Against all odds, the Tennessee Titans had a chance to beat the Philadelphia Eagles late in the 4th quarter. Jeffery Simmons got pressure on Jalen Hurts and forced an underthrow on what would probably have been a Devonta Smith touchdown. The ball was picked off by Marcus Harris. That gave the Titans the ball at their own 17-yard line with 6:00 left to play in a tie game.
The drive started off perfectly. Tony Pollard ripped off back-to-back 9-yard runs, followed by a 41-yard pass from Cam Ward to Elic
Ayomanor. The drive stalled a bit with a holding penalty, a negative run, and an illegal formation penalty. A short pass set up 3rd and 22 from the Eagles’ 36-yard line. At this point, I’m thinking the Titans are just going to hand it off again and attempt a field goal.
Well, they did just hand it off, but Tyjae Spears ripped off a 27-yard run to set up 1st and goal from the 9-yard line with 2:37 left. The Eagles had two timeouts remaining. The smart thing to do here, as Austin Stanley detailed here, would have been to hand it off on first down. You don’t really want to score on the first play because then you have to kick the ball back to the Eagles with them having two timeouts and the two-minute warning. Why not hand it off on first and second down? That would force the Eagles to use both of their timeouts and still give you a third down with a shot to take the lead.
Instead, Brian Daboll called a bootleg that ended in a sack back at the 18-yard line. JC Latham whiffed on Jalen Carter, who had apparently picked up a tell from Ward when watching tape:
Now, if Latham makes his block and the Titans score a touchdown on the play, no one would be complaining today, even if the Eagles did end up getting a touchdown when they got the ball back, but it sure seems like Daboll called the wrong play here.
What do you think? Is this just a case of hindsight being 20/20, or did Daboll mess up by calling that play?
