Oh. My. Sweet. Lord. Jesus. Christ. I had my concession post written twice with the mouse over the submit button. This may have been the greatest game I have ever seen.
And I never, ever want to see a game like this again. My heart will explode like an overripe melon.
You know who I really feel bad for? The Jets. They played their hearts out. They deserved to win. From one fan to another I tip my cap. That was a magnificent performance.
Exactly. The Steelers should have won in a blowout, but they played so poorly that against a better team (Indy or NE, you pick) they’d have been annihilated. The Jets scrapped their way to overtime and just couldn’t pull it off.
One hell of a game. I wonder how the AFC Championship is going to play out.
OK, now that I sort of have a grip on things, let me say that I agree with mhendo. It doesn’t matter who they play next week, if they play like that they’ll get beat by 50 points. That was without a doubt the worst game they played all year long and only through the grace of God (and this thread, which has been good luck for them all year) did they win.
Who do I want the Steelers to play next week? Neither of them. But since they have to play someone, I’d prefer the Patriots, if only because they beat them earlier this year and it’ll be in the back of their minds.
I’m hoping that this week was just rust. I really am.
I think at least as much blame goes on the NY coaches. They made the exact same mistake as the Chargers last week in setting up that field goal. In that situation that field goal is maybe a 50-50 shot.
The Jets certainly deserved to win - at least, everyone but their offense. They deserved it more than the Steelers. Three turnovers? Painfully easy interceptions?
Anyone else catch Burress half-assing it after the pick that was returned for a touchdown?
I guess as much as you may say all the right things about not being too overconfident, saying it and feeling it are still two different things.
Great game. They aren’t the Giants, so I’m not on the side of a bridge with a gun in my hand like I was after the 2000 Superbowl and the 2002 Wilcard round game in San Fran. I look at it this way: The average Superbowl winner gives its fans 3 playoff games, with at least one of them being a crappy, boring blowout. The Jets gave us almost 10 full quarters of heart-pounding excitement this post-season, so I feel pretty fulfilled as a fan. In fact, my throat is so raw from screaming that I can barely talk. It reminds me of the Midnight Miracle, though not as bad. (Being in the stands at that one, I screamed so loud that I practically shredded my vocal cords.)
Initially I blamed Brien. My comment was along the lines of “when the Jets physically throw him off the plane, at least there will be thousands of Steelers fans available to buy him free drinks tonight.” However, within 5 minutes I amended that attitude. (btw, the Rams defense is an abomination.) I hope that the fans who are currently slashing his tires and smashing his mailbox consider that Brien was the only offensive player to score any points at all. He will be the goat, because NY must villify someone, and will need to run away like the long snapper for the Giants had to. His phone will not ring next year, just like poor Scotty Norwood’s phone never rang after his kick went WIDE RIGHT. But, just like Norwood, this loss was not the kicker’s fault. The offense got 3 points. That is why we lost the game. Nothing else.
In fact, I lay most of the blame on The Chad for his horrendous throw to Moss on a drag route on 3rd and 3 late in the fourth quarter. Convert that down, and you spark some momentum for the game winning drive. Instead, we went three and out immediately after the Steelers tied the game. And we did it by blowing a high percentage pass on third and short. Unforgivable. The Chad needs to step up next season. I’m willing to reserve judgement until then, as it is not uncommon for a player to struggle his first year after signing his first big-time contract.
The kneel down was to expire the clock. There is a fixed amount of time run off the clock for any given field goal attempt distance. Six seconds would have guaranteed that there’d be one (or two) seconds left on the clock. It was an embarassment that they had to run another play, as opposed to calling the first timeout at the correct time. Yet another in a long series of woeful incidents of clock mismanagement late in the game by Herm Edwards. But I don’t begrudge Herm this shortcoming, as nobody plays harder for their coach than do the New York Jets.
At this point I’d like to levy a hearty FUCK YOU to all the pundits, sportswriters, and fans who never gave the Jets a chance last week or this week. I maintained that the Jets were a good team all along. Steelers fans shouldn’t worry too much. The Jets are a good team, and had a realistic shot at winning the Superbowl. It’s not like you were taken to OT by the Broncos. The Jets are the real deal.
Having said all that, GO STEELERS! There is no shame in losing to the Superbowl Champions.
That’s one way to look at it. The other, of course, if one is of a less… sunny disposition, is that the Jets got three turnovers, including two giveaways by Roethlisberger, one of which was a pick-six, plus a special teams touchdown, and they had the ball in their hands three different times with complete control of the game, and they didn’t step on the neck. I mean, the Steelers couldn’t have done much less to win, and the Jets didn’t capitalize. In other words, if they were going to beat the Steelers in any scenario, under any set of wild circumstances, this was it, and they didn’t do it.