like a chicken with its head cut off

And then Art had me—eager, enthusiastic, willing to help but with energy more like a chicken with its head cut off.

“Our shape is terrible. We’re not connected from front to back. … We have to fight, but we have to work hard and we have to be smart about how we go about it. We can’t just run around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

“We were running around like a chicken with its head cut off, throwing stuff into the car. Then we say, ‘Okay, that’s it … we got to go.”

If the justices strike the law, Bagley said, "I honestly think the likeliest outcome is that Congress runs around like a chicken with its head cut off, doesn't come to a deal, and we're back to where we were before 2010," when the ACA passed.

My mother would say they acting like a chicken with its head cut off.