might not have been so short-lived had their coaching staff played the percentages and not a hunch in their 10-3 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. On first-and-goal from the Jaguars 1 Yodny Cajuste Buffalo Bills Jersey , coach Sean McDermott and offensive coordinator Rick Dennison elected to call a run-pass option instead of asking quarterback Tyrod Taylor to either run it in himself or hand it off to running back LeSean McCoy against one of the most vulnerable run defenses in the playoffs. ”I want a running play,” McCoy said. ”It was a play I was lobbying for the whole time and it didn’t work out …” Instead, Taylor lofted a fade pass toward the left corner of the end zone where Kelvin Benjamin was whistled for offensive pass interference on All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey, pushing the Bills back 10 yards. The drive stalled from there and Stephen Haushka’s 31-yard field goal was all the Bills had to show for their 18-play, 71-yard drive that took 8:06, their only decent drive all game. McDermott also botched the end of the first half by calling pass plays on second-and-6 at his 14 (incomplete) and the next down (5-yard completion to Zay Jones in which he was pushed out of bounds). Instead of taking a knee and heading to the locker room with a 3-0 lead, the Bills gave the Jaguars the ball back with enough time to get into field goal range and score and gain some momentum heading into the locker room. The Bills’ curious play call, however, paled in contrast to the series of odd calls by referee Jeff Triplette’s playoff crew in Kansas City, where the Tennessee Titans overcame an 18-point halftime deficit to shock the Chiefs 22-21. ”Horrible way to start the playoffs,” tweeted Mike Pereira , the former NFL officiating chief turned Fox sports analyst. ”I hate to say it, but this was not a good performance by the crew. Teams and fans deserve better.” A day later, Pereira praised both Tony Corrente’s crew in New Orleans and John Hussey’s crew in Jacksonville, adding, ”Yesterday is a memory. I feel bad for Jeff Triplette. He is a great man who was part of a crew that did not have a good game. I feel bad that he is retiring under this cloud.” After Marcus Mariota caught his own deflected pass for a touchdown Saturday, Triplette explained that the Titans quarterback was an eligible receiver because he had lined up in the shotgun formation rather than under center. There is no such rule in the NFL. Whenever a defensive player deflects a pass, every offensive player is allowed to catch the ricochet, including the quarterback and it matters not where he lined up when the play began. Then, there was the very quick whistle that negated a fumble recovery by Justin Houston after fellow linebacker Derrick Johnson sacked Mariota in the second quarter. Mariota fumbled a split-second after contact, but Triplette said the QB’s forward progress had been stopped before the fumble. Forward progress is usually called when a running back is stopped and defenders are piling on him or several defenders drape a quarterback. Hardly ever is it applied when a QB is going to the ground on initial contact by a single defender. As a judgment call, Chiefs coach Andy Reid was helpless to throw his red challenge flag, and Ryan Succop kicked a field goal on the next play. ”The defender hit him and he was driving him back Color Rush Yodny Cajuste Jersey ,” Triplette said after the game. The officials had one more gaffe in them, one that was corrected on replay review. The crew initially called a fumble on Titans running back Derrick Henry late in the fourth quarter, signaling touchdown when Johnson scooped up the ball and rumbled into the end zone as fireworks lit up the sky. The replays showed he was down before the ball came loose. Before wild-card weekend began, there were several notable calls concerning the Cincinnati Bengals. Bills fans giddy over Buffalo ending the longest playoff drought in North American pro sports made a surge in donations to Andy Dalton’s foundation , their way of thanking the Bengals QB for his role in the Bills’ first invitation to the postseason party in 17 years. Dalton’s foundation received more than $300,000 in donations after the Bengals beat the Ravens 31-27 in the regular-season finale when Dalton threw a 49-yard TD pass with 44 seconds left to eliminate Baltimore and open a spot for Buffalo. ”I think I’m the hottest guy in Buffalo right now,” Dalton said. While the Bills’ long streak of playoff futility is over, the Bengals’ streak continues. They haven’t won a playoff game since the 1990 season, the sixth-longest streak of postseason futility in NFL history. They’ve lost all seven of their playoff games since that season, including an NFL-record five straight first-round defeats from 2011-15. The Bengals missed out on the playoffs for a second straight season, going 7-9. They won their last two games, knocking the Lions and Ravens out of the playoff race. That was enough for owner Mike Brown to give coach Marvin Lewis a two-year extension and two more chances to try to get the Bengals that playoff victory that has eluded him for 15 seasons. Lewis has the second-longest active coaching tenure in the NFL, behind only Bill Belichick’s 18 seasons with New England. Unlike Belichick, who has won five Super Bowls and made two other appearances in the title game, Lewis is 0-7 in the playoffs, the worst such coaching record in NFL history. In Denver, John Elway thought long and hard about canning coach Vance Joseph after a 5-11 debut but decided to stick with him. However, Joseph fired a half dozen assistants, saying it was time to change the culture ”so we could get back to pushing our players to be the best that they can be.” All six of the fired coaches directed rookies who underperformed in 2017, so they’re the ones shouldering the blame for Elway’s so-far dismal draft class. Elway said at his season-ending news conference he’s not perfect and always striving to learn, but he took a jab at a reporter , suggesting that when he finally has this front office football job perfected, he’ll retire and go into radio because then he’ll be a fellow know-it-all. — Harmon will enter his seventh year with the club." Patriots AnalysisPatriots Player ProfilesPatriots Offseason CoverageNew England Patriots 2019 roster breakdown: #21 FS Duron HarmonNew Youth Yodny Cajuste Jersey ,40commentsHarmon continues to be a core member of the Patriots’ secondary.EDTThe New England Patriots, who will be off until training camp starts in late July, currently have 90 players on their active roster. However, only 53 of them will be able to survive the cutdowns on August 31 and ultimately make the team. Over the course of the summer, we will take a look at the players fighting for those spots to find out who has the best chances of helping the Patriots defend their Super Bowl title.Today, the series continues with one of New England’s veteran players:Name: Duron HarmonPosition: Free safetyJersey number: 21Age: 28Experience: 6Size: 6’1, 205 lbs.2018 review: Duron Harmon’s 2018 did not start well: coming off a Super Bowl loss, he was detained in Costa Rica after a combined 58 grams of marijuana were found in his luggage on a flight into the country from Fort Lauderdale. The incident did not result in any discipline from the NFL, however, and by the time preparations for the upcoming season started everything was back to normal for the veteran defender.In general, Harmon’s 2018 season looked a lot like his first five since entering the league as a third-round draft pick in 2013 (the main difference might very well have been his jersey number, as he switched from #30 to #21 after the arrival of cornerback Jason McCourty). He again served as the Patriots’ number three safety alongside Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung, and was once more a valuable and durable member of the team’s secondary.In this role, he appeared in all nineteen of the Patriots’ combined regular season and playoff games in 2018, and provided a mix of solid deep-field coverage, playmaking ability, and leadership. Overall, the Rutgers product was on the field for 636 of the Patriots’ 1,043 defensive snaps during the regular season (61.0%) before adding an additional 61 (of 188; 32.4%) over New England’s three postseason contests.As usual, Harmon was a productive player as a versatile rotational defensive back for the Patriots: forming a solid core at the safety position with McCourty and Chung, he finished the year with a combined 38 tackles as well as four interceptions; tied for the team-lead with All-Pro cornerback Stephon Gilmore. Furthermore, he surrendered only one touchdown into his coverage area and allowed just 7 of 13 passes to be completed for 90 yards. He also recovered a fumble.All in all, Harmon once again lived up to his nickname ‘The Closer’ as a player coming up with big plays in big moments. All four of his interceptions Womens Yodny Cajuste Jersey , for example, came either in the second or fourth quarter — right before halftime or the end of regulation. His biggest moments of the season, however, might have come when the spotlight was the brightest: in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 53, on back-to-back plays.With the Patriots up by seven, he first helped break up a potential touchdown pass from Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff to wide receiver Brandin Cooks. Then, on the very next play, he blitzed from the secondary to force an ill-advised pass. Stephon Gilmore was able to step in front of it to record what turned out to eventually be a game-clinching interception. And while Harmon did not show up on the stat sheet for either play, his impact was very much felt.2019 preview: Entering the third season of a four-year, $20 million contract he signed with the Patriots in 2017, Harmon will be on the club’s books in 2019 with a salary cap hit of $4.75 million. Considering his role as a versatile playmaker and part-time starter in one of the NFL’s best secondaries, the deal represents very good value and is still reflective of Harmon’s role on the team: he is a core member in the defensive backfield.As such, he is expected to again see considerable playing time and be on the field for around 60% of the Patriots’ snaps. Harmon, as has been the case in the past, will once more be used as a deep-field defender in single-high or two-deep coverage schemes by the Patriots; he will also give the club both depth and flexibility at the safety position that will allow Devin McCourty to be moved around the formation to create coverage advantages.After all, Harmon is the one safety on New England’s roster whose skill set is coming closest to McCourty’s as a rangy centerfield player. This, in turn, allows the Patriots to diversify their schemes and take advantage of Harmon’s intelligence, experience, and abilities to read and react to plays. Consequently, he will again play a key role on New England’s defense in 2019 — and likely come up with big plays when the team needs them.