Week 5 of the NFL season was filled with a lot of close, exciting games. It was also filled with a number of pretty egregious gaffes and blunders.
Of course, we can’t look beyond what happened with Green Bay Packers kicker Mason Crosby. The Oakland Raiders won their first game of the year in Week 4, but supplied three of the most embarrassing blunders from Week 5.
Meanwhile, quarterbacks like Blake Bortles, Ryan Tannehill and Joe Flacco all had days that will be remembered for the wrong reasons.
The week featured no shortage of blunders. These were the 10 most embarrassing that we saw.
Mason Crosby and his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day
Crosby’s game against the Detroit Lions was difficult to watch. Green Bay’s kicker missed three field goals in the first half alone. He added another missed field goal and a missed PAT after halftime.
Making matters worse is that the game was played in a dome. So, we can’t even give a little bit of blame to any weather conditions that might have made kicking more difficult. The settings were absolutely ideal. But for all intents and purposes, the veteran kicker just had the yips.
It was a day that Crosby would certainly like to forget. Unfortunately, we suspect that it won’t be that easy.
Blake Bortles makes highlight reel for all the wrong reasons
Bortles threw four interceptions as his Jacksonville Jaguars were handily defeated by the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. Two of those picks stand out above the others.
One came on a screen attempt gone horribly awry. Bortles was first intercepted by Chris Jones. Then, when Bortles tried to tackle him, Jones juked Bortles out of his shoes. It’s worth mentioning here that Jones is a defensive lineman listed at over 300 pounds. Our next highlight (or lowlight) reel interception came as Jacksonville was nearing a score. Bortles threw an interception that first banked right off of the head of A.J. Cann, his own lineman. Bortles was under pressure but he got the ball away before he was hit.
Bortles’ bad day certainly didn’t go unnoticed. And while these blunders probably won’t be remembered quite like Mark Sanchez’s infamous “Butt Fumble,” they won’t soon be forgotten, either.
Raiders get trolled by Philip Rivers mid-snap count
Sunday was rough on the Raiders, who lost to the Los Angeles Chargers in a game that really wasn’t as close the even the lopsided 26-10 final would indicate.
But the really embarrassing part came when, during one of his snap counts, Philip Rivers outwardly mocked the Raiders.
It’s not that Rivers was wrong. He passed for 339 yards and the Chargers racked up 412 total yards. But when things are so bad that even the opposing quarterback takes a break from his pre-snap duties to call you out, it’s a bleak situation.
Ryan Tannehill absolutely melts down in Cincinnati
Entering the fourth quarter on Sunday, Tannehill was 12-for-20 for 114 yards with a touchdown, no interceptions and a 92.5 passer rating. It wasn’t a legendary game, by any means. But it was good enough to help his Miami Dolphins to a 17-3 lead over the Cincinnati Bengals. Then, the fourth quarter happened.
Cincinnati’s offense scored only 10 points in the fourth quarter and was actually out gained by Miami. Yet, the Bengals not only overcame the 14-point deficit, but actually won by 10 points. How does that happen? Well, Tannehill threw two interceptions and lost one fumble. Two of those three turnovers resulted in defensive touchdowns. That’s how.
It was a complete and utter meltdown. You might live with that from a rookie. But a quarterback in his seventh year needs to be a lot better than that.
Broncos hapless against Isaiah Crowell and Bilal Powell
Crowell and Powell are decent backs for the New York Jets. But neither is a star or really, anything close. That said, if your only experience watching them came in Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they’re both headed to the Hall of Fame.
Crowell carried the ball only 15 times, but went for 219 yards. That 14.6 yards per carry average was certainly aided by a 77-yard touchdown run (see here). But even if we remove that run from the record, he still went for better than 10 yards a pop. Powell wasn’t quite as spectacular, but rushed for a solid 99 yards on 20 carries.
Mind you, this is a duo that had combined for 174 yards on for 59 carries over the previous three weeks. And we certainly can’t say that Denver was just focused on defending the pass. This defense had a disastrous day on Sunday and could well be in a lot of trouble going forward.
Bruce Irvin makes inexplicable mistake before halftime
Philip Rivers trolled the Oakland defense on Sunday. Plays like this show why this is such an easy target. Ahead 17-3 at the end of the first half, Rivers attempted a Hail Mary from midfield that fell incomplete. Only, Irvin gave Los Angeles one untimed down with a roughing the passer penalty.
And this wasn’t one of these cheap roughing the passer penalties that we’ve seen so much of in 2018. Irvin had plenty of time to stop himself (or at least slow himself down) after Rivers released the ball. But he opted to go in hard, hitting Rivers near the head. This could not have been more blatant.
That set the Chargers up for a 48-yard field goal. Irvin got bailed out when Caleb Sturgis missed the kick. But that doesn’t change how big of a blunder the play was. Plays like this perfectly explain why the Raiders are 1-4.
Ravens think Joe Flacco is elite
As a team, the Baltimore Ravens ran the ball relatively well against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. They didn’t quite match what the Jets did against the Broncos. But Alex Collins ran for 4.9 yards a carry while Javorius Allen went for 4.3. As a team, Baltimore rushed for 116 yards on 25 carries. That’s not spectacular. But it’s effective.
So, good luck figuring out why the Ravens had Flacco attempt 56 passes. This was despite him getting sacked twice and hit eight times.
Mind you, Cleveland never led by more than six points. Unless the game is a blowout, there’s no reason to throw that much. That applies to guys like Drew Brees and Tom Brady. It certainly applies to Flacco.
Titans can’t match Buffalo’s mediocre offense
Josh Allen did have a nice touchdown run on Sunday (see here). But he was 10-for-19 with 82 yards passing and an interception. LeSean McCoy rushed for only 3.5 yards a carry. The Buffalo Bills scored 13 points. Amazingly, that was good enough to beat the Tennessee Titans, who were 3-1 coming into the game.
Marcus Mariota was dreadful, going 14-for-26 for 129 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. Derrick Henry went for a solid 5.1 yards per carry, but only had 11 attempts.
This is a game that Tennessee should have not only won, but won convincingly. Instead, the Titans gave a rather embarrassing effort in defeat.
Raiders goal line pass
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A team with Marshawn Lynch gets down to the goal line. Rather than hand the ball to Lynch, the team opts to throw it. The pass results in an interception. We saw that in Super Bowl XLIX and we saw it on Sunday. The stakes weren’t as high. But the blunder was just as bad.
First of all, running the ball is always the best play in that situation. Your offensive line should be good enough to get one yard for your running back. That’s on the coaches for calling this play. But Derek Carr isn’t blameless in this one, either. This was first down. If the pass wasn’t there, throwing the ball into the stands was always an option.
Not only did Carr not throw the ball away, but he threw it into ample traffic. The defense has been beaten up a lot this year (and this week), and rightfully so. But the offense has not exactly helped matters.
Jason Garrett strikes the final blow in the blunder bowl
For the second week in a row, the Houston Texans were significantly aided by a blunder from the opposing head coach. In Week 4, Indianapolis Colts’ coach Frank Reich opted to go for it on a fourth-and-four in his own territory with less than a minute left in overtime. The Colts missed, which set the Texans up in great position for the winning field goal. This week, Garrett made the opposite decision for the Dallas Cowboys. And it was just as baffling.
Reich’s gamble was high-risk, low-reward. The failure to convert burned the Colts, but they would have had a hard time winning with even a successful conversion. If the Cowboys had converted, they would have been — at worst — on the outskirts of field goal range. Had Dallas failed, the Texans still would have needed 20-plus yards to have a chance at the winning kick.
With guys like Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott in the backfield, even Jerry Jones felt that this was a risk worth taking. Sunday night’s game was filled with blunders. But Garrett’s decision stands out above the rest.