Kevin Stefanski has seen enough of Shedeur Sanders to make the fifth-round rookie the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback over the final month of another lost season.
The question is whether Sanders will be under center for the biggest moments down the stretch?
He was on the sideline Sunday when the Browns were going for a 2-point conversion to tie their game against Tennessee with a minute remaining after Sanders had just engineered his fourth touchdown drive and thrown for nearly 400 yards.
Sanders rallied the Browns (3-10) from a 31-17 deficit with two late touchdowns, but after running it in for a 7-yard touchdown, he fumbled the exchange from backup center Luke Wypler, who had replaced starter Ethan Pocic (Achilles) in the third quarter.
Sanders didn’t even get the chance to atone for that after throwing a 7-yard touchdown pass to Harold Fannin Jr. with just over a minute remaining to pull the Browns to 31-29 as Stefanski decided on a Wildcat formation for the potential tying 2-point conversion.
Running back Quinshon Judkins took the direct snap but mishandled the ball and failed to pitch it to wide receiver Gage Larvadain on an end around. Judkins ran backward and launched a pass across the field to Larvadain that was batted away as the Titans held on for their second win of the season.
Stefanski, the Browns’ sixth-year head coach, took responsibility for the failed 2-point play at the end but he didn’t explain why he chose to run the Wildcat with the game on the line rather than leaving in Sanders, who threw for three touchdowns and ran for another in his best game of the three he’s started..
Sanders, who fell to the fifth round in the draft after being projected as a top Day 1 pick, threw for 364 yards, the second-most by a quarterback picked 144th overall or later since 1966. Jacksonville’s Gardner Minshew, the 178th pick in 2019, passed for 374 yards against Carolina.
Sanders also joined Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow as the only rookie QBs with at least 350 passing yards, three touchdown passes and a rushing score in a game.
But with the game on the line, Sanders was on the sideline.
“I would wish I would always have the ball in my hand, but that’s not what football is,” Sanders said. “I know we practiced something, and we executed it in practice, and we just didn’t seem to this day. So, I would never go against, you know, kind of like what the call was or anything.”
Stefanski’s 2-point decisions weren’t the only head-scratchers in Week 14.
One of the biggest blunders came from the league’s winningest active head coach, Kansas City’s Andy Reid, who inexplicably went for it on fourth-and-1 from the Chiefs’ 31 in a game that was tied at 10 with just under 11 minutes remaining.
Patrick Mahomes’ pass to Rashee Rice was incomplete and the Houston Texans got the ball already in field-goal range. They scored a go-ahead TD and the Chiefs couldn’t recover in a 20-10 loss that dethroned the reigning nine-time champs in the AFC West.
“I was confident we could” convert, Reid said. “I thought it was an opportunity. I was wrong in hindsight. It was wrong. We’ve been pretty good on fourth downs. I messed that one up.”
Reid was actually playing the odds.
The Chiefs were 13th team since 2000 to go for it on fourth down inside their own 35 in the fourth quarter of a tied game. Others were 8 for 12 with the Bucs the last to do it in 2023 opener against the Vikings with a conversion that led to a game-winning field goal.
Their 10 points marked the Chiefs’ lowest output at Arrowhead Stadium with Mahomes under center.
So, the Chiefs (6-7) will not win a 10th straight AFC West title. After reaching the Super Bowl five times in the last six years, winning three times, they’ll need to win out and get a lot of help just to reach the playoffs.
The Denver Broncos (11-2), winners of 10 straight, weren’t in a celebratory mood — at least not publicly — after the Chiefs were eliminated from AFC West contention.
“Everything right now has that ‘ work in progress sign,’” Broncos coach Sean Payton said Monday. “I recognize the question in that the Chiefs’ loss last night eliminated them from winning the division, and yet we have a stretch here with some real good football teams coming in and focusing on what we can do to win the division. The Chargers are very much alive in that battle.”
The Chargers beat the slumping Philadelphia Eagles 22-19 Monday night to stay two games behind the Broncos, whom they play in their regular season finale in Denver next month.
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With contributions from AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy in Cleveland.
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Behind the Call analyzes the biggest decisions in the NFL during the season.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
