A wasted timeout and a cowardly punt top the list of the 7 worst coaching decisions from Week 1

• The NFL returned to action this week, and with its return, came questionable coaching decisions.
• Giants head coach Joe Judge made the worst call of the week, wasting a timeout to prove a point.
• Panthers head coach Matt Rhule also showed some questionable judgement on a cowardly punt.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

NFL head coaches are tough to figure out.

On the one hand, these men think about football more than anyone else on the planet and have forgotten more about the sport than I will ever know in my lifetime.

But despite devoting every waking moment of their week into the three hours of game time on Sundays, somehow, every week, these head coaches find new, baffling ways to surprise us at home with some absolutely terrible decisions.

Below are the worst coaching decisions of Week 1 of the 2021 NFL season.

7. San Francisco 49ers pass on third down, nearly fumble game away

The 49ers looked like they were cruising to victory over the Lions, holding a 41-17 lead with two minutes left in the game. But after a touchdown, onside kick, and second touchdown, suddenly the game was 41-33. A little more tense!

The Lions didn't convert a second onside attempt, giving the 49ers the ball in Lions territory with just 67 seconds left to play.

But on the third play of the drive, Jimmy Garoppolo hit Deebo Samuel over the middle. Samuel was pounced on by the Lions' defense and stripped of possession. After trailing by 24 with two minutes left, the now Lions had the ball, down one score, with 49 seconds to work.

-NFL (@NFL) September 12, 2021

Thankfully for the 49ers, the Lions failed to convert their third touchdown in 120 seconds, and San Francisco survived the scare. But the sequence still feels like an indictment on the 49ers coaching staff and team's ability to close games.

The Lions had only one timeout left. A simple run up the gut would have likely kept the ball safe, forced the timeout, and given the 49ers the chance to pin Detroit inside their own 10 with 40 seconds to play and 90 yards to go with no way of stopping the clock. Don't pass here!

I am all for being aggressive in the right spots, especially in potentially game-sealing situations, but sometimes the simple play is the right one. Just hand the ball off and finish the job.

6. Matt Nagy and Kyle Shanahan give their star rookie quarterbacks one play

San Francisco rookie quarterback Trey Lance was brought in as a part of a goal-line set for the 49ers and threw a touchdown pass with his first NFL throw.

-Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 12, 2021

Justin Fields made a similar red zone debut, throwing for a first down in the first quarter and later scrambling into the end zone for a touchdown of his own.

-Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 13, 2021

If both Lance and Fields are ready to take valuable red zone snaps with their teams, why can't they just be handed the offense?

5. Dallas leaves time on the clock for Tom Brady

In the first game of the NFL season on Thursday night, the Dallas Cowboys came seconds away from victory against Tom Brady and the reigning Super Bowl champions.

Despite trailing for much of the game and three missed kicks from Greg Zuerlein, the Cowboys were able to take the lead with a 48-yard field goal with just 1:28 left to play in the fourth quarter.

88 seconds in the hands of a lesser quarterback might mean some tense moments under center, but for Brady, a minute and change is a lifetime with the game on the line. Brady masterfully marched the Buccaneers into field goal range, ran a few dummy plays where he threw the ball out of bounds to no one to help Tampa drain the clock, and left Ryan Succop to put the game-winning field goal through the uprights.

-SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 10, 2021

Dallas didn't have many options regarding when they kicked their field goal, but if you leave Brady with that much time to work, it's not going to end well.

4. Urban Meyer taking the Jaguars job

Man oh man, Urban Meyer must regret his decision to take his shot at the big leagues.

One game into his tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars, he's already being asked to respond to rumors that he could be interested in the USC head coaching job instead. Not great!

Heading into Sunday, things already sounded pretty dire in Jacksonville, according to Jason La Canfora at CBS Sports.

Per La Canfora:

"[Meyer] has everyone looking over their shoulders already," said one source with direct knowledge of the daily operations in Jacksonville. "He becomes unhinged way too easily, and he doesn't know how to handle losing, even in the preseason. He loses it and wants to take over the drills himself. It's not good."

If that was the mood in the locker room before Sunday's loss, it's tough to imagine things getting better soon.

3. Bills run the worst fourth-down play of the season

Leading the Steelers by four early in the fourth quarter, the Buffalo Bills faced a fourth-and-1 from the Steelers 40-yard line with the chance to all but put the game away with a score.

Rather than punt, Bills head coach made the correct decision to go for the conversion (nice work there from a coaching perspective!). With quarterback Josh Allen reliably dominant running in short-yardage situations, one might think they'd rely on him to make whatever play he needed to pick up the first down.

Instead, the Bills ran this.

-Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 12, 2021

Better luck next time.

2. Panthers punt historically cowardly punt

Just when you thought that the analytics revolution had finally fixed the terrible tendencies of head coaches around the league, Panthers coach Matt Rhule goes and punts from his opponent's 33-yard line.

-Edgar Salmingo, Jr. ✌️ (@PanthersAnalyst) September 12, 2021

The Surrender Index is a Twitter bot that calculates the cowardice of a punt based on the situation and compares it to the cowardice of punts of the past.

According to the Surrender Index, Rhule's decision to put was one of the worst punts of the millennium.

-Surrender Index 90 (@surrender_idx90) September 12, 2021

The Panthers' punt netted 18 yards of field position, forcing the Jets to start their next drive from their own 15-yard line rather than their own 33.

Congratulations on making history, coach.

1. Joe Judge wastes a timeout to prove a dumb point to no one

New York Giants head coach Joe Judge embarrassed himself on Sunday with a challenge, and in doing so, earned the top spot in this week's ranking of bad coaching decisions.

In the third quarter, Broncos tight end Albert Okwuegbunam made an athletic dive for the pylon to extend Denver's lead to 17-7 over the Giants.

-Alex. (@dubs4o8) September 12, 2021

Judge wanted a chance to argue and threw his challenge flag onto the field. Because scoring plays are automatically reviewed, they cannot be challenged. A referee reminded Judge of this and charged the Giants a timeout for the miscue.

This is wholly embarrassing for Judge. In a game where you are already trailing by 10 points heading to the fourth quarter, all three timeouts could be vital to any hopes for a comeback. Judge threw one down the toilet to scold a referee who was never going to listen to him.

When Judge tried to explain himself after the game, he only made himself look worse.

"I was looking for feedback from the officials," Judge told reporters. "It looked to me on the Jumbotron and some feedback I got from up top watching the replay, that he may have stepped in the white. I was screaming for the officials. They're supposed to get some feedback from what they're hearing."

Thanks for the feedback, Joe! It was definitely worth it!