Steelers coaches botched the final drive vs. the Patriots

The New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers were on their way to an instant classic in Week 15. Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski bullied their way to a late touchdown drive, going up, 27-24, with less than a minute left. But JuJu Smith-Schuster broke free for a 69-yard catch-and-run to get the Steelers in scoring range. It seemed like we were in for a memorable finish.

Well ... it was certainly memorable, for all the wrong reasons. Jesse James appeared to haul in the go-ahead touchdown, but the NFL’s infamous catch rule came into play once again. As stupid and backward as the rule is, the officials got it right, for better or worse. James’ touchdown was overturned, and Pittsburgh had to start over with 28 seconds left and no timeouts.

Despite getting screwed by the catch rule, the Steelers still had 10 yards to go and time to run a couple of plays. This is the part where they beat themselves. On the next play, Ben Roethlisberger threw a limp out pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey, who only managed 3 yards and couldn’t even get out of bounds. The seconds ticked down as Pittsburgh scrambled to the line.

The team’s panic stuck out like a sore thumb given how much time they had to discuss their next move. Via PFT:

A full three minutes and 20 seconds elapsed from the moment James supposedly scored to the moment Tony Corrente explained that the ruling on the field had been overturned. That’s more than enough time for the offense to huddle and to discuss in clear, certain terms what would happen if, for example, the second-down play resulted in the clock ticking after a tackle.

At this point, the entire drive fell apart. Roethlisberger wanted to spike the ball, even though it would’ve left them with fourth down and almost no choice but to kick the field goal. Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Todd Haley wanted their quarterback to simply run a play, but Roethlisberger tried a really half-hearted fake spike before forcing the ball to a double-covered Eli Rogers:

The miscommunication is obvious. Nobody knows what’s going on — the offensive line isn’t even blocking, while the receivers don’t run routes. (Perhaps they could’ve drawn some defenders away from Rogers if they went full speed). It was a complete disaster that ended the only way it could.

Also, why are you calling a short slant at the goal line against the Patriots? Haven’t we seen this movie before?

At any rate, the Patriots all but clinched the No. 1 seed with this win. The Steelers’ best-case scenario will be to secure a first-round bye and hope Antonio Brown is ready to go for the Divisional round. They remain a supremely talented team that can make a Super Bowl run, but a breakdown like this didn’t need to happen. They’ll have to be sharper than that, especially if they meet the Patriots in January again.

So with the biggest blunder out of the way, let’s check out some other coaching mistakes in Week 15.

The Seattle Seahawks got humiliated like we’ve never seen before in the Carroll era. The Los Angeles Rams strolled into CenturyLink Field and stomped a mudhole in the Seahawks, 42-7, all but securing the NFC West and putting Seattle’s playoff hopes on thin ice.

The game was essentially over at halftime, with the Rams holding a 34-0 lead and boos raining down upon the home team. Despite Wilson eating seven sacks and getting banged around all day, the Seahawks took way too long to remove him in the fourth quarter, even as the Rams pulled their starters.

Why did Wilson stay in the game as long as he did?

Oh, cool. Glad to know the head coach isn’t sure what’s going on, either.

With the Atlanta Falcons winning Monday night, next week’s Seahawks/Dallas Cowboys matchup is an elimination game. Good thing the Seahawks don’t have to worry about Ezekiel Elliott’s impending return! Especially after giving up four touchdowns and 180 total yards to Todd Gurley!

The Chicago Bears entered Week 15 at 4-9 and just playing out the string. Not many people expected them to give the Detroit Lions a serious game, but they were still hanging around in the second quarter with a 6-0 deficit.

Facing fourth-and-1 from the 45-yard line, Fox decided to punt instead of going for it, despite having one of the league’s best runners in Jordan Howard. The Lions scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive, going up 13-0 and essentially putting it away early.

Fox defended the punt with the timeless “field position” excuse, via ESPN.

“Yeah, you do got something to lose, that’s called field position,” Fox said after the Bears fell 20-10 to the Lions. “We failed to have that much of the day, largely to some of our inability to move the ball, in particularly the first half. I think, sure, you can go for that, but it can bite you too.”

Playing not to lose is one of the many reasons why the Bears are 4-10 and possibly looking for a new coach in a few weeks.

To the surprise of nobody, the Cleveland Browns got boatraced by the Baltimore Ravens and fell to 0-14. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams caught a lot of grief for his painful play calls on defense, including how the Browns were set up to just let Joe Flacco stroll into the end zone for a rushing touchdown.

Adam Stites goes into more detail here, including Williams’, uh, reasoning:

I’m sure that went over well in the locker room, especially after the new general manager buried them for not being “real players.”