The early theme of last week’s games was a plague of missed field goals. In Week 5, it’s teams blowing games when they seemingly have the win in hand. Let’s relive their misery.
NFL teams are blowing double-digit leads all over the place in Week 5
Inexplicable offensive meltdowns are this week’s terrible NFL trend.
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Final score: Bengals 27, Seahawks 24 (OT)
What happened: The Seahawks' offense switched off. They took a 17-point lead after Bobby Wagner returned a Rex Burkhead fumble 23 yards for a touchdown, a score they needed because their offense had already bogged down. After scoring on a 69-yard Thomas Rawls run midway through the third quarter, the Seahawks ran 25 plays for 53 yards the rest of the game. That would be fine if the Bengals offense didn't suddenly switch on, but after seven possessions of punt-punt-interception-punt-fumble-punt-punt, they went touchdown-touchdown-field goal-punt-field goal -- the last score a game winner in overtime.
The 17 points #Seahawks allowed in fourth quarter tied for second most team has given up in a final period under coach Pete Carroll.
— Danny O'Neil (@dannyoneil) October 11, 2015 Final score: Bears 18, Chiefs 17
What happened: Again, the Chiefs' offense shut down. Kansas City's first three possessions in the fourth quarter all resulted in three-and-outs, all ending in Alex Smith incompletions. And again, the Chiefs' defense relented, giving up two long touchdowns drives -- 11 plays for 88 yards, and eight plays for 67 yards -- in the final five minutes of regulation, including this fumbled snap-turned-Jay Cutler touchdown pass that proved to be the game winner.
Even then, the Chiefs could have won if not for special teams. You can forgive Cairo Santos for coming up short on a 66-yard field attempt as the game expired. A blocked 27-yard attempt in the third quarter falls squarely on the Chiefs' shoulders, however.
Final score: Browns 33, Ravens 30 (OT)
What happened: A 12-point lead in the third quarter doesn’t constitute a beatdown-in-progress, but the Ravens appeared to be in fine shape after holding the Browns to punts on four of their first seven possessions, and field goals on the rest. To that point, the Browns had 205 yards of offense for the game, putting them on pace for roughly 330 for the game.
The Browns nearly reached that total with 284 yards over the remaining 23-ish minutes of regulation. They scored methodically, with a 13-play, 75-yard that featured four third-down conversions. They scored quickly, with a four-play, 75-yard drive aided by passes of 56 yards to Taylor Gabriel and 18 yards (and a score) to Gary Barnidge.
By overtime, momentum had flipped, and a Ravens three-and-out followed by a Browns 51-yard drive and game-winning field goal -- a DOINK field goal too -- seemed inevitable.
SB Nation presents:
Final score: Bills 14, Titans 13
What happened: Buffalo’s offense had been horrendous for most of the game. Until they finally put together an 80-yard drive to get on the board with a touchdown, they had 57 yards of total offense with no offensive turnovers -- just a steady stream of punts.
Tyrod Taylor’s legs saved the Bills. On the Bills’ first touchdown drive, he ran for 26 yards on a third-and-4 and another 22 yards to make the score 10-7. On the Bills’ second, he gained another 24 yards rushing on a third-and-23 (!) before capping the drive with short touchdown pass to Chris Hogan. Rex Ryan’s defense allowed just 17 yards and forced a pick on the Titans’ last two possessions, and that was that.
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