Perennial bottom feeders find new ways to lose
One thing is clear here. The Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars are all much more competitive than we have seen in previous seasons. Unfortunately, all three lost close outings Sunday.
For the Browns, the difficulty of overcoming that hump came in the form of an offsides penalty against Tramon Williams as San Diego Chargers kicker Josh Lambo missed a potential game-winning field goal in the final seconds. Lining up five yards closer, the rookie nailed a 34-yard attempt to give San Diego a 30-27 win.
In Chicago, the Raiders went conservative on their final drive of the game. Derek Carr did lead his team to an 11-play, 68-yard drive that culminated in a go-ahead field goal with just over two minutes remaining.
Unfortunately, the Raiders were simply going for a field goal once they got into Sebastian Janikowski’s range. You don’t need to be an NFL expert to understand this isn’t a winning formula.
Jay Cutler proceeded to lead Chicago down the field for a game-winning field goal, giving the Bears their first win of the season and snapping Oakland’s rare winning streak.
Oakland is a pretty darn good football team. It just seems that Jack Del Rio, in his first season as the team’s head coach, doesn’t have the necessary talent to get over that hump and compete for a playoff spot. Playing conservative with the game on the line won’t help.
Jacksonville had an opportunity to send an Andrew Luck-less Indianapolis Colts team to a 1-3 record on the season. Unfortunately for head coach Gus Bradley and Co., rookie Jason Myers missed two game-winning field goal attempts in overtime — one of 53 and the other from 48 yards out.
Like clockwork, Colts backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck led Indy to the game-winning field goal on the possession directly following Myers’ final miss.
It’s one thing to be competitive. It’s a completely different thing to actually overcome the final hurdle and win those close games. These three teams proved that they just aren’t there yet.