The god-awful drive that changed NFL history | Dorktown

do you remember that time alex and i talked about that c bono 76 yard run that time buddy ryan ran the 46 defense which essentially reduced the entire arizona cardinals defense to a casserole of bodies and allowed the slowest man on earth to go on a leisurely nature hike all the way across the field with nobody to keep him company but his right tackle and a referee well there was a side story that we cut out of the script of that episode we had to because otherwise we would have gotten totally lost in it but we also knew it had to be its own episode one day it happened 16 years later and coincidentally it also involved a member of the ryan family squaring off against the chiefs what we're about to see is two things at the same time it's one of the stupidest drives you'll ever see in the nfl it happened in the middle of a blowout it had absolutely no effect on the game's outcome and yet in its own accidental way it sent seismic waves throughout the week that we still feel today this five minute three second drive had a significant hand in changing the entire course of nfl history yeah the colors are green this time you're about to enter new york jets territory this is your final warning [Music] the new york jets had been aimlessly pursuing glory for decades as the 2008 nfl season wound down after a promising 8-3 start they were doomed by a 39-year-old quarterback rocking a torn biceps and totally fell apart down the stretch it was time for the organization to hit the reset button going into the 2009 offseason and go on the prowl for a new coach and quarterback to serve as coach they hired buddy ryan's baby boy rex the man who just coordinated the ravens defense to the afc championship game where his unit held up its end of the bargain allowing just one touchdown in pittsburgh a few months later new york traded up into the top five of the nfl draft determined to land usc's mark sanchez as ryan's quarterback for this new era of jets football powered by their ground and pound offense that led the league in rushing and one of the greatest pass defenses in the 21st century the jets instantly became a smashing hit after reaching just one afc championship game in the preceding 26 years they cruised all the way to the conference title game and ryan's very first season then did it again the next the jets were now in a renaissance experiencing something long foreign to them consistent winning expectations soared heading into year three then sanchez's play provided even more reason for optimism see the jets had just made back-to-back afc championship games despite the play of sanchez who was one of the nfl's worst quarterbacks his first couple years but a few months into the 2011 season he was just starting to show signs of being able to pass for an actual nfl starting quarterback built for january football the jets just needed to sneak into the tournament for a chance to make some serious noise and after winning seven of their first 12 games they were right in the thick of the playoff picture for a shot to build upon their percolating mini dynasty when they welcomed the chiefs to town [Music] kansas city featured a third year coach of their own todd haley had taken over a chief's franchise that had been buried in the nfl's basement for three consecutive seasons including the first of haley's tenure the chiefs had failed to break the four win barrier to this day it's one of just eight times a team in the 16 game era has experienced a three-year run this bad these other seven teams took years to recover none of them immediately rided the ship and cruised into the playoffs in year four except for todd haley's chiefs he's the only one to ever orchestrate a turnaround like this with a team like that it was a miracle not only because they jumped straight from 4 wins to 10 but because they left over the san diego chargers who boasted not only the nfl's number one offense but the number one defense unfortunately for them they were abandoned by god suffered a series of catastrophes on special teams screeched to a halt at nine and seven and opened the door for kc now year three of the todd haley era wasn't going quite as well they'd stumble to five and seven entering week 14's contest in the meadowlands but part of that was owed to the fact that the chiefs had lost starting quarterback matt castle to injury we find ourselves in the third quarter of this game the chiefs are getting stopped 28-3 but again haley is having to make do with backup quarterback tyler palko on the road and this jets team is an afc powerhouse and haley is less than a year removed from bringing the mess of a team he inherited all the way to the playoffs one loss however lopsided shouldn't put him on the hot seat right [Music] the jets take over at their own 10-yard line after a chief's punt it's first intent as they start their drive and all appears to be more or less normal in the football universe sanchez drops back and checks the ball down to tailback sean green for a short game but the officials flag fullback john connor for a chop block not a good call as conor's low block comes when the defender is not engaged with another blocker which is legal nevertheless that pushes the jets back 5 yards and forces them to replay first down green then takes a handoff and bounces it outside for a nice pickup but extra lineman vladimir dukas gets flagged for holding on the play backing the jets up another 72 inches and compelling a third crack at first down from the 3 yard line green then plows his way forward for a 5 yard gain and this time it's not for naught on second down sanchez misses wide on a comeback route to plaxico burris but gets bailed out when a blow to the head results in a 15-yard penalty against kc with a fresh set of downs at their own 23 jets offensive coordinator brian schottenheimer dials up a screen for green realizing they're ill-prepared and a big play would be looming chief's dn tyson jackson just sort of bear hugs green to prevent him from getting loose for the pass savvy moved to prevent an even bigger play but that draws a flag for holding oh and so does linebacker demario williams's attempt at downfield coverage only one of those two is allowed to be enforced advancing new york to the 28 but haley ensures the enforcement of another penalty with some magic words to the officials to earn the rarest of rare flags an unsportsmanlike conduct called against a coach which moved the jets all the way to the 43. for those scoring at home this drive has now seen a football get snapped five times and a yellow hanky hit the ground six times a couple of sean green carries set up a third down at midfield sanchez looks toward burris to make a play and move the chains and he does by drawing pi on corner brandon flowers bumping the chief's penalty yardage total on the drive to 51. the very next snap the jets take a shot for six but safety kendrick lewis loses track of the ball and impedes tight end dustin keller a back-breaking 30-yard spot foul that moves the jets inside the five a fade to burris is legally broken up by brandon carr before an inside handoff to green picks up a yard on third down the red sea parts for sanchez who punctuates this bizarro drive by scurrying in for the score a few minutes ago the jets had the ball at their own three 97 yards from paydirt their offense gained a grand total of just nine net yards they still made it here this sucks so bad it's a masterpiece the new york jets had somehow cobbled together a 97-yard touchdown drive out of a 5-yard penalty against them a 2-yard penalty against them a 5-yard gain a 4-yard gain a yard gain a one yard gain and a three yard gain they did it with nine net yards that's not even enough for a single first down technically it's only a 90 yard drive since they started from the 10 four penalties put them back at the three but since it's functionally 97 let's just call it 97. the sports reference tool stat head allows us to search drive data back to 2001. these are the penalty yardages of every touchdown drive in the last 20 years in which the offense started on its own three over here you see some teams that actually had to gain more than 100 yards because penalties bumped them back most of these drives involved no penalties at all a few received substantial help but no other 97 yard drive in this era or probably any other has come anywhere close to the 81 penalty yards picked up by the jets at around 3 pm on december 11th 2011. committing 81 yards worth of penalties on a single drive is a remarkable feat in and of itself in over a quarter of the nfl's 256 games that season 65 to be exact both teams combined for fewer than the 81 penalty yards the chiefs got nailed for just on that one drive a drive that started with penalties called on back-to-back plays against the jets that pushed him back to the three in the first place new york then ultimately engineered a touchdown drive on a possession that started 90 yards from the end zone despite their offense producing just 16 yards from scrimmage in the more than 1 000 touchdown drives in the nfl since 2001 that featured no more than 16 yards from scrimmage only three others started from even 70 yards away yeah that was a really weird drive it's one of the weirdest drives we've ever seen it's about to get a lot more weird see this drive was the turning point for both teams involved for both the chiefs and the jets nothing would ever be the same first kansas city how did the years that follow turn out the way they did i'm going to lay out a case that i think is a convincing one but of course you can be the judge of that the day after this game the chiefs fired todd haley strictly on paper this is kind of shocking canning a coach mid-season is certainly nothing new it's happened 35 times in the 21st century alone but here's how the last three seasons went for haley and on average the 34 others typically these coaches deliver pretty mediocre results in the third to last and the second to last seasons before completely cratering in the season they get fired averaging around four projected wins meanwhile haley orchestrated a complete franchise turnaround in year two and even in year three he was still performing significantly better than your average coach who gets fired mid-season he was on track for about six wins which is not good but is still way better than the vast majority of coaches who get shown door before the season's over his neighbors on this chart are mostly either guys who had been around a long time and weren't meeting expectations anymore or guys who had never delivered at all haley was neither he was only in year three and he was navigating the wilderness with a backup quarterback which you think would earn him some slack oh hey look who it is anyway on top of all this the chiefs were still mathematically alive in the playoff hunt after that loss we can probably agree that haley's firing was extremely unusual but certain coaches have that it factor that makes them imminently fireable and i think we can find haley's in the words of chief ceo clark hunt those penalties against the jets specifically the call against haley got a lot of attention hunt nodded specifically to quote-unquote inconsistent play in that particular game and i think we all know what inconsistent play is code for penalties the primary symptom of a lack of discipline the thing a coach is expected to maintain above all else penalties 81 yards of them in a single drive it wasn't the 5 and 8 record those happen all the time i think this drive is what did him in now if we can agree on that we can appreciate how these few minutes change the nfl forever here's where we really get wild to finish out the season the chiefs promoted defensive coordinator romeo cornell to interim head coach having previously served as cleveland's head coach and finished with an unimpressive 24 and 40 record cornell immediately pounced on the opportunity in his very first game the chiefs shocked the nfl by upsetting an undefeated packers team that looked well on their way to 16-0 it won him the full-time job the next season the chiefs went and 14 and grinnell himself was fired at season's end now if it weren't for that penalty fest it's reasonable to believe that the chiefs would have let haley finish out the season before firing him pernell never would have had the chance to pull off that stunning upset and the team would have started looking for a new head coach in earnest entering 2012. if they actually hit the open market to get their coach of the future instead of just retaining their interim coach whoever they hire is almost certain to keep the job for multiple seasons which means that in 2013 the chair would not be open for this man [Music] the big fella changed everything andy reed's chiefs immediately reverse course winning their first nine games in 2013 and never looked back under the reed administration the chiefs have won more games than any team in the nfl but the patriots he was there to help pull all the strings to land patrick mahomes already one of the most transformative football players of all time he's led kansas city to back to back super bowls and more seem likely fortunes can change very quickly in this league but it's possible that at the end of it we'll know these chiefs as one of the all-time great nfl dynasties largely because of andy reid who surely would have been snatched up by another team had the chiefs not had a head coach vacancy in 2013 which they only had after firing romeo cornell who was only there because of a signature win as an interim coach which he only was because todd haley was fired days prior which he only was at that particular time in large part because the day before his team made what might be the most undisciplined defensive stand in nfl history thank you todd meanwhile sanchez and the jets emerged from this game appearing in pretty good shape their young qb was dangerously close to finally playing at a league average level and they were sporting the league's ninth best point differential with an 8-5 record that had him in pole position to snag the afc's second wild card spot everything was going swimmingly until they had to go play more football or whatever it is they played thereafter it's as though the jets thought that moving forward they could simply keep riding that conveyor belt o penalty to scores but the belt stopped and new york had no plan b to effectively traverse the field such as by passing the football or perhaps by running with the football unable to move the ball via more traditional means immediately following that chiefs game down the stretch of the season's final weeks sanchez took a complete nosedive sinking down to sub seneca wallace and john skelton levels levels no one ever wants to be and he dragged his team down with him the jets lost all three of their remaining games with a point differential in that time that was third worst in the league in the process tumbling out of the playoff picture by the next season dysfunction had fully enveloped the organization they traded for tim tebow sanchez started fumbling after running into his right guard's ass before getting benched and flaming out and following a torn acl suffered by star corner darrell rivas they traded their best player away and that was it for them [Music] after squandering that golden opportunity to make the playoffs in 2011 the jets have been waiting around for a decade plus for another chance the chiefs can argue that this one cartoonish drive at the butt end of yet another lost season was the catalyst for their eventual dynasty in the making and while this drive didn't actually pull any switches that landed the jets where they are today they can look back and know that this was the summit this drive this moment it was their final touchdown of their final victory as a team on the way up nearly everything since has gone wrong for them it's as though these teams found a way to play football on such a chaotic frequency that it sent blast waves throughout the annals of history wrecking one would-be dynasty and launching another so the next time you see something like this something this hauntingly stupid something that seems like it belongs to another even dumber sport watch out the blades might be shifting you

Channel: Secret Base

Views: 1,239,588

Keywords: nfl, football, jets, mark sanchez, new york jets, chiefs, kansas city chiefs, jon bois, dorktown, todd haley, jets vs chiefs 2011, jets penalty drive, chiefs penalty drive, jets-chiefs penalty drive, nfl penalties, matt cassel, chiefs defense, jets offense, pass interference, unsportsmanlike conduct, jets-chiefs dorktown, butt fumble, rex ryan, tim tebow, darrelle revis, secret base, sb nation, jon bois dorktown, mark sanchez jets, bad football, funny football, jets lol

Id: wJLNQ83vm2g

Length: 18min 37sec (1117 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 13 2021