Coaches’ challenge sinks some top teams

Is the coach’s challenge system the advantage that separates the master tacticians from the also-rans? This season that is not the case: not only did only four playoff teams fare better than even, but three teams that beat the house fired their coaches. In fact, all but one of the teams earning a first-round bye are in the bottom five in red-flag success, with those teams combining in a 2-for-15 success rate. The Ravens’ John Harbaugh saw a dozen calls he didn’t like, but he also had the most reversals (tied with four other coaches). Cowboys coach Jason Garrett followed up his 5-for-5 season in 2012 with an “oh-fer” on two replay challenges. The percentage of overturns that are on reviews initiated by the replay official are shown about two-thirds down the list at 38%. Of course, there is no disadvantage for the replay official to be wrong (loss of timeout), nor is the replay booth limited in the number of challenges.

	Coach			Reversals	Challenges	Success %
1	Leslie Frazier	â€	MIN	1	1	 1.000
2	Andy Reid	*	KC	7	8	 .875
	Joe Philbin		MIA	7	8	 .875
4	Chuck Pagano	*	IND	6	7	 .857
5	Jim Schwartz	â€	DET	4	5	 .800
	Tom Coughlin		NYG	4	5	 .800
7	Marvin Lewis	*	CIN	7	9	 .778
8	Pete Carroll	*	SEA	7	10	 .700
9	Bruce Arians		AZ	4	6	 .667
	Mike Tomlin		PIT	4	6	 .667
	Mike Smith		ATL	2	3	 .667
12	Marc Trestman		CHI	3	5	 .600
	Gary Kubiak/Wade Phillips	â€	HOU	3	5	 .600
14	John Harbaugh		BAL	7	12	 .583
15	Rob Chudzinski	â€	CLE	3	6	 .500
	Chip Kelly	*	PHI	3	6	 .500
	Mike Shanahan	â€	WAS	3	6	 .500
	Sean Payton	*	NO	2	4	 .500
	Mike McCoy	*	SD	2	4	 .500
20	Doug Marrone		BUF	3	7	 .429
21	Mike McCarthy	*	GB	2	5	 .400
—	Replay Booth		NFL	90	237	 .380
22	Jeff Fisher		STL	1	3	 .333
23	Gus Bradley		JAX	2	7	 .286
	Rex Ryan		NYJ	2	7	 .286
25	Jim Harbaugh	*	SF	2	8	 .250
	Mike Munchak	â€	TEN	2	8	 .250
	Dennis Allen		OAK	1	4	 .250
28	Ron Rivera	*	CAR	1	7	 .143
	John Fox	*	DEN	1	7	 .143
30	Bill Belichick	*	NE	0	1	—
31	Jason Garrett		DAL	0	2	—
	Greg Schiano	â€	TB	0	2	—
—	Coach’s total			96	184	 .522

Totals including replay official: 186/421, .442. *- Qualified for 2013 playoffs. †No longer with team. Source: NFL game statistics, regular season only. Image: NFL coaches at the offseason owners meeting; Bill Belichick and Sean Payton are not pictured (NFL handout photo/Brian McCarthy).