Another day, another coaching blunder keeps a smaller team from upsetting a member of the NFL elite.
On Thursday, it was Bears coach Matt Eberflus who squandered a chance to force overtime against the one-loss Lions. On Friday, Raiders coach Antonio Pierce mismanaged an opportunity to upend the two-defense (and also one-loss) Chiefs.
The trouble started for the Raiders when Pierce burned a timeout due to indecision with 2:21 to play. After dispatching the punt team while facing fourth-and-11 from the Chiefs’ 40 and trailing by two points, Pierce changed his mind. So he called a timeout and opted for a 58-yard field goal attempt by Daniel Carlson. The stairs were not good.
To their credit, the Raiders forced the Chiefs to punt. Las Vegas got the ball back at their eight-yard line with 1:56 left. And they put the ball in position for another attempt to win the game.
Things went sideways when quarterback Aidan O’Connell completed a seven-yard pass to running back Ameer Abdullah. It put the ball at the KC 32.
Out of timeouts (thanks to the ones they wasted), quarterback Aidan O’Connell rushed to the line and spiked the ball with 15 seconds to play.
That was the mistake that denied the Raiders the chance to win. They could have gotten the clock back to three or four seconds before the click and peak. That approach would have ensured that the Chiefs would not have had any chance to get into position for a game-winning field goal attempt of their own.
Then came the mistake that compounded the first. Instead of attempting a 50-yard field goal, the Raiders made another play. The pop came early, O’Connell failed to catch it and the Chiefs recovered. Game over.
After the game was over, Pierce explained the reason for the final failed play.
“We wanted to snap the ball and basically just throw the ball out of bounds and just – the ball is on the 32-yard line. We were going to kill four or five more seconds and kick a 49-yard field goal,” Pierce told reporters.
Later at the press conference, he was pressed again about that decision.
“Yes, I answered that a minute ago,” Pierce said. “I was just trying to throw the ball away… So we were going to throw the ball away, waste another four or five seconds and score a field goal.”
The explanation makes no sense. They could have wasted as many seconds as they wanted before O’Connell clocked the ball on the previous play.
It’s another failure of situational football. In the moments after Abdullah was tackled at the 32 with a ticking clock, O’Connell had to know the strategy at that moment was to use as much of the clock as possible so Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes wouldn’t have a chance. to do Mahome’s things.
After the ball was spiked, the Raiders decided to narrow Mahomes’ window by burning four or five more seconds. And look what happened.
While it’s different from the fiasco at the end of the Bears-Lions game, there is a common thread. Coaches and players must be prepared for any situation. They need to think clearly and decisively when it comes to clock management.
The final play, which became the decisive turnover, wasn’t necessary if O’Connell had the presence of mind to step on the ball, milk the clock and give him just enough time to attempt the field goal. That’s honestly Pierce’s fault for not having O’Connell ready to do what needed to be done in the most important moment of the game.
