DENVER (AP) — Coaches always preach about putting their players in the best position to succeed. Several fell short of that mantra in Week 5 and instead led their teams to disheartening defeats.
Backfires burned some of the NFL's most accomplished leaders: The two men who hoisted the most recent Super Bowl trophies — Nick Sirianni and Mike Macdonald — and two-time head coaches Dan Quinn and Jim Harbaugh.
Together, that foursome has won 234 NFL games
and has a combined .624 winning percentage. And yet they created openings for opponents to capitalize on their miscalculations or miscues.
In Washington, the Commanders inexplicably ran the clock out on themselves in field-goal range and had to settle for a tie against the Giants, falling to 1-3-1.
Both the Giants and Commanders had chances to run the clock down and kick a field goal to win in overtime. New York was in position with 2 minutes remaining to try a 42-yarder. But Dominic Zvada had already missed from 50, 57 and 46 yards, so coach John Harbaugh wanted to get it closer. However, Cam Skattebo fumbled, giving Washington an opportunity.
Jayden Daniels drove the Commanders to the Giants 26. On first down, Rachaad White ran 2 yards and was tackled with just under 50 seconds to go. Instead of spiking the ball to stop the clock and kicking, the Commanders huddled.
Daniels went to the line of scrimmage with around 20 seconds remaining and snapped the ball with 12 seconds to go. He didn’t spike it or throw it out of bounds. Daniels ran, got tackled and was slow to get up, leaving Washington no time for a field-goal attempt as Quinn threw his headset in disgust.
Quinn accepted the blame, saying, "The sequencing of that does not fall on (Daniels). It’s an outside throw or a clock — an out of bounds throw, or a clock. That has to come from me. I have to put him in that spot. I can do that earlier and we can finish the kick earlier. We don’t need to gain more yards.”
The 49ers scored on first-half drives of 11 yards and 18 yards after turnovers by Seattle and extended the lead to 21-13 at halftime when the Seahawks’ decision to use timeouts on defense to get the ball back late in the half backfired.
The Seahawks took over on their 4 with 18 seconds left and San Francisco holding three timeouts. Gracen Halton then stripped running back George Holani on the first play and recovered the fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.
"We want to stay aggressive,” Macdonald said. “We got to be able to execute our run game and hold onto the football.”
The Niners went on to win 32-29, improving to 5-0. The Seahawks have a short week to recover. A loss at Denver on Thursday night would send them to 3-3 a year after they went 17-3.
Sirianni’s depleted Eagles gave away an improbable victory over the Jaguars despite kicking the go-ahead field goal with 8 seconds left.
Jacksonville had no timeouts remaining, so Philadelphia should have kicked the ball into the end zone for a touchback and forced the Jaguars to run a play from the 35 — needing about 25 yards to get in field-goal position.
Instead, Jake Elliott kept the ball in play and Ameer Abdullah returned it 53 yards against a unit that allowed a touchdown on the opening kick that was negated by penalty. Abdullah was tackled at the Philadelphia 39 with a second to go, giving Cam Little an opportunity to drill a 57-yarder for a 19-17 victory.
“I lost us that game,” Sirianni said. “And that’s what I said to our guys. And what hurts there is that the guys fought so hard and then I don’t make the decision that I should make at the end of the game and I cost us that game and I put that fully on me.”
The Eagles should have been in position to kick the winning goal as time expired, but the offense mismanaged the sequence leading up to Elliott’s 48-yard attempt, leaving the Jaguars and Little just enough time to snare the win.
Jim Harbaugh committed a game-turning gaffe that sent the Chargers tumbling to 0-5 following back-to-back 11-win seasons that had many predicting Los Angeles' first AFC West crown since 2009.
The Chargers were leading Denver 17-10 when Harbaugh went for it on fourth-and-1 at his own 41 with 10 1/2 minutes remaining in an ugly game where the Broncos' offense was even worse than LA's.
Que Robinson stuffed Justin Herbert shy of the first-down marker and the Broncos quickly capitalized on the great field position to tie the game on Bo Nix's 5-yard touchdown throw to Courtland Sutton.
A rattled Herbert turned the ball over in his own territory on the Chargers' next two possessions, leading to a pair of field goals by Wil Lutz and Herbert was sacked by Ja'Quan McMillian before he could get off a Hail Mary on the game's final play.
Electing not to punt from his own 41 “was the wrong decision," said Harbaugh. "I can’t think of a time I’ve ever been more mad at myself. This team works so hard, played so valiantly, and I take 100% accountability for making that decision. It turned the momentum of the game.
"I did not put our players, our team or our organization in the best position to win that game.”
He wasn't alone on a weekend filled with gambles that didn't pay off.
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With contributions from AP Pro Football Writers Rob Maaddi and Josh Dubow and AP Sports Writers Beth Harris and Anne M. Peterson.
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Behind the Call analyzes the biggest decisions in the NFL during the season.
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