The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Headset malfunction contributes to loss
Browns head coach Hue Jackson says a headset malfunction is the reason he called a timeout when one didn’t seem necessary with just under five minutes remaining in the game with the Chargers on Dec. 3.
The Browns were facing third-and-goal from the 15, down 19-10, with 4:59 remaining when Jackson called timeout. Thirteen seconds were left on the play clock and quarterback DeShone Kizer hadn’t received the play call because Jackson was unable to call the play into Kizer’s radio helmet.
The timeout seemed valuable at the time. But then Kizer lost the ball when Chargers end Joey Bosa knocked the ball loose in a strip sack on the play after the timeout.
“All game there was an issue with our headsets and with the coach-to-quarterback communicator,” Jackson said. “He (Kizer) never got the play at all.
“It was either you’re going to end up getting a penalty or we try to get up on the ball earlier. I think, in the second quarter, he called a play (on his own) because he couldn’t get it. We ended up running a play into a bad defense that we shouldn’t run because he couldn’t hear anything.”
The Chargers play their home games at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.
Jackson said he was told another team, unidentified, had similar headset problems, but Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said the headset malfunction was news to him.
“It’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Lynn told reporters in Los Angeles when informed what Jackson said. “We didn’t have any problems on our sideline.”
The Chargers did nothing wrong by continuing to use their headsets even when the Browns could not use their own. The NFL rulebook states: “In the event one club experiences a coach-to-player radio system malfunction or failure, the other club does not have to shut down its system and may continue using it. However, if the coaches’ intercom system has been completely shut down on both sidelines pursuant to the equity rule, all coaches’ headsets must be removed, and radio communications from the sidelines to the field must be conducted by walkie-talkie only.”
The only time the headsets have to be shut down is if the coach-to-coach communication of one team — home or visitor — isn’t working.
Jackson said the communication problems began in the first quarter. He said he tried using a walkie-talkie, but that also malfunctioned, Jackson said.
“Our people worked their tails off yesterday trying to get that done,” Jackson said. “I’ve asked the officials if the same thing was happening on the other side, but this started in the first quarter and it didn’t stop.
“This is a league issue. We’ll take it up with the league. We heard there was another team that had the same issue one time at that particular stadium. These things really happen, so we had to deal with it, but that is not why we lost that game; I’ll be the first to tell everybody that — but it sure didn’t help some of the situations that we were in.”