Coach Killers is your weekly look around the league at those performances, decisions and "Wait, what did he just do?!" moments that put the guy in charge squarely on the ol' hot seat. Questions, comments, casserole ideas? Hit us up on Twitter at @ryanwilson_07.
Joe Flacco, QB, Ravens
Two weeks ago, the Ravens' final three games looked like a cakewalk. Matchups against Jacksonville, Houston and Cleveland all but guaranteed Baltimore would finish the regular season at 11-5, which all but guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. But on Sunday, the Ravens no-showed against the Texans and quarterback Joe Flacco looked more like Jame Franco impersonating Kyle Boller.
When it was over, Flacco had thrown the ball 50 times, managed just 21 completions for 195 yards (that works out to a staggering 3.9 yards per attempt), with two interceptions and three inexplicable interceptions. He was harassed all afternoon, mostly by J.J. Watt, and his passes were all over the place (as evidenced by those three picks).
Flacco wasn't entirely to blame; the running game never got going and the offensive line was a mess. Not helping: right tackle Rick Wagner went down with an injury and was replaced by rookie James Hurst, who was often tasked with blocking Watt one on one. Predictably, it didn't go well for Hurst.
John Harbaugh said only option to help James Hurst would have been maximum protection, not many opportunities to chip block on J.J. Watt
— Aaron Wilson (@RavensInsider) December 22, 2014
But veteran wide receiver Steve Smith, in his first year with the Ravens, doesn't want to hear it from the critics.
We expect and understand and anticipate all of the negative feedback and all of the fat, lazy, sorry couch quarterbacks are going to come out," he said, via the Baltimore Sun. "We expect that and understand that. We’re not going to pay attention to it."
Still, Smith conceded what everyone else saw: The Ravens didn't show up.
"Bottom line is, offensively, we just got our ass kicked," he said. "That's what happened. That's what the score looks like. That's what it looks like when you just lose. That's the consequences of losing."
Smith's assessment matched Flacco's, who also noted that Baltimore got its "ass kicked."
"That's a fair assessment," left tackle Eugene Monroe said, via the Sun. "That's what happened. We could have played much better."
The good news: Two years ago, the Ravens went 1-4 in their final five regular season games, and then ripped off four straight to win the Super Bowl. Flacco was the league's best player that January and he parlayed that into a shiny new deal. So unlike Andy Dalton, who seems to shrink in big moments, Flacco usually shines.
The bad news, however, is that the Ravens need help to get into the playoffs. Specifically, they'll need to beat Cleveland in Week 17 (we'd say no problem there, what with Connor Shaw likely to start, but the Texans' literally pulled Case Keenum out of a deer stand to beat the Ravens on Sunday), and then hope the Chiefs can beat the Chargers, who are also battling for a wild-card spot.
We talked about the Ravens, James Franco and Joe Flacco in this Eye on Football Podcast segment:
Peyton Manning, QB, Broncos
First things first: No, Peyton Manning isn't suddenly Tim Tebow. And yes, he remains a first-ballot Hall of Famer and is still wholly capable of leading the Broncos to the Super Bowl. But to say he wasn't one of the worst players on the field Monday night against the Bengals is willful ignorance.
By Manning's own admission, he was god awful and the stats bear that out. He had about a 10-minute stretch of Manning-like football, when he helped the Broncos overcome a 20-7 deficit to take a 28-27 third-quarter lead. But the other 50 minutes included poor decisions and off-target throws -- including four interceptions.
Here's Manning's third pick, which came late in the fourth quarter, and sealed the Broncos' fate.
If you're looking for a reason for whatever that was, it looks like Manning slipped.
Whether Manning truthers want to admit it, he's played poorly the last month and a half. ProFootballFocus.com's week-by-week grades confirm as much.
There's more:
QB PFF grades over the last 7 weeks. This does not bode well for the chances of ring #2 pic.twitter.com/BRHStkEyH4
— Sam Monson (@PFF_Sam) December 23, 2014
That's a lot of red, particularly after Manning looking very much like himself over the first two months of the season. As for why he's suddenly struggling, it's probably more complicated than "old age and a popcorn arm," so we'll reserve judgment. But whatever the reasons, the fact remains: The Broncos look nothing like a playoff football team and god help them if they their path back to the Super Bowl goes through Foxborough.
The official who called that taunting penalty on William Gay
We wrote about this Sunday, shortly after the Steelers beat the Chiefs, but late in the third quarter, Pittsburgh cornerback Willam Gay was flagged for what we can only describe as him taunting teammate, Lawrence Timmons. Except that Gay didn't appear to be taunting anyone.
Here's the set up:
Yep, that's Gay, with his arms crossed, Run DMC-style, looking at Timmons. No idea how that's taunting. But it was. And instead of the Chiefs having to punt, they were awarded a first down and eventually settled for a field goal.
Someone who was at the game told us that the Steelers' punt team was on the field and Antonio Brown was standing around his 10-yard line before the official threw the flag. And Mike Tomlin "went full Cowher" on the official, something we've rarely seen from the Steelers coach.
After the game, Tomlin was still bothered by the call.
“I don’t even want to get into that,” he said when asked if he was given an explanation. “Ridiculous. We’re not going to apologize for caring. We’re not.”
A day later, Tomlin said he wouldn't seek out an explanation from they league office, either.
"I’m not going to waste my time placing calls to New York asking for clarification on stuff I know the answer to."
Meanwhile, Gay took responsibility (as much as you can for a terrible call) for getting flagged. “I respect anything they call, and you’ve just got to roll with it.”
Xavier Nixon, RT, Colts
We bring up Xavier Nixon's long afternoon against the Cowboys for one reason. Yes, we know it's a broken record at this point ... but do you think the Colts could have used that 2014 first-round pick they sent to the Browns for Trent Richardson to draft an offensive lineman?
Nixon wasn't why Indy was blown out of the Jerry Dome; Andrew Luck had another poor outing and cornerback Greg Toler was repeatedly toasted by Dez Bryant. But it's reasonable to think that Luck could benefit from slightly more time in the pocket.
This isn't an indictment of the job general manager Ryan Grigson has done assembling this roster, but it's certainly fair to wonder what the hell he was thinking in regards to Richardson.
