Sunday’s opening action featured four upset wins, and a fifth unexpected blowout win, each one of which can be traced back to a decision made before the game started. Sure, the players have to make plays, but sometimes a single move made (or not made) by the coaching staff ends up having the biggest impact on the game’s outcome.
The Upset: Arizona 21, Philadelphia 17
The decision: Andy Reid benches DeSean Jackson, and tells him to “Stay home.”
Philadelphia just can’t do right. After losing 30-24 last week to the resurgent Chicago Bears, Philadelphia had squandered all of the momentum gained by its crushing victory over the Cowboys in Week 8. What can you say after this week’s upset loss?
I’m sure the Philadelphia media will come up with something.
But the decision by GM/coach Andy Reid to punish his star receiver — who just happens to be in his contract year — for missing a Saturday meeting strikes of incredible hubris. In essence, he and his team took this week for granted. Jackson didn’t care enough to show up for a final gameplanning session, and Reid didn’t care enough to smooth things over with his obstinate star receiver.
And why would they? After all, they were facing the 2-win Arizona Cardinals, a team without its starting quarterback. But that was before their backup threw three touchdowns against the Eagles’ all-star secondary. And Michael Vick, deprived of his primary weapon at WR (Jeremy Maclin, who was covered by Arizona’s one capable defensive back, Patrick Peterson), struggled to find targets all day.
Philadelphia was supposed to become a history-making dream team. Here is their legacy, after nine games:
@RoobCSN: The Eagles are the first team in NFL history to blow four fourth-quarter leads in a season at home.
The Upset: Denver 17, Kansas City 10
The decision: John Fox says “Passing doesn’t matter.”
At the 41:22 mark of the ballgame, the Denver Broncos led the Kansas City Chiefs by a score of ten to seven. And then Tim Tebow completed his first pass of the day. His second (and only other) completed pass was a 56-yard touchdown to Eric Decker that put the game in a box and nailed it shut.
Two completed passes in a division win. And this was no mud bath, no ice bowl. This was by design.
We joked last week about how Tim Tebow has turned the Broncos into the Bronko Nagurskis, but every good joke starts with a shred of the truth. Or in this case, a lot of it. Nagurski would have smiled, watching the Broncos run the ball 55 times, and attempt only 8 passes on the day.
@SC_DougFarrar: Tim Tebow has set offensive football back 100 years … and it’s working.
The Upset: Tennessee 30, Carolina 3
The decision: Mike Munchak puts his faith back in Chris Johnson.
In a way, this is the opposite of the Andy Reid-DeSean Jackson scenario. The Titans have already spent their money, signing Chris Johnson to a massive contract extension, and then watching in horror as he re-enacted Larry Johnson’s career arc. So now, Munchak and his coaching staff have to figure out how to get something out of him.
They tried force-feeding him the ball in early weeks, only to get burned. Then they decided that platooning him with Javon Ringer to keep his legs fresh might work. And Johnson’s productivity slowly rose.
This week, they went back to square one with CJ and got some of the old 2K form out of him: 27 carries for 130 yards and a touchdown. (It helps that the Carolina Panthers were playing flag football on defense.) Meanwhile, Ringer got a mere 6 carries on the day, and did basically what a backup running back should do: keep the bench warm, and owners of the other guy in fantasy happy.
The Upset: St Louis 13, Cleveland 12
The decision: Rams sign linebacker David Nixon Wednesday, and activate him Sunday.
The momentous decision that most thought would impact this game was also made on Wednesday, as the Rams activated WR Mark Clayton from the PUP and made him active. But Clayton barely made a ripple, getting targeted only twice, with one of those plays negated by penalty.
Rather, it was a little known linebacker from BYU that made the single biggest play of the game, knocking a fourth quarter punt return out of Joshua Cribbs’ hands, and setting the offensively inept Rams up with the field position they’d need to boot the go-ahead points. They would become the game-winning points when Cleveland’s own field goal attempt got stepped on — yes, stepped on — by one of their own offensive linemen.
The Blowout: Houston 37, Tampa Bay 9
The decision: Tampa Bay signs Albert Haynesworth, and starts him.
It’s not really fair to hold this against Tampa, who lost Gerald McCoy for the season with a torn bicep and needed to do something. But in a one-game microcosm of his lack of impact in the NFL now, the Bucs surrendered 183 yards rushing.
Houston kept the game simple in Tampa’s stadium: line up and run the ball right down the Bucs’ throat. It’s a textbook technique against the cover two defense and its emphasis on smaller defenders, but that’s where the massive Haynesworth was supposed to make a difference.
Well, so much for that.
