Ranking the 9 dumbest mistakes in an entertaining as hell NFL Week 9

The Dolphins won. The Patriots lost. The Browns are ... still the Browns. Week 9 kept us entertained, to say the least. It was also full of very questionable decisions.

It all started on Thursday night, when Kliff Kingsbury essentially iced his own defense. Right before halftime, the 49ers faced a fourth-and-goal, and the Cardinals sniffed the play out and got the stop — but it was negated by Kingsbury calling a timeout. The 49ers scored on their second chance and took a 21-7 lead into halftime. They would go on to beat the Cardinals, 28-25.

Kingsbury’s SNAFU served as a precursor to what Sunday would bring. Pete Carroll left the Seahawks with just one timeout on their final drive, which ended in a missed field goal attempt to send the game to overtime.

Mike Tomlin burned two timeouts on pass interference challenges in the final three minutes of a tight game against the Colts. Fortunately for Tomlin, Adam Vinatieri’s botched 43-yard field goal allowed the Steelers to escape with a 26-24 win.

Like the Seahawks and Steelers, the Raiders’ timeout misuse didn’t end up costing them a win, though it easily could’ve. The Lions, who were out of timeouts and down by seven, were rushing to get lined up on fourth-and-goal as the clock was winding down. Jon Gruden then bailed them out, at least temporarily, by calling a timeout with eight seconds remaining. Luckily for the Raiders, the Lions’ fourth-down play was truly awful.

Then there’s the Browns, who used up all their timeouts with 3:23 left in the game, leaving them with no chance to stop the clock on the Broncos’ last game-clinching possession.

For those counting, that’s five dumb mistakes all related to timeouts — and we haven’t gotten to this week’s actual rankings yet.

On that note, let’s get to it.

The Dolphins won a real football game, and we’re very proud of them for that. That doesn’t mean they’re getting let off the hook here. Not when one of their players butt-tackles his own teammate:

That’s center Evan Boehm getting pushed back into running back Mark Walton for a 5-yard loss on third-and-goal. If the Dolphins had lost, this is the play you’d point to as evidence of them tanking (they still are, though).

Instead, it was the Jets who lost in embarrassing fashion, but at least for once, they weren’t on the wrong end of a butt play.

Trey Edmunds’ run from the Pittsburgh 1-yard line seemed to free the Steelers from the danger of a safety in the third quarter of their showdown with the Colts. Rudolph’s five-step drop out of a shotgun snap put him right back in the eye of that hurricane.

That long drop, combined with his lack of awareness, led to an ill-advised pump-fake and a strip-sack for Justin Houston. While the Colts weren’t able to jump on the ball, it still led to a safety and two points for Indianapolis.

Kirk Cousins had a bad day in Kansas City. While his last four weeks had seen him emerge as an MVP candidate, the Chiefs’ revamped pass rush found a way to pressure him into mistakes all afternoon. And at no point was this more evident than when guard Pat Elflein got so thoroughly overpowered by Pro Bowler Chris Jones that he got thrown backward with enough force to sack his own QB.

That wasn’t the only lowlight for Cousins, either.

Cousins is 31 years old. He’s in his eighth season in the NFL. He’s played in 87 games during the regular season. He should know every single rule of playing quarterback.

And yet, he did this on third-and-6:

When a quarterback slides, the ball is spotted where he begins that slide. This is not new info! Cousins should absolutely know this.

So rather than Cousins picking up a first down that was right there for the taking, the Vikings punted. The Chiefs scored a field goal on the ensuing possession of a game they won by, wouldn’t you know it, a field goal.

The Steelers’ attempt to get a quick five yards before setting up a Hail Mary at the end of the first half looked like a failure at first glance. Vance McDonald was unable to get out of bounds at the tail end of his quick out, leaving a timeout-less Pittsburgh team to watch the clock run out on the second quarter with no recourse.

Then All-Pro linebacker Darius Leonard lowered his head to blast a player three of his teammates had already wrapped up.

The unnecessary roughness penalty that ensued gave Pittsburgh 15 free yards and an untimed down. The Steelers used this extra opportunity to try a 51-yard Chris Boswell field goal — and went into the locker room down 16-13 instead of 16-10.

Somehow, this wasn’t the only 15-yard roughness penalty Leonard would earn Sunday. His late hit on JuJu Smith-Schuster pushed the Steelers into field-goal range one quarter later. Pittsburgh turned that into a McDonald touchdown reception and a lead moments afterward.

The NFL rulebook was changed in 2018 to add a section that made it illegal when a player “lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent.”

That’s most certainly not what Jaguars defensive end Calais Campbell did when he tried to tackle the Texans’ elusive quarterback, Deshaun Watson.

Aside from the fact Campbell’s helmet wasn’t close to contacting Watson, it’s tough to imagine how the Jaguars’ gigantic defensive end is supposed to make any tackle without lowering his head. He’s 6’8 and, on that particular play, he was trying to get low enough to avoid Watson ducking under his tackle attempt.

The penalty moved the Texans into Jaguars territory, but Campbell got his revenge later in the drive with a sack that forced a field goal. Fortunately for the Jaguars, the officials didn’t throw a phantom personal foul call on that one.

The Browns went 0-for-2 on fourth down in their 24-19 loss to the Broncos. Both came at critical times, when a touchdown would’ve given them a lead.

The first wasn’t really their fault. They ran a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 at the Denver 5 and Baker Mayfield looked like he picked it up:

However, the refs gave him a terrible spot, and despite a Freddie Kitchens challenge, the Browns turned it over on downs.

The second time was on their last drive of the game. After Nick Chubb was dropped for a loss on third-and-1, the Browns faced fourth-and-4 with the game on the line. Mayfield threw the ball late to a covered Jarvis Landry when Odell Beckham had Chris Harris beat on the outside:

Aaaand that’s how Cleveland lost its fourth straight game.

Darnold missed three games due to mono earlier in the season and he’s still the NFL leader in red zone interceptions with four. You’d think after being picked off three times with a chance to score, he’d start being a little more careful. Nope! His fourth was the worst one yet.

After rolling to his left, Darnold had to deal with Dolphins linebacker Raekwon McMillan, who screamed through the middle of the offensive line and into the backfield. For some reason, Darnold thought that was the right time to lob a ball up for grabs as he was being swung down by McMillan. It wasn’t a good idea at all.

Rolling Darnold to his left instead of running the ball with Le’Veon Bell is a questionable call too, but it’s on the quarterback to not turn the play into a disaster.

The decent-ish news for Darnold was the Jets’ defense got a safety on the very next play. New York got the ball back and Darnold led the team into range for a 52-yard field goal for Sam Ficken just before halftime. Just like that, the Jets salvaged five points out of Darnold’s horrendous interception. Still, the Jets’ second-year quarterback has to stop self-destructing in the red zone, at some point.

Once upon a time, Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston escaped pressure, then slipped, flailed, and launched a fumble in the wrong direction during the 2015 Rose Bowl. It was scooped up by Oregon defensive lineman Tony Washington, who returned it for a touchdown as part of a 59-20 win for the Ducks.

Less than four months later, Winston was picked No. 1 overall by the Buccaneers. Now — nearly five years after that hilarious Rose Bowl blooper — Winston is still the same guy. He’s one of the most turnover-prone quarterbacks in the NFL, and still very capable of tossing a ball in the wrong direction without any contact from a defender.

The Seahawks picked up the fumble and returned it 36 yards. A few plays later, Jason Myers kicked a 22-yard field goal that gave Seattle its first lead of the day.

Winston also had over 300 passing yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions against the Seahawks. But random and silly turnovers are part of his game and probably always will be.