I love the NFL.
I mean, I love the NFL. If it were at all possible, I would go out to Zales, purchase a ring, take the NFL out for a lovely dinner, drop to a knee and ask it to marry me.
That said, there are three things that NFL teams do that absolutely infuriate me. All 32 teams have done these three things throughout the years and continue to do them on a weekly basis.
1. Choose to receive the ball when they win the coin toss
This absolutely chaps my hide because it’s an ego thing for teams. They want the ball first because they want to “set the tone” and have the mentality that they can take their opening drive and shove it down their opponents’ throat.
But how many times as a fan have you heard a player, coach or announcer say, “Football is a game of emotion?” Hundreds, probably. So why, oh why, do teams win the coin toss and chose to receive? If football is a game of emotion and defense is all about emotion, why not put them on the field first? They’re rested, pumped up and if they force the opponent to punt, your team not only has momentum and field position, but you also get the ball back at halftime.
I understand why teams chose to receive first; among other reasons, they believe they can get the first score and seize momentum. But even if they do score first, the opposing team still has almost four full quarters to swing momentum back in their favor and either tie or capture the lead.
One of the smartest things I saw in Week 3 come in the Dallas-Green Bay Sunday night game. Head coach Wade Phillips and his Cowboys were on the road and playing in a hostile environment. When they won the coin toss, they took advantage of a new league rule that allows teams to defer to the second half, meaning Dallas chose to get the ball at halftime. So, they put their defense on the field first, forced a fumble and eventually wound up taking a 3-0 lead. At halftime, the ‘Boys led 13-6 and had the luxury of getting the ball back in the second half. Granted they didn’t get any points in their first possession of the third quarter, but at least they had the opportunity to extend the lead. And let’s say the score was reversed and Green Bay had a 13-6 lead, at least the Cowboys would have had the chance to tie it early in the third quarter because they chose to defer to the second half. Not every team is going to force a fumble on their opponents’ first possession, but a three and out and punt can have the same affect.
If a team wins the toss, it makes little sense to receive the ball to start the game. Put your well-rested defense on the field first, get a stop, seize momentum and get the ball back first in the second half. And if the other team scores to start the game, so what? You still have an entire game to battle back.
My cohort on The Scores Report, John Paulsen, disagrees with this notion to a certain extent. He’s a Packer fan and likes to note that when Mike Holmgren coached in Green Bay, he had the first 15-20 plays scripted and his teams almost always went down the field and scored. It was demoralizing for the other team and JP brings up a good point that receiving the ball has a lot to do with the quality of your offense. Maybe one day when we’re coaching in the NFL, we can pit our philosophies against each other and see who comes out on top. (Or since neither of us is remotely close to becoming NFL coaches, we’ll have to duke it out on Madden ’09 or get a bunch of schoolyard kids together and coach them.)
2. Playing prevent defense at the end of games and first halves
This one has driven fans crazy for years. The first half or game is winding down and the defense that had been aggressive and relentless for two or four quarters starts allowing their opponent to complete underneath passes in efforts to not get burned deep for a big play. But all of a sudden, those underneath passes start to add up and the offense is now knocking on the door of a score (whether it be a field goal or touchdown).
In the Chiefs-Falcons game on Sunday, Atlanta seized a 24-0 lead with just over two minutes remaining in the first half. But instead of being aggressive like they had been for almost two quarters, they allowed Kansas City quarterback Tyler Thigpen to complete seven to 15-yard underneath passes and march the Chiefs up the field to the Atlanta 15-yard line. Thigpen then hit Dwayne Bowe for a 15-yard touchdown with only three seconds remaining in the half. While the Falcons still owned a 24-7 lead at halftime, Kansas City had taken some of the momentum back, which it turned into another score on the first possession of the second half.
Granted the Falcons still won the game handedly, but why even allow a team to have any momentum at the end of a half or even worse, at the end of game to possibly cut into a lead or win the game? Atlanta had made Thigpen uncomfortable up until that final drive of the first half by sending multiple defenders and playing press coverage. But most quarterbacks (even Thigpen) can find open receivers if a defense only rushes four down linemen and he has time in the pocket.
Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. At the end of the Eagles-Steelers game, Philadelphia, which had blitzed Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger the entire game, continued to send extra defenders at Big Ben late in the fourth quarter. The results were similar to the ones they had all game: Roethlisberger couldn’t do anything.
On a 3rd and 15 from their own 23-yard line, Roethlisberger dropped back to pass and the Eagles sent safety Brian Dawkins on a blitz. Dawkins got to Roethlisberger and stripped the ball, Philly recovered and eventually turned it into a field goal to take a 15-6 lead with less than three minutes remaining in the game. Then, on the Steelers next possession, the Eagles continued to be aggressive and while Byron Leftwich was able to complete longer passes down the field, Philly eventually sacked him for a nine-yard loss to force a 4th and 10 with only 40 seconds to play. On fourth down, Leftwich was again harassed and wound up skipping a pass incomplete to Santonio Holmes.
Most defenses are successful when they’re aggressive. And if they’re having success throughout an entire half or game being aggressive, there’s no reason they should stop being aggressive.
3. Down by 11 late in a game, going for a TD when the opportunity for a FG is present
There’s three minutes left in the fourth quarter and a team is down by 11 points. While driving into opponents’ territory, they’re stopped on third down. Now faced with a 4th and 7 from the 28-yard line, the team decides to go for it because the outdated handbook for coaching dummies says that a team should go for the touchdown first. So the team goes for it, they get stopped on fourth down and now instead of having a legitimate shot at a rally with less than three minutes to play, they kill all hopes and have to burn up their time outs in a futile attempt at a comeback.
If a team is down by 11 late in the game and they’re in field goal range, why not just kick the field goal? You need the three points no matter what. I understand that a 55-yard field goal is more likely than a “Hail Mary” pass attempt from the same distance, but you have to play the percentages at that time. The chances of making a field goal on that 4th and 7 must be better than picking up a first down. But head coaches get infatuated with the fact that they have to score a touchdown and convert a 2-point conversion, so they leave vital points on the field at the end of games. They put the field goal attempt in their back pocket, instead of just knocking it out when they have the chance.
It was a tale of two halves Monday night in Pittsburgh as the Steelers slipped past the Ravens 23-20 thanks to Josh Reed’s 46-yard field goal in overtime.
