Week 18 Game Changing Plays: Colts, Jaguars Come Up Short
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Texans DL Teair Tart and DL Kurt Hinish
The last week of the NFL season has come and gone, and the final five playoff spots have been decided. And for a few teams, they’ll be thinking all offseason about what could have been.
The AFC South, in particular. The Jaguars and Colts both were in situations where they would have made it in to the postseason with a win. Both had the ball, late in the fourth quarter, close to the goal line and trailing. And both ended up coming up short in ways that will eco through the heads of their fanbases until football starts again in September — if not even longer. The sort of heartbreak only Week 18 can give you.
Of the two, Gardner Minshew’s incomplete pass for Indianapolis should hurt more; it was the biggest play of the week. But Jacksonville’s collapse should be more painful — from a team thought of as a potential #1 seed entering Week 15 to one who has to watch the postseason from their couch. It doesn’t get much more painful than that.
So, for the last time this season, let’s whip around and look at the biggest plays of the week — magnified more than ever, because there’s simply no time to correct what went wrong.
Jaguars Go From 8-5 to 9-8
In what was likely Derrick Henry’s last home game as a Tennessee Titan — much less Ryan Tannehill and a passel of other players — the Titans summoned up just enough to make sure Jacksonville would be joining them on the beach in Cancun. And while Henry sparkled — 19 carries for 153 yards and a touchdown — it was the defense that ultimately let them send Jacksonville packing.
The Jaguars had 1st-and-goal from the 7 — and, more to the point, 3rd-and-goal from the 1. If you’re the Philadelphia Eagles, you might as well start putting the points on the board right then and there, but the Jaguars with a quarterback with a busted wing? Maybe not so much. Rather than attempt two sneaks, the Jags first tried to throw it in, only for Lawrence to have to throw the ball away from heavy coverage. With the game on the line, Lawrence then tried to jump over the scrum — but was caught in midair by Quinton Bohanna and the rest of the Titans. Turnover on downs, and essentially the end of the Jacksonville season; while they did end up getting the ball one last time, they never crossed midfield again.
Steelers Sneak Into Postseason
Over the last three weeks of the season, the Steelers’ offense has moderately reinvented itself, from being terrible, to being terrible with upside. That upside? A plan which involves loading the offense with hog mollies, controlling the ball with a running game, and only then taking deep shots to George Pickens or Diontae Johnson, once the defense has been lulled into a sense of security. Hey, at least it’s an ethos, unlike whatever Matt Canada was doing it.
Against the Baltimore Backups, it was just enough — Diontae Johnson slipping past coverage for a 71-yard touchdown gave them a 14-7 lead they’d never relinquish. That kept them alive for the postseason, with the Jaguars’ loss the next day being enough to get them all the way in. Is the Steelers offensive fixed? No, but it at least is a sight better than it was in October.
Meanwhile, in Another Universe…
Seconds left on the clock. The Seahawks clinging on to a one-point lead. The Cardinals driving, with Matt Prater — one of the best long-distance kickers in the history of the NFL — waiting for his chance. A 51-yarder at the gun, a sort of kick Prater makes about two-thirds of the time. But this time? No! It’s wide right! The Cardinals lose, and the Seahawks stay alive!
…Or that’s what we would be saying had the Packers not beaten the Bears several moments prior, officially eliminating Seattle. Ah well.
In actual fact, what this miss did was keep the Cardinals ahead of the Chargers in the draft order; they’re slated to pick at #4. That could be hugely significant, with the first three picks all possibly being quarterbacks. That would let Marvin Harrison Jr, the assumed best player in the draft, fall to the fourth pick…and to Arizona, not Los Angeles. If that happens, and Harrison ends up as good as his father, this kick should go down in Cardinal lore.
Texans Start, Finish Strong
The Texans’ first offensive play against the Colts was pretty good.
If you score a touchdown every time you throw the ball, you are going to win a lot of football games, hashtag analysis.
The Texans, of course, did not score a touchdown every time they through the ball, but they scored enough touchdowns that the Colts were down six with less than two minutes to play. It didn’t have to be like that — Indianapolis got the ball back with 6:20 to play — but the Colts seemed determined to bleed the entire clock rather than give C.J. Stroud time to counterattack. Gardner Minshew hit Josh Downs for a big gain, Jonathan Taylor picked up some key conversions, and a key illegal hands call saved the Colts on one fourth down. But with 1:06 left, they were facing 4th-and-1 from the Houston 15. A run by Jonathan Taylor? They’d been doing that a lot, and maybe Houston would have seen it coming — plus they had just stuffed him for one yard the play prior. A quarterback sneak? Probably a better idea. Instead, we got this.
I wouldn’t dial up a play for Tyler Goodson with my season on the line, but he was open. Minshew’s pass spun him around, however, and while Goodson still could have hauled it in, that was an unnecessary degree of difficulty. The ball clanged off of Goodson’s hands, the Texans took over, and are going to the playoffs.
…As AFC South champions. Again. The Houston Texans remain the only NFL team to have never been a wild card.
Buccaneers, Technically, Are Champions
The Buccaneers could only muster nine points against the Carolina Panthers. But for Carolina, who became the first team to be shut out in back-to-back games since the 2008 Browns, nine points is an impossible hill to climb. Why is that, you ask?
The Buccaneers held Bryce Young to 94 yards passing (42 of it on one broken play, which ended up with a fumble anyway), with three sacks to boot. When your offense is having trouble moving the ball, your defense needs to come up big, and Tampa’s just utterly stifled Carolina.
The Buccaneers have now made the playoffs four years in a row, the longest streak in the NFC. Where’s all the talk about the Tampa dynasty, huh?
…Oh, I see. Well, it’s still pretty neat.
Schordinger’s Bills are Both Dead and Alive at All Times
Although lacking some of the drama it could have had, with Buffalo clinching a playoff spot before the game began, the AFC East championship match between Buffalo and Miami was well-played, tense, and exciting down to the wire. What more could you ask for?
Maybe a sense of how good Buffalo actually is? The Bills, when functioning properly, can beat any team in the NFL, but they have moments of highwire insanity that make it hard to trust them over a full month. The team consistently outgained Miami up and down the field, but blunders in the red zone — interceptions by Allen, the clock running out at the half, etc — meant that Miami had a 14-7 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Fine, Deonte Harty said. I’ll do it myself.
That return, tied for the 12th-longest in NFL history, was the spark Buffalo needed for the last 14 minutes. They scored a touchdown on their next drive, with Dawson Knox’s score set up by Khalil Shakir…
I have no idea if we can trust these Bills to rattle off four wins in a row and win the Super Bowl, but any team that plays them has to worry about their brief moments of brilliance overwhelming them. The team no one wants to play? Perhaps, if simply because staring into the maw of chaos is overwhelming even for the best of us.
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