BAD MOVE: Broncos coach John Fox played it too conservative Saturday night, allowing Peyton Manning to take a knee to and force overtime vs. the Ravens. He should’ve known better, writes Mark Cannizzaro. (Getty Images)
DENVER — John Fox should know better.
When he woke up yesterday morning with the second-worst football hangover of his life, Fox had to realize he should have known better after essentially facilitating the Broncos’ 38-35 AFC Divisional playoff loss to the Ravens in double overtime Saturday at home.
The Broncos head coach should have known better simply by recalling the worst football hangover of his life — Patriots 32, Panthers 29 in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
That’s when the Patriots, with possession of the ball and the game tied 29-29 with 1:08 remaining in regulation, went for the jugular and ripped the heart out of the Panthers and Fox, the Carolina head coach at the time.
On that day, in Houston, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, with Tom Brady at quarterback, never considered for a nanosecond playing it conservatively, running out the clock settling for the crapshoot of overtime.
Belichick had Brady try to end the thing in regulation, which he did, driving the Patriots in position for Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning 41-yard field goal with four seconds remaining.
So, given his significant part in that history, how is it possible that Fox, in a tie game (35-35) with Peyton Manning at quarterback, two timeouts remaining and 31 seconds to play, ordered his quarterback to kneel down, run out the clock and take his chances in overtime?
Fox had to know better.
“If you don’t win, you get criticized on everything,’’ Fox said after the game. “The thinking was with 30 seconds it is hard to go the length of the field and some bad stuff can happen — as you saw at the end of [regulation] with 30 seconds.’’
First, the Broncos did not need to go the length of the field. They needed to go 40 or 50 yards from their own 20 to get their kicker, Matt Prater, in position to attempt a game-winner.
Second, an aggressive coach going for the win is one who tries to make “bad stuff’’ happen to the other team.
Instead, Fox retreated. He should have known better.
Fox’s decision to go meekly at the end of regulation was clearly a result of being spooked by the Ravens’ Joe Flacco throwing the 70-yard game-tying touchdown pass to Jacoby Jones with 41 seconds remaining in regulation that preceded the possession in question.
Fox’s fear led to a debilitating brain freeze — forgetting that his quarterback is one of the greats of all time in the clutch, having engineered 38 fourth-quarter comebacks and 49 game-winning drives in his brilliant career.
Manning would not throw his head coach — a likable guy — under the bus after the game, but there is no way he wanted to kneel down in that circumstance. It seemed somewhat evident by his body language at the time that Manning would have rather taken some shots.
The Broncos needed to move the ball 45 yards to the Baltimore 35 (two or three Manning completions) to give Prater a go at a 52-yard attempt at a game winner.
Prater entered the game 3-of-4 on field goal attempts from 50 yards and longer this season and 10-of-15 from that distance in his career.
With two timeouts and Manning at quarterback, 31 seconds is enough for four or five plays to get close enough to give Prater the chance to end it in regulation.
Why waste those plays?
You think the Ravens’ defensive players were bummed out to see Manning and the Broncos offense in the surrender formation there?
You bet they weren’t.
Fox, who did the same thing at the end of the first half (35 seconds remaining with three timeouts from the Denver 20 and he called one running play and let the clock burn out), treated that situation as if he’d morphed into Tony Sparano holding his breath with turnover-machine Mark Sanchez at quarterback — merely happy to have survived to get to overtime and take his chances.
Was this the same Fox who a year ago had Tim Tebow passing from his own 20-yard line in overtime in the playoffs against the Steelers — the result an 80-yard walk-off touchdown to Demaryius Thomas?
Fox should have known better. He probably does now. Unfortunately now it’s too late.