. But a flag should have been thrown on the missed field goal as San Diego lined up with seven men to one side of the Chief snapping the football. You are never allowed more than six on one side of the formation on field goal attempts.
The Chiefs should have been allowed another attempt at the game-winner and while nothing is guaranteed, you have to think that Succop would have made his effort from 36 yards out.
But the officials missed that call, erred on the side of the Chargers when Kansas City appeared to have scored on a game-winning fumble return in overtime and San Diego lived to fight another day. And as long as they have the talented Philip Rivers at the helm, they have a puncher's chance on the road in Cincinnati next Sunday.
Quarterbacks fail in big games
I cannot help but be disappointed with the performances of Joe Flacco and Ryan Tannehill with their respective seasons on the line. Baltimore and Miami needed to win on Sunday night and both fell to losses that were not all that close. You could make an argument that the Ravens faced a tough task taking on a Bengals side that had not lost at home all season, but the Dolphins were a massive disappointment during their home loss to the Jets. Flacco threw three interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown, against the Bengals and Tannehill offered up the same number of picks during a poor 20-7 loss to New York. A team looks to its quarterback to deliver in big games (see Aaron Rodgers above) and Flacco and Tannehill failed. Sure, they were not helped out by those around them, including their offensive lines, but they have to come up with better than the serving they dished up on Sunday.Black Monday in the NFL
Black Monday in the NFL is a day when under-fire head coaches should lock themselves in their offices and ignore the ringing telephone. The day after the final regular season games is when teams around the league make changes if their coach has failed to deliver. Last season saw eight coaching changes in the NFL and this year we didn't even get to Black Monday. The Cleveland Browns were first out of the gate with the firing of first-year head coach Rob Chudzinski on Sunday night. My first thought is that the Browns cannot keep chopping and changing coaches and Chudzinski deserved more than 352 days on the job. But then I looked closer at the results of the Cleveland Browns and was reminded that the NFL is very much a "what have you done for me lately?" league.
After a 3-2 start, the Browns lost 10 of their last 11 and seven in a row. More damaging than those results are the reports that Chudzinski had lost the locker room and his players were just going through the motions. It's tough to survive if that is true, but some new head coach is going to need some time in Cleveland. This team must start to show some patience with coaches and develop a long-term plan. They need to start by finding a quarterback in May's draft and a running back or two in free agency or the draft.
Other coaches who might want to avoid that ringing phone are Jim Schwartz (Detroit), Joe Philbin (Miami), Mike Shanahan (Washington), Jason Garrett (Dallas), Mike Munchak (Tennessee), Leslie Frazier (Minnesota), Greg Schiano (Tampa Bay) and Dennis Allen (Oakland). Several of these guys are going to fall on their prospective coaching swords sooner rather than later.
