The Super Bowl is football’s biggest stage, so it stands to reason that the decisions made in those games are the ones that will be picked apart for years to come. Here’s our look at the 10 worst coaching decisions made in the big game.

10. Mike Ditka giving the ball to Refrigerator Perry (Super Bowl XX)

This one didn’t have the losing consequences of some of the decisions on this list, but Ditka admits he made a mistake in giving a goal-line carry to a national curiosity rather than the Hall of Famer who had carried the Bears for more than a decade. It was the definition of a first-world problem — how many championship teams have been able to argue over who scores the touchdowns? — but the decision crushed Payton in the moments afterward.

9. Bill Parcells kicks it to Desmond Howard (Super Bowl XXXI)

The Heisman winner from Michigan had already nearly broken a couple of kick returns early in the game, but that didn’t prevent Parcells from making the decision to kick the ball to Howard a fourth time. The Patriots had just narrowed the Packers lead to 27-21 with a few minutes left to play in the third quarter. That score lasted only as long as it took Howard to take the ball 99 yards for a touchdown. Considering the two-touchdown margin of victory, the Packers might have won the game anyway, but there’s no doubt that decision led to Howard winning Super Bowl MVP with his 154 return yards instead of Brett Favre in his only Super Bowl victory.

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8. Tony Dungy kicks it to Devin Hester (Super Bowl XLI)

If we’re going to criticize Parcells for kicking it to Howard, we might as well dock Dungy for kicking off to Devin Hester to start the Bears-Colts Super Bowl in 2007. The rookie returner had scored off a combined five punts and kicks that season, a total that had Dungy telling his team all week that they wouldn’t be kicking to Hester. Dungy, however, changed his mind late in the week and decided the Colts would look “scared” if they kicked away from Hester. That knee-jerk decision would give the Bears a 7-0 lead just 13 seconds into the game. Thankfully for Dungy, Peyton Manning, the Colts defense and Rex Grossman were around to let Dungy off the hook.

7. Bill Belichick benches Malcolm Butler (Super Bowl LII)

We may never know the reason why Belichick kept Butler on the sideline in Minnesota. And while further developments could change our minds, Belichick keeping his best defensive back on the bench as Nick Foles and the Eagles shredded the Patriots’ secondary goes as a big mark against the greatest coach of all time.

6. Joe Gibbs’ risky screen play (Super Bowl XVIII)

Have you ever cursed your coach when he elected to take a knee at the end of the half instead of trying for another score? Joe Gibbs might be in the back of said coach’s mind. Trailing the Los Angeles Raiders 14-3 with just 12 seconds in the first half, Gibbs called for a screen pass at Washington’s own 12-yard line. Though the play went for 67 yards earlier in the season, this result was much more disastrous as Jack Squirek picked off Joe Theismann’s pass for a pick-six and a 21-3 halftime lead. The Raiders would go on to win in a 38-9 blowout, the AFC’s last win in the Super Bowl for the next 13 years.

5. Andy Reid takes his sweet time (Super Bowl XXXIX)

He’s one of the greatest coaches to never win the Super Bowl, but Reid’s reputation for bad clock mismanagement is one of the reasons he’s on this list. Reid has had a few high-profile clock mistakes, but none of them came on a bigger stage than his first and only Super Bowl appearance as a head coach. Trailing the Patriots by 10 with 5:40 to go in the game, Reid oversaw a dawdling Eagles touchdown drive that took almost a full four minutes. The time consumption forced Philadelphia to try an unsuccessful onside kick rather than pinning the Patriots deep and trying to force a stop. Though the Eagles would get the ball back with 46 seconds left, it was at their own 4-yard line with no timeouts — a situation that Donovan McNabb was unable to create anything from.

4. Bill Belichick going for it on 4th-and-13 (Super Bowl XLII)

You might remember the 18-0 and heavily favored Patriots lost this game by a mere three points after Eli Manning went on his miracle drive with David Tyree and Plaxico Burress. What you might not remember is that in the third quarter, Belichick had a chance to extend the Pats’ 7-3 lead with a 48-yard field goal attempt by Stephen Gostkowski. He instead went for it on fourth-and-13, an attempt that failed. Belichick’s defenders point out that Gostkowski’s longest FG that season was only 45 yards, but the chances of him tacking on an extra 3 yards had to be better than converting fourth-and-13 against the Giants. Chalk this one up to simple arrogance and the Patriots refusing to acknowledge deep into the game that the Giants had them in a dogfight where every point mattered.

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