The Dumbest Plays In Football

Its like the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day.

Each week every week the same bone headed plays.

I'm just a fan not Paul Brown but how do these guys keep doing the same stupid things?

Its 3 down and 12. The wide receiver runs a perfect four yard out pattern which he catches, while going to the ground, near the sidelines.

If it works perfectly its fourth and 8.

If it fails badly the defensive back is sprinting for a pick six.

Still coaches run it every week.

Greg Robinson of Syracuse has mastered this play. Ex Eagle Coach Rich Kotite was a past master.

What about the Prevent Defense?

A defense spends the game blitzing, pressuring the QB and is in control then suddenly in the fourth quarter switches to the Prevent Defense to protect their lead.

And the offense inevitably picks it about, chunks at a time, and many times pulls a game out in which they had been dominated by the defense for three and half quarters.

Announcers bemoan it weekly but it still happens all the time.

Attack, attack, attack then suddenly the Defense goes passive. Goes limp.

Remember Rex Ryans Ravens laying off Tom Brady and the Patriots in the fourth quarter last year? The Ravens had the Patriots undefeated streak snapped then.....

Defenses, like armies and boxers, need to be aggressive.

What about the dreaded Draw Play when a team is down two scores and time is precious.

Sure once in awhile it works but usually the back is stuffed or stopped for a short game and the clock keeps grinding away.

Mike Ditka did this so much it earned the name Ditka Draw.

The excitement of seeing slow footed Bears fullback Brad Muster stuffed in the backfield with 3 minutes remaining in a game the Bears were losing by ten is seldom matched in sports.

Four plunges from the one to get in the end zone? A sure thing right? A fullback should be able to plow in behind his bullish guards and center.

Not always. Joe Paterno still has nightmares about Bear Bryant's Alabama Defense stopping his Nittany Lion futilely flailing backs in the 1979 Sugar Bowl.

Perhaps a pass wins the National title.

Coaches still do it. Last year the Syracuse Orangemen were stopped by Iowa inside the one after running four straight plunges.

Why do players fair catch inside the ten yard line?

Since Pop Warner ball they have been taught not to do that.

Still every week players do it. Sometimes they combine it with a running, falling, fair catch dive inside the ten in an effort to turn their coaches head's grey.

How about the defensive player that decides to crack the QB late on a third and long play?

Brilliant move. First down...new life from an old dumb play.

Don't you love when a player sacks a QB and begins to do his look at me I'm so special dance meanwhile not noticing that the QB has fumbled the football.

So as he shakes his butt a game changing play is unnoticed.

In the NFL certain QB's seem highly adept at burning up key second half timeouts early in the 3rd quarter.

Why not take the five yard delay of game penalty instead of wasting a precious timeout that could be key at the end of the game or in a coaches challenge?

Why?

Each and every week.

Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

First D.J.: That's right, woodchuck-chuckers - it's
[in unison]
First D.J.: GROUNDHOG DAY!
Second D.J.: GROUNDHOG DAY!