The NFL’s decision to move the touchback from the 30 to the 35 continues to create some crazy end of game situations. And some interesting late-game decisions.
Two weeks after the Cowboys made the wrong decision to put the kickoff into the end zone and concede the 35 against the Ravens in Rio, the Eagles made the wrong decision to put the ball in play against the Jaguars in London.
With eight seconds left after a 48-yard field goal put the Eagles ahead 17-16, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni opted to kick the ball into the landing zone.
Jaguars running back Ameer Abdullah caught the ball at the eight and returned it 53 yards in seven seconds. And a 57-yard field goal from Cam Little gave Jacksonville the win.
After the game, Sirianni took the blame for the loss.
“You know, the guys fought so hard, and then I don’t make the decision that, you know, that I should make at the end of the game, and I cost us that game, and I put that fully on me,” Sirianni told reporters. “At the end of the day, I didn’t make the right decision and it cost us the game. You know, and so there’s no other way around it. There’s nothing really else to say about that. It’s just, you know, I didn’t do my job good enough in that situation.”
Sirianni was asked whether he watched the end of the Ravens-Cowboys game and other games with key decisions to make as to the strategy of the kickoff.
“Yeah, I watched a ton of those,” Sirianni said. “I watch a ton of those situations. You know, obviously we had one against Tennessee. I watched a ton of those situations after that Dallas game, and again, just didn’t make the right decision in this particular case.”
Sirianni said the decision will stick with him the same way late-game mistakes that he made as a player have lingered in his memories.
“It’s just like you would feel if you missed a free throw at the end of the game, or if you had a drop,” Sirianni said. “I’ve been in both of those places. And those ones stick with you, and that will stick with me for a long time. All I know is that I’ll work my butt off to get better from it. But, yeah, that one will hurt for a long time. I still think about those other things that have, I’ve lost games for us in the past as far as, you know, when I played.”
Here’s the key in this case. The Jaguars, unlike the Ravens, didn’t have a timeout in their pocket. It would have been much easier for Philly to defend the sidelines in the area of Cam Little’s maximum range.
And Sirianni knows it. If nothing else, his mistake provides further guidance to everyone else as to the touchback/no touchback decision in the final seconds of a half or a game.
Here’s the obvious lesson: If the team that will be receiving the ball doesn’t have a timeout left, put it in the end zone.