What Were They Thinking: Tomlin mismanages the clock; Giants again meltdown late

What Were They Thinking is a weekly post that helps you relive the foolish decisions from the week in the NFL. Enjoy the insanity.

Tomlin misuses the clock

Perhaps switching the clocks back an hour completely threw off Mike Tomlin's concept of time. The Steelers head coach made a bizarre decision in the closing moments against Cincinnati, costing his team the game.

With the Steelers down 13-10 and 2:41 left in the fourth, the Bengals had the ball at the Pittsburgh 26. Cincy ran the ball on first down, but Tomlin, still with all his timeouts, refused to take one and the Bengals let 38 seconds tick off the clock. Keep in mind, the Steelers were trying to get the ball back at this point and every second was precious.

What was more confusing was Tomlin's explanation after the game.

"To me, having the timeout was more significant than the 38 seconds," Tomlin said.

The whole point of keeping your timeouts is to use them to preserve as much time as possible, and saving 38-40 seconds is essentially the maximum value you can get out of a timeout. So Tomlin's logic is flawed and makes absolutely no sense.

Not surprisingly, the blunder came back to haunt the Steelers shortly thereafter. Cincy eventually kicked a field goal to go up 16-10 and a final drive by the Steelers ran out of time when they reached the Bengals' 16-yard line. If Ben Roethlisberger and company had another 38 seconds to work with, the Steelers could have easily escaped with a win.

Giants fall apart again in the final minute

The Giants are making late-game collapses look routine in 2015. Sunday's loss to the Saints, albeit not as egregious as earlier-season meltdowns, could have easily been avoided.

In a game that hardly featured any defense, the Saints were driving late to try and tie the score at 49. I say trying, but it was more of an inevitability at this point given how poorly New York's defense was playing. Coming out of the two-minute warning, Mark Ingram ran the ball down to the Giants' 11-yard line while the clock continued to move.

The Giants opted not to use a timeout, even though it was a virtual certainty New Orleans was marching in to tie the game. Using one there would have left the G-Men an extra 40 seconds to try and get into field-goal range for a winning kick in regulation. Instead, after a C.J. Spiller touchdown tied it, New York was left with only 36 seconds.

After the drive stalled, 20 seconds were left when Tom Coughlin sent Brad Wing out to punt. At this point, flashbacks of the nightmare that has since been dubbed the "Miracle at the Meadowlands II" should be racing through Coughlin's mind.

Either Coughlin somehow has no recollection of the event or just blocked it out of his mind entirely, because Wing kicked it right to Marcus Murphy instead of out of bounds. Murphy then returned it 24 yards as a facemask penalty helped the Saints get into field-goal range, where Kai Forbath won it for New Orleans.

There is no reason the Giants shouldn't have at least managed to get the game to overtime, but if there's a way to lose in the closing seconds, you can bet New York will find it.

Was Lovie Smith trying to lose?

You'll have to forgive Lovie Smith if he doesn't know what to do when leading late in a game, considering that it doesn't happen often.

Ahead by seven with two minutes left, the Bucs faced a fourth-and-1 at their 40. With Atlanta out of timeouts, the rational thing to do is punt and force it to drive the entire field for a tying touchdown. Smith, though, decided to go for it and Jameis Winston was stuffed on a bootleg. The Falcons wasted little time taking advantage of the gift and tying the score.

Going for it at that moment wasn't necessarily terrible, but the way the Bucs went about it was. Tampa had already lined up to go for it when Smith called a timeout as Winston snapped the ball. The Bucs ended up tipping their hand as the Falcons saw Winston deliver a play-action fake and head to his left before everyone realized the whistle had gone. So naturally, you'd think Tampa would run something different after it regrouped, but the team came back with the exact same play.

The Falcons read it easily and it's a miracle the Bucs eventually pulled out the win in overtime.

Quick Hits

• Colin Kaepernick opted not to throw the ball to an uncovered receiver, instead handing it off for a loss.

• The Jets decided to punt trailing by 14 with 3:19 to play on fourth-and-7.
• John Harbaugh challenged an incompletion on a pass to Crockett Gillmore. However, the Ravens already had a first down on the play thanks to a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty on San Diego. There was little to be gained for Harbaugh but a few extra yards and he ultimately lost the challenge and a timeout needlessly.