As i said in the NFL Week 13 thread, despite being a Ravens fan, i’ve always had plenty of time for Mike Tomlin. He’s a great coach, and seems to be a good guy.
But that step onto the field during the Jones runback was complete bullshit. No-one will convince me that he didn’t know where he was or what he was doing. It was straight-up cheating.
As far as the game goes, i thought the Ravens got a bit lucky really. They played pretty well, but they always seem to give up yards too easy over the last quarter when they play the Steelers.
I hope the NFL hits him hard with a fine. I hate that kind of Mickey Mouse bullshit. Tomlin did that because he saw his season (and maybe his job) going down the tubes with a TD return.
I agree. That smile was a smarmy thing, and I thought the exact same thing when I saw it. Too bad the returner didn’t swerve right into him and blow him up on the sidelines.
I hope the Rooneys feel embarrassed enough by this to fire him after the season is over. He can take Haley with him.
I don’t see any way the Steelers get that last wild card. They are behind too many teams now, and they still have to play the Bengals and Packers. 9-7 will most likely take the spot, but the Steelers need to win out AND get a bunch of help. Not likely.
One thing I will say is any team that goes on the road on thanksgiving really gets screwed. They get a short week, AND have to travel. For a game as important as the Ravens-Steelers usually is, it shouldn’t have been played last night. I understand the ratings game, but I’d say the same thing if the Steelers had the home field and won the game. You just can’t make that game a divisional game, like GB-Detroit or Pitt-Balt. A game like Dallas-Oak is still bad, but it’s inter-conference, so the Raiders loss won’t kill them like a division or conference loss could come tie-breaker time.
The Rooney’s won’t fire Tomlin for the bullshit punk-ass move on the return, but screw a fine. The NFL should suspend his ass. 2 games at least, maybe 3 or 4. The message has to be sent that it’s unacceptable behavior.
Look Tomlin, you want to impact the play? Suit the fuck and get on the field or get your ass on the sideline where you belong.
This Thanksgiving weekend has been all kinds of screwed up. Next year I’m going to be at home. Period. All I wanted to do was watch the game, but nooooo, I had to miss the entire first half.
Anyway, on to the two controversies.
Tomlin ought to be fined. It’s a rule, and whether or not it was intentional he broke it. All scoring plays are replayed, and on the replay there was no evidence that he affected the play anywhere near enough to award a touchdown. Oh, to the average Ravens fan what he did was jump out into the field and make the guy juke him out which saved the touchdown, but it’s just not so.
The second one: Where was the interference on the 2-point conversion at the end? The defender never turned around. He never saw the ball. He did ride Sanders to the ground, though. Throw the flag, refs.
So, after that debacle it’s looking even more unlikely the Steelers will pull it out. That said, they still have the Browns, Packers and Dolphins, all eminently winnable games, and you never know what might happen against the Bengals. They need help, but when the teams they need help against are 7-5 and 6-6 the help is available. I’m still not giving up. Will I ever? Sure, the moment the Steelers are officially eliminated from the playoffs and not a moment sooner.
I have no problem with a fine. He should be held responsible for being on the field of play regardless of why he was doing it (and frankly the NFL needs to start fining every coach for walking onto the field). A suspension just seems a bit over the top.
Players on the field, yes. I said that. Coaches have no business injecting themselves into the game. Next team that plays the Steelers should have an LB run straight through Tomlin. Knock him down and knock him out. Take the 15 yards. Tomlin wants to play, make him a legit target. See how long that lasts.
It was a bullshit move by a coach who knows he’s on the hot seat. FWIW, I agree with Airman Doors that it wasn’t going to be a TD either way, but the rule for coach’s interference ought to be an automatic 7 for the other team plus the penalized team gets the ball to kick off. The coaches are NOT players and shouldn’t EVER physically influence play on the field.
It was certainly replayed, in the sense that video was shown. But was it reviewed by the Officials? Did they make a determination there was no evidence of significant effect on the play? (I don’t recall seeing this happen.)
Is there any way to be sure of this? Or is it just what an average (or in this case possibly above-average) Steelers fan would conclude?
Nobody is talking about Suisham’s botched FG attempt. Why was that not a false start, 5 yard penalty, and then a punt? (Or a 55 yard FG attempt)
If it’s not a false start, then why can’t a team have a running back take a 10 yard head start towards the line before the ball is snapped? That was a huge miss that seems to get no coverage.
I think there’s a limit on how far a player can move forward prior to the snap, but I think mostly it’s about difficulty of timing the snap to match the runup.
Apparently Velasco has been put on IR. What little remaining chance the Steelers had of still making the playoffs certainly has to be diminished by his loss. His acquisition after losing Pouncey was one of the few bright spots this year. I’m not sure what the time frame for returning from a torn Achilles typically is, but hopefully he’ll be able to make it back for the start of next season. This blows.
Basically, the kicker would have to have the ball set with about three steps left so he could sight it for the kick. So, the holder would have to watch the kicker and call for the snap at the appropriate moment. But, then, the D could watch the kicker, time the snap for themselves and charge the line more effectively to block. But most importantly, having watched not a few kickoffs, it looks to me as though you might be sacrificing accuracy for distance: the three-step field goal is probably a more likely score than a longer run-up.
(Still, I guess Alabama would have preferred to have the distance in Saturday’s game.)
I’m the eternal optimist but this is an awfully big hurdle to overcome. Unfortunately it might not be the only bad news. They signed a Center and a Tackle for depth; that indicates there may be more to come on Beachum and Adams going down in the same game. Hopefully that’s not the case but it’s an odd signing otherwise.
Likely Cody Wallace will start at C but Foster has played there in the past so maybe they move him over and Whimper comes in at G. Neither scenario is great at this point but Ben has bought into Haley’s quick passes and that has kept the heat off the o-line lately so maybe it will work. There won’t be a running game though, they’ll have to go back to an Arians style running game with those weird little draws from pistol and shotgun formations to get any yards on the ground now.
Velasco deserves a medal for what he did this season. I hope we see him back next year.
