3. Dennis Green Gets Waaaay Too Conservative

NFL's Worst All-Time Coaching Decisions

The Falcons and Vikings were tied at 27 in the all-dome matchup of the '99 NFC championship with 30 seconds left. The Vikings had two timeouts left, and also had the most prolific offense to date in the history of the NFL. No wind to worry about. No snow. Forty yards would have been enough to get Gary Andersen (perfect in the regular season) into field-goal range. But Green left the fate of his entire season to the overtime coin flip by having QB Randall Cunningham take a knee. Atlanta won the toss, showed they are who Green THOUGHT they were, and promptly won the game without the Vikes ever seeing the ball again. Most humiliating for Green (pictured below, being consoled by Falcons coach Dan Reeves)? Being replaced by draft-day guru Mike Tice three years later. -- Joe Concha (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

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Who Made the NFL... Caddyshack II, Rocky V, The Godfather: Part III ... all bad ideas. Spray-on hair, Michael Jordan as outfielder, Perez Hilton as a Miss America judge ... all somehow even worse ideas. But what have been the worst coaching decisions ever made in the history of the NFL? And what recent event could have possibly prompted Joe Concha to even write about such a topic this week? Hmmm, not a clue ... kind of like these Top 10 "D'oh's!" -- Joe Concha Courtesy of FOXSports.com
10. Sleepless in... Most players can't sleep the night before a Super Bowl. Nerves, anxiety, whatever. But very few (as far as we know) decide that the remedy is to solicit prostitutes. That's just what the Falcons' Eugene Robinson opted for in Miami the night before taking on the defending champion Broncos in '99. Of course, Robinson wasn't resourceful enough to pull a Tom Cruise in Risky Business and call Rebecca DeMornay for a quickie, so he hit the streets for some professional help instead. The prostitute ended up being an undercover cop (call it a Cover-2 scheme) and Robinson ended up spending the night in the pokey. Falcons coach Dan Reeves (pictured) knew all of that and still started Robinson, who got burned deep by John Elway several times in a 34-19 loss. But there was a bright side to the South Beach sting: The undercover operation resulted in 25 arrests, including a suspect wanted for three murders in Pennsylvania. -- Joe Concha (AP Photo/Ric Feld)
9. The Doug Flut... One of my childhood heroes was No. 22. I was like a kid on Christmas morning when I learned that the Heisman Trophy winner would start his pro career 15 minutes from my house with the New Jersey Generals. I even dragged my dad there to get his autograph after a game in '85. Fourteen years later, Flutie fueled the Bills' late-season charge to a wild-card spot with a series of last-second wins. He even got his own cereal. First playoff stop: Tennessee. Piece of cake. Flutie Flakes can handle these inexperienced chumps, I thought. But in a move that has cursed him to this day, then-Bills coach Wade Phillips (pictured) benched a perfectly healthy Flutie in favor of pretty-boy Rob Johnson. The move almost worked -- despite Johnson going 10-for-22, with zero TDs, and six sacks -- as the Bills held a 16-15 lead with only seconds left. But thanks to the "Music City Miracle", you know the rest. Phillips hasn't won a playoff game since. You know what they say about karma and female dogs ... -- Joe Concha (AP Photo/Don Heupel)
8. Red Right 88 A few years before quarterback Brian Sipe jumped to the USFL, he was an NFL MVP for the old Cleveland Browns in 1980. That was the year the Brownies were the "Cardiac Kids"; seven of their games were decided late in the fourth quarter, mostly in their favor. As a result, the Browns won their first division title since 1971 and hosted the Raiders on a day where the wind-chill was minus-36. Down 14-12, Sam Rutigliano's squad had the game in the bag after Sipe drove them 72 yards to the Oakland 13 with 49 seconds remaining. But instead of running the ball and setting up what would have been a chip shot FG, Rutigliano called for "Red Right 88", a pass play that was intercepted in the end zone by the Raiders' Mike Davis. Browns fans will say that Rutigliano (left) was correct in going for the TD since their kicker, Don Cockroft, had missed two field goals (although he also made two that day), but there's no reason he couldn't have used a safer play. The Drive. The Fumble. The Catch (Willie Mays in '54, not Dwight Clark). Red Right 88. How many bad memory-nicknames can one franchise rack up? -- Joe Concha (AP Photo)
7. Marty Mornhin... With all respect to the late Heath Ledger, I thought Aaron Eckhart's portrayal of Two Face was the best performance to emerge from The Dark Knight. As most of you know, Two Face has a thing for flipping coins to decide his fate and that of others. Former Lions coach Marty Mornhinweg apparently also had this philosophy. So upon winning a coin-toss in OT against the Bears in Chicago, Moron-weg decided to actually kick the ball away in favor of having the wind at his back when the Lions got the ball back. But overtime is called sudden death for a reason, which is basically what happened to Mornhinweg's coaching career after the Bears predictably kicked a game-ending field goal on the extra period's only possession. If this was the UFL, the Lions would have had last-licks, but the NFL prefers to continue to apply a blatantly unfair rule. Mornhinweg was fired by an equally inept Matt Millen five games later. -- Joe Concha (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
6. Ditka Dit-kas... Iron Mike personified Da Bears' character during that magical '85 season. He even got his own recurring SNL skit for the next several years. But something Bears fans will never forgive Ditka for was dissing Walter Payton when the time for a big thank you gift-wrapped itself in Super Bowl XX. For Payton, it was payback for years of enduring his sweetness on some truly awful teams. The plan should have been simple: Give Payton the ball at the 1 with the game long-since decided to get him a long-awaited Super Bowl TD. But Dyczko (the last name he was born with) calls for a fullback dive for William "The Refrigerator" Perry instead, and an otherwise perfect day for Chicago becomes a bit tainted. Ditka/Dyczko would later say he got caught up in the excitement of the game and simply forgot to get Walter the ball. The excitement-inducing score before Perry's plunge? 37-3. -- Joe Concha (AP Photo/Bill Haber)
5. Parcells Wasn... It could have been a storybook season for the Jets (1-15 the previous season) in 1997. Destiny was in their hands heading into Detroit: Win and they're in the playoffs. 13-10 Lions late in the fourth. Jets drove to the Detroit 9. Field goal ties, touchdown wins. At worst, the game was going to OT. But then-Jets coach Bill Parcells, who trusted QB Neil O'Donnell the way Bill Belichick now trusts his defense, decided to run an option pass with rookie RB Leon Johnson. Of course, the pass got picked off in the end zone and it was bye-bye playoffs. The pick marked one of two INTs that day by players not listed as QBs on the Jets roster (give a wave, Ray Lucas). Despite an 8-win improvement the previous season, Jet fans consider that call by Tuna as bad a decision as After M*A*S*H. -- Joe Concha (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
4. Eric Mangini ... Let's review the Browns QB situation this season: Brady Quinn was named starter and the news was first revealed to the free world by Terrell Owens via Twitter. Quinn set the game (along with the entire roster) back a few decades and was benched in favor of Derek Anderson. Anderson faltered and was benched in favor of ... Brady Quinn (who had already put his home up for sale). What, Tim Couch wasn't available? Isn't Kelly Holcomb floating around somewhere? Rule No. 1b in the NFL (behind not giving Peyton Manning only 28 yards to work with if he's down by 6): Don't bench a QB for a few games only to bring him back the same season unless someone gets injured. This isn't the Yankees: There are no three-man rotations. But in case those of you outside Cleveland are wondering, third-stringer Brett Ratliff will likely be named starter within the coming weeks unless Anderson is given a second chance. And in our running tally this season, it's currently the Saints defense (seven TDs) leading the Browns offense (five). The "Mangenius" strategy is clearly paying off. -- Joe Concha (AP Photo/Gail Burton)
3. Dennis Green ... The Falcons and Vikings were tied at 27 in the all-dome matchup of the '99 NFC championship with 30 seconds left. The Vikings had two timeouts left, and also had the most prolific offense to date in the history of the NFL. No wind to worry about. No snow. Forty yards would have been enough to get Gary Andersen (perfect in the regular season) into field-goal range. But Green left the fate of his entire season to the overtime coin flip by having QB Randall Cunningham take a knee. Atlanta won the toss, showed they are who Green THOUGHT they were, and promptly won the game without the Vikes ever seeing the ball again. Most humiliating for Green (pictured below, being consoled by Falcons coach Dan Reeves)? Being replaced by draft-day guru Mike Tice three years later. -- Joe Concha (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
2. Stupid is as ... Sunday night in Indy was one of those precious moments where every fan in America was blessed with 20/20 hindsight ... in advance. We all saw the Pats offense, not the punt team, line up for that 4th-down play, up six points at their own 28. We all thought (except the coach) it was just an ineffective ploy to draw the defense offside. But when Brady actually dropped back, millions across the country yelled at their TVs, "Are they #*&!@#! crazy???" No second-guessing here after the fact, instead a rare moment where everyone except the man in the hoodie was on the same page before the outcome was even known. This was a decision on par with New Coke and the Sox selling Babe to the Yanks. You go for it when playing Madden 2009, but not Manning 2009. The only question now is what will Belichick's legacy be if the Pats don't unscrew this pooch and win the Super Bowl this year? -- Joe Concha (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
1. The Miracle a... It's usually a tough thing to decide who or what gets No. 1 on these lists. But this decision is as easy to criticize as Prohibition. Back in '78 the Giants led 17-12 with 20 seconds left against an Eagles team with no timeouts. While Belichick may have thrown the ball in this situation, Giants offensive coordinator Bob Gibson (who never pitched for the Cardinals) called for a running play when taking a knee would have ended the game. Giants RB Larry Czonka even begged QB Joe Pisarcik not to give him the ball in the huddle. Underrated credit: Most teams would have stood with their hands on their hips thinking the game was over, but not Dick Vermeil's Eagles. The coach called for an 11-man blitz, allowing Herm Edwards (who always "plays to win the game") the shot to scoop the infamous fumble and score. Eagles 19, Giants 17. And like a Scorcese film, everyone on the Giants coaching staff eventually got whacked for being anywhere near this crime scene. -- Joe Concha (AP Photo/G. Paul Burnett, File)