Chargers head coach Brandon Staley has a lot of explaining to do after losing Sunday night in overtime to the Raiders.
With 38 seconds remaining in OT and the game tied 32-32, it looked like the Raiders were content playing for a tie. If the teams tied, both would be in the playoffs. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Instead, the Chargers head coach burned a timeout, the Raiders picked up a few more yards to get in field goal range and won the game by a field goal.
You can watch the absurd decision below. As you can hear from the broadcast team, it was a shocking call.
Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth couldn’t believe that Chargers head coach Brandon Staley called a timeout with 38 seconds left. pic.twitter.com/1LyfA7yYXv
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 10, 2022
To make things even worse, Derek Carr admitted after the game that the timeout completely changed the team’s strategy with 38 seconds left!
Did the #Chargers timeout change the #Raiders strategy? “Yeah, it definitely did, obviously.” pic.twitter.com/oN2wd9bVPi
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) January 10, 2022
I don’t think it’s an overstatement at all to say this is one of the worst coaching decisions in the history of the NFL.
What the hell was Staley doing? What was his plan here? The Raiders were going to run the clock out and punch tickets to the playoffs for both teams!
Instead, Staley burned a timeout, the Raiders clearly felt he was hoping to get the ball back and then they buried him. It’s hard to believe he was so damn stupid.
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There’s simply no excuse for making a coaching decision that bad. Fans have every right in the world to be furious. I’m absolutely stunned that happened.