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Welcome to the Monday Morning TPS Report. Every week this is where I’ll vent about, dumb coaching moves, bad calls, players who don’t even deserve to be in AFL2, and anything else on my mind from Sunday’s NFL action. Jon Kitna recommends you keep reading.

Bonehead Move of the Week
Winner–Joe Gibbs
Confidence is a good thing, unless you have too much of it. Joe Gibbs definitely has too much confidence in his kicker, Shaun Suisham. After receiving the opening kickoff in overtime, the Redskins plowed through the Miami defense. They ran the ball seven times for 45 yards on a drive that eventually gave them a 1st-and-10 at the Miami 23-yard line. Gibbs then sent in Suisham to kick a 39-yard field goal on 1st down.

Huh? Is he crazy? All Gibbs had to do was hand the ball to Clinton Portis six more times and the Redskins would have had an easy game winning touchdown. At the very least they would have set Suisham up for a chip shot. Was Gibbs really that concerned about turning the ball over? By kicking on first down Gibbs was basically saying he thought the Redskins were more likely to fumble than Suisham was to miss the kick. That’s kooky talk. We’re talking about Shaun Suisham here. He’s not Adam Vinatieri. He’s not even Jeff Reed. There was at least a 25% chance Suisham would miss the kick and Gibbs’ decision would have cost the Redskins the game. Good old Joe should consider himself extremely lucky.

Honorable Mention–Tom Coughlin
With 13 minutes left in the game the Giants trailed Dallas 31-19 and had 4th and 5 at the Cowboy’s six yard-line. At that point the Cowboys were moving the ball at will and had effortlessly driven for touchdowns on four of their last five drives. The Giants only hope was to score a touchdown (and make it a one possession game) and then somehow get a stop. Instead, Coughlin kicked a field goal, a decision that doomed the Giants. The field goal kept it a two possession game and made it so the Giants would need two straight stops to come back. It turned out they wouldn’t even get one stop—Dallas got the ball back and drove straight down the field for a touchdown, causing Gregg Easterbrook to write “game over” in his notebook. As NFL coaches are wont to do, Coughlin forgot that in the 4th quarter the obvious strategy isn’t always the right strategy.

Shrewd Move of the Week

First Place–Ellis Hobbs
While Hobbs’ record breaking kickoff return was, in the words of Borat, “very nice”, the truly beautiful thing about it was his correct decision to come out of the end zone. In today’s NFL nearly every single kick returner takes a touchback if they’re more than a few yards deep in the endzone. But Why? What are they afraid of? That their offense will start at the 18 yard-line instead of the 20?

Last year about one out of every 200 kick returns in the NFL was taken back for a touchdown. There were numerous other big returns that didn’t result in touchdowns. It’s insane for a team to give a up that kind of chance at making a big play just because they’re worried about potentially losing a few yards of field position. The truth is, even a guy taking a ball nine yards deep in the endzone has a good chance of bringing it out at least to the 20. Plain and simple, taking a touchback is a waste of a play. At this point Hobbs (and possibly Bill Belichcik) might the only person who realizes that.

Honorable Mention–The Denver Broncos
Twelve seconds. That’s all the time that elapsed between Javon Walker’s knee hitting the ground and the snap of Jason Elam’s game winning kick. It’s generally accepted that it takes at least 20 seconds for the officials to spot the ball and get a team lined up—maybe 15 if it’s done lightning fast. The Broncos did it in twelve and that’s why they’re 1-0.

Just In Case New Yorker’s Were Confused About Who’s Quarterback is a Huge Pussy…

So Chad Pennington cracks his ankle, hops off the field, and then returns on one leg to lead the Jets in a game they have no chance of winning. Meanwhile, Eli Manning throws a touchdown pass and then decides that his shoulder feels a little bit stiff. Even though the Giants were just an onside kick away from a real chacne at coming back, and even though Eli later said his shoulder might feel fine tomorrow, the baby Manning just didn’t feel like coming back. Maybe the fear of losing his job made Pennington go above and beyond the call of duty, and maybe Manning was being justly cautious, but the juxtaposition between the two is certainly telling.

(UPDATE: Well, contrary to earlier reports, Manning’s shoulder is in bad shape. It seems he should have taken himself out of the game earlier.)

The Ship is Sinking Fast–Cedric Benson

I’ve never been impressed with Cedric Benson, but I’ve been hesitant to write him off because I haven’t seen a whole lot of him and he’s never had the chance to be “the guy.” Well, he finally got the chance yesterday and he looked awful. On every single run he plowed straight ahead for two yards. Obviously it’s extremely difficult to run on San Diego, but Benson just didn’t show any skills. He didn’t show the patience to wait for a hole to develop, he didn’t show the ability to cutback, and he didn’t show that he knows when to bounce it outside. On top of all that Benson wasn’t good in pass protection. When Grossman got planted by Shaun Phillips on the Bears’ first series it was because Benson left the backfield on a delayed pass route instead of blocking the untouched blitzer.

I generally think that any running back who can make an NFL roster can be a star if given a chance in the right situation. With that reasoning, I find it hard to believe that guy good enough to be picked 4th overall can’t be successful NFL running back. Still, Benson just doesn’t look like he has anything. He’s only averaged 4.1 yards a carry in his NFL career, he’s not a good receiver, and he doesn’t have breakaway speed. The Bears may have made a mistake in trading Thomas Jones.

Stat O’ the Week

The Jaguars gave up 282 yards rushing to the Titans. That’s just inconceivable. A good running game cannot run on a good run defense (Just ask Mr. Tomlinson) and the Jaguars were thought to have one of the best run defenses in the league. If this game was anything but an extreme aberration it’s going to be a long season for the Jags.

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