Who made the biggest coaching mistakes of the 2017 NFL season?

We wrap up the regular season with a look back at the biggest coaching gaffes.

The 2017 NFL regular season is officially in the books, and while 12 teams prepare for the playoffs, the other 20 will be dusting off their draft boards and filling out free agent wish lists. Some of them will also be looking for new coaches, with the carousel now spinning in full force.

Black Monday came and went with six head coaching jobs open, after five got fired and Bruce Arians retired. As those teams look for who will lead their franchises next, let’s take a look back at the many coaching mistakes throughout the 2017 season. Some of these were critical, season-altering blunders; others were more minor, but still senseless. Either way, they serve as a reminder that coaches are human, and prone to baffling errors just like the rest of us.

Before we go into our season review, let’s take a quick look at Week 17 mistakes. Not much really stood out in the season finale, so there are only a couple of things worth pointing out.

Week 17 lightning round

• Pete Carroll ends the season with a whimper: The Seattle Seahawks got eliminated from playoff contention when the Atlanta Falcons took care of the Carolina Panthers, wrapping up the NFC’s No. 6 seed. That game went final around the same time Seattle was making a last-minute drive, down one point to the Arizona Cardinals. Perhaps that sucked the air out of the team, but Seattle simply turtled up on offense and settled for a 48-yard field goal, which Blair Walsh predictably missed. It was an appropriately limp finish for the Seahawks, who missed the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
• Dan Quinn makes foolish challenge that doesn’t matter much: The Falcons aren’t quite off the hook this week, despite dispatching the Panthers and getting back to the playoffs. Halfway through the second quarter, Quinn threw a challenge on an obvious Greg Olsen catch, and the ruling stood without much trouble. The Panthers scored on that drive to make it 7-7, and the lost timeout cost Atlanta a shot to try a field goal at the end of the half. It didn’t matter that much, since that’s the last time Carolina found the end zone and the Falcons put them away in the second half. But they won’t have any margin for error when they face the Los Angeles Rams on Wild Card weekend.

So with Week 17 out of the way, let’s close out 2017 by reviewing the biggest coaching mistakes of the regular season.

Week 1: Chuck Pagano takes points off the board with non-challenge

This set the tone for the Indianapolis Colts’ season. Marlon Mack appeared to score an obvious touchdown instead of going out at the 1, but Pagano didn’t challenge the play, instead hurrying to the line. They eventually settled for a field goal before the Los Angels Rams blew their doors off.

17 weeks later, Pagano is out of a job.

Week 3: Bill O’Brien counts out Touchdown Tom

Remember Deshaun Watson? That already feels like a dream. Back when he was alive, he had the New England Patriots on the ropes in Foxborough, putting the Houston Texans in position for a stunning road upset.

Then O’Brien put the offense in a shell, and we know what happened next. Instead of going for the kill, the Texans kicked a short field goal, setting up Brady for a ho-hum comeback win. Surely O’Brien learned from this mistake, and won’t waste another amazing Watson performance on the road ...

Week 8: Bill O’Brien counts out Touchdown Russell

... oh, he did it again.

Stop me if you heard this one — Watson had an outstanding game, gave the Texans a chance to win, and O’Brien’s offense turtled up instead. A conservative final drive didn’t take enough time off the clock, and Russell Wilson hit a game-winning touchdown for the Seattle Seahawks. It’s like poetry, it rhymes.

That was pretty much the last time the Texans were relevant all year. Later in the week, Watson tore his ACL in practice, they went 1-8 to close out the season at 4-12, and are facing some front-office turnover with GM Rick Smith on a leave of absence. It’s been a rough few months in Houston.

Week 7: Steve Sarkisian forgets he’s not in the Pac-12 anymore

Not that the Falcons were competitive in a blowout loss to the Patriots, but this fourth-down playcall ruined their last-gasp shot at a comeback.

It’s a testament to the Falcons’ sheer talent level that they still made the playoffs despite Sarkisian making playcalls like this most of the year.

Week 9: The Seahawks lose their offensive identity

Wanna know how the Seahawks missed the playoffs? Look no further than this clunker against Washington. Despite Eddie Lacy being a bust as a free agent signing, the Seahawks tried one last time to get him involved and commit to their run-first pathos. The result was a stale, dysfunctional offense that never got going, as Seattle coughed up a home loss to an unremarkable Washington team. In the following weeks, they lost Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor to season-ending injuries, and the Seahawks limped to the finish line at 9-7, squandering a 5-2 start.

Week 10: John Fox gets trolled by the fumble touchback rule

The fumble touchback became one of this season’s most controversial rules, with several high-profile games being decided by it. The Chicago Bears fell victim to it here, but they could’ve avoided it had Fox not challenged Benny Cunningham going out at the 1-yard line.

The replay showed Cunningham clearly losing control of the ball before it went out of the end zone, a correct application of the dumb rule, so the Bears went from a potential touchdown to losing possession entirely. The Green Bay Packers won by seven points, just to rub it in. Fox, like Pagano, got fired at the end of the year.

Week 11: Seahawks try fake field goal, miss, lose by three points

Oh hey, the Seahawks are here again. This time, they tried outsmarting themselves once again, calling a fake field goal instead of just kicking it before halftime. Of course, Blair Walsh also missed a game-tying field goal at the end of the game, so it’s probably a wash either way. Still, this was a costly loss to the Falcons, who held the tiebreaker and got into the playoffs by one game over Seattle.

Week 11: Nathan Peterman

If the Buffalo Bills missed the playoffs, this would be the biggest mistake of the season by far. It’s still pretty far up there, given that Buffalo needed multiple tie-breaking scenarios to sneak in on the final week. They’re lucky that Peterman’s five interceptions and the Los Angeles Chargers’ head-to-head win didn’t end up playing a factor, because the mood in Western New York would be much different this week if it did.

A pointless attempt to do future evaluation in the middle of a playoff race nearly doomed Sean McDermott, who was at least smart enough to admit his mistake and put Tyrod Taylor back in.

Week 16: Dallas Cowboys coach themselves out of the playoffs

When you have Ezekiel Elliott, you use him — especially at the goal line in a must-win game. Well, the Cowboys tried getting cute, and it ultimately cost them the game. Instead of letting Elliott punch it in from the 3 and get back from a 21-12 deficit, they called pass plays and went backwards, first with a holding call then a Dak Prescott sack. A missed field goal was the cherry on top as the home crowd booed, and Dallas didn’t score again. Just one year after going 13-3, the Cowboys were knocked out of contention in Week 16.