Dirty Dozen: Game's Best, Worst Closers

About 20 years ago, an AP sports writer in Denver named John Mossman went through all of John Elway's games with the Broncos and wrote a story chronicling the number of times he had led fourth-quarter or overtime drives that either won or tied games.

It became an instant stat.

For the next decade, PR men extraordinaire Jim Saccomano in Denver and Harvey Greene in Miami battled annually with lists showing Elway ahead of Dan Marino, or vice versa. Joe Montana probably was ahead of both, but the 49ers PR department declined for a long time to play. But now it's standard -- teams keep lists like that on every quarterback right down to Matthew Stafford, who had his first game-winner on Sunday in the second win of his career.

But it's also a somewhat phony stat. Yes, Elway and Marino and Montana and Peyton Manning and other great QBs have a lot, and so did golden oldies like Roger Staubach, Johnny Unitas, Otto Graham and Bobby Layne. But winning and losing games is a team effort and, obviously, so is closing them out.

Example: Sunday's Falcons-Giants game.

Presumably the PR staffs on both teams gave Eli Manning and Matt Ryan credit for one of those drives. First Ryan brought the Falcons from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to send the game in overtime (check!), then Eli drove the Giants to the winning field goal on the first drive of overtime (check!). We know Eli is good at those things (see Super Bowl XVII and the opening of Jerry Jones' pleasure palace this season for other examples), but this one came because Ryan called "tails'' to start overtime and it came up "heads'' in a game where it was clear that whichever team got the ball was not going to relinquish it.

But for bad team efforts, you have to look at the Houston Texans, four of whose five losses this season came in the final minutes. All were due to K(Ch)ris Brown -- thanks to ESPN for that one. Kris Brown, the kicker, missed two potential game-tying field goals. Chris Brown, the running back, fumbled on the goal line against Indianapolis with the Texans a TD behind and two minutes left, and failed to get into the end zone in the final minutes of a 28-21 Week 3 loss to the Jaguars. Give Matt Schaub a black mark in the Cardinals game, too -- Arizona got the winning TD on an interception by Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie with 2:30 left.

So here we have the Texans, a team that's never been better than 8-8 at 5-5 when they could be 9-1. Or, realistically, maybe 7-3 with a much better shot at a playoff spot than they currently have. Why? They are bad closers and Schaub is only part of it. There's also a history -- a 27-10 lead midway through the fourth quarter at home to the Colts last year, a game blown by Sage Rosenfels in Schaub's place.

Gary Kubiak, the coach whose job MIGHT hang on a plus-.500 finish, acknowledged this week that the late-game woes are a team effort -- like the drives that Tennessee put together to get the game-winning field goal Monday.

"We had them backed up twice. Inside the eight-minute mark in the game, we had them, I think, on the six one time and on the 10 one time, and we let them out of the hole both times,'' he said. "So that was disheartening, because we had the game on basically our end of the field with an excellent chance to win. Field position-wise, we were in excellent shape as a team, but we just didn't finish the drill."

You also can argue that Kubiak's clock management in the final desperate drive -- taking his last timeout after taking a knee to set up a 49-yard kick was a little dubious, too. Yes, some coaches close better than others.

Top 6 "Closers"

1. Indianapolis: This isn't just recent history. Whatever he says, Bill Belichick went for it on fourth-and-two from his own 28 in Indy because he didn't want Peyton Manning to get the ball with two minutes left. From 70 yards, from 30 yards, from anywhere. Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis also finish well on defense.

2. New England: Belichick also went for it on fourth-and-two from his own 28 because Tom Brady is on his side. Another guy you don't want with the ball if you're an opponent, especially with Randy Moss and Wes Welker -- in the Super Bowl that Eli won, Brady's mistake was scoring too quickly and too soon.

3. Minnesota: Brett Favre to Greg Lewis to beat SF. Brett's another guy .... you get the picture. Nor do you want to try to come back with Jared Allen coming at your QB.

4. Detroit: VERY recent history. Like Matthew Stafford somehow escaping and drawing the first pass interference (unofficially) on a Hail Mary in a dozen seasons.

5. Tennessee: It's hard to defend a quarterback who can run. And get out of bounds. Vince Young has a history -- he came back from 21-0 down in the fourth quarter against the Giants in 2006 to win 24-21.

6. Pittsburgh: We'll give them the Super Bowl comeback. But this year, if the Steelers leave any time at all, they have to kickoff -- and the odds are about 50-50 that it will be returned for a touchdown.

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Bottom 6 "Closers"

26. New York Giants: Eli is probably close to Peyton as a late-game QB. Not only the Super Bowl and the Dallas game this year, but the NFC championship and a game in 2006 when he completed 16 of 17 (the incomplete was a spike) to bring the Giants back from a 24-7 deficit in Philly to win in OT. But the defense has been woeful late -- two drives in the fourth quarter to Atlanta last week and a game-losing drive to San Diego in the previous game.

27 Cincinnati: Let's just base it on last week: 10 points in 18 seconds to lose, including a game-tying drive to Oakland's Bruce Gradkowski. Then a fumbled kickoff to set up the losing field goal. A division leader has to do better than that.

28. Philadelphia: Can move up and down the field. But can't convert short yardage and Andy Reid tends not to try -- too many field goals.

30 Cleveland: A good finishing team does NOT tackle a guy in the end zone on a Hail Mary, especially when the zebras won't call it unless it's that flagrant. Of course, the Browns are rarely in position to win anyway, but ....

31. Chicago: Jay Cutler has been generally bad for the last month. He's worse inside the 20. The plus is kicker Robbie Gould, but that means the Bears have to be within three points.

32. Houston: See above. A 5-5 team that should be a lot better.