Jason Garrett left Aaron Rodgers too much time. Why would any coach do that?

The Dallas Cowboys entered Week 5 in a bit of a tough spot. They were 2-2, haven’t really played up to their potential yet, and could’ve used a strong, signature win to stay in the thick of the NFC playoff race.

The Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers are always a formidable opponent, but the Cowboys were doing pretty well in Sunday’s game, jumping out to a 21-6 lead in the second quarter. But Rodgers did what he normally does, which is chip away at the deficit until the Packers had a 28-24 lead with 9:56 left in the fourth quarter.

Despite blowing a massive lead, the Cowboys seemingly had the upper hand anyway. All they had to do was use Ezekiel Elliott and their elite offensive line to grind out a slow scoring drive, leaving as little time as possible for Rodgers. This plan was going swimmingly, with the team driving down to the Packers’ 11-yard line with less than two minutes left.

Facing second-and-2, the plan should be simple, right? Pound Zeke up the gut and keep doing it until they reach the end zone. Instead, Jason Garrett committed the biggest coaching mistake of Week 5: He dialed up a pass play.

Dak Prescott missed Dez Bryant on the play, stopping the clock at 1:24. Instead of running Zeke and draining another 30+ seconds off the clock, the Cowboys gave Green Bay a free timeout. Granted, Prescott did score on the next play with a quarterback keeper, but the damage was done. Rodgers had exactly as much time as he needed to make the game-winning comeback.

Garrett tried to defend the call, but there’s really no defending putting the ball back in Rodgers’ hands and letting him do pretty much the exact thing he did last time he played at AT&T Stadium.

Now the Cowboys are facing a legitimate crossroads on their season. They slumped to 2-3, falling way behind the 4-1 Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East race. Prescott and Elliott haven’t been quite as electric as they were in their rookie seasons, and Zeke might still end up serving his six-game suspension this season. The defense dearly misses Sean Lee, who sat his second straight game with a hamstring injury.

The Cowboys now head into their Week 6 bye and Garrett needs to go back to the drawing board, because his team’s season is dangerously close to going off the rails. There are some real cracks on this roster, and dropping a winnable game to the Packers will only widen them.

So congratulations to Jason Garrett for the biggest coaching blunder of Week 5, but he was hardly the only one. Let’s take our weekly walk of shame.

The Indianapolis Colts got a hard-fought overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers, but, gosh almighty, did Pagano try his best to blow this.

1) The 49ers set up a field goal at the end of the first half. Pagano called a timeout at the snap, because “icing the kicker” is the dirt-worst football trend that refuses to die. At least it backfired this time, with Phil Dawson doinking his first attempt and making it the second time. So Pagano handed the 49ers three free points, in case you’re wondering how this game got to overtime.

2) This game never should’ve gotten to OT in the first place. I’ll let Stampede Blue take it away.

On top of the disastrous performance from the defense in the fourth quarter, Pagano also demonstrated very poor time and game management skills. Late in the fourth quarter, with the 49ers down by seven and in the red zone, Pagano failed to leave any time on the clock for the Colts to drive down the field and potentially get a field goal to win in regulation. Pagano let the clock run down an additional 40 seconds, called a timeout, the 49ers scored and it left the Colts with no time to work with. They ended up taking a knee and had no chance to go down the field in regulation.

The Oakland Raiders were in a rough spot, missing Derek Carr and scrapping with the Baltimore Ravens in a game they were playing from behind most of the time. Instead of showing any fight or killer instinct, Del Rio opted to surrender. He punted at fourth-and-3 from the Ravens’ 44-yard line, and y’all know how much punting from enemy territory gets me worked up. Doing it when the Raiders still had a chance, down 10 points, is base cowardice.

This was supposed to be a dream season for Raiders fans, but instead, they’re finding out why Del Rio was such an uninspired hire in the first place. At 2-3, their playoff hopes are suddenly hanging by a thread.

What the hell was that, Pittsburgh Steelers? They barely showed up in a 30-9 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, with Ben Roethlisberger throwing five picks and the defense getting gashed by Leonard Fournette. Tomlin laid the groundwork for the collapse early, blazing through both of his challenges before even getting a chance to see the replay, and costing himself timeouts in the process.

First he challenged a clear first down by the Jaguars, for no real reason. Then it got worse. A pass to Antonio Brown bounced before he caught it, and Tomlin challenged it seconds after it was ruled incomplete. Surprise, both calls were upheld.

Between the impulse challenges and Roethlisberger openly wondering how much he has left, this Steelers team sure reeks of desperation despite a 3-2 start. I don’t know how a team with Le’Veon Bell, Brown, and proud playoff expectations can look this rudderless, but here we are. With a road trip to Kansas City looming, things could get worse before they get better.