I’ve had 4 hours in the car coming back from Pittsburgh to contemplate the game, and I’ve come up with a few things:
No way, no how should the game have been that close. That ref was either completely unqualified to call games or he was a homer. If Polamalu had stayed on the ground it would have been a pick. How is it possible that it’s NOT because he tried to get up? Answer: it’s not. Also, how is there no penalty one way or the other when the entire friggin’ defense crosses the line? They were drawn off or they jumped. It’s one or the other. And how about that awful call on the facemask. Ward was facemasking, not the defender.
Indy was beaten because the Steelers were watching when the Chargers beat them. If Peyton doesn’t have all day to throw the ball he’s no good. Every time Pittsburgh got pressure on him he folded.
Ben and Troy are the team MVPs. The Steelers go nowhere without them.
Indy was overrated, if that’s possible. Their vaunted defense was methodically picked apart most of the game. Their offense did their usual playoff choke.
Cowher almost lost because, in inimitable Cowher fashion, he went “conservative” rather than sticking to the plan that got him the big lead to begin with. Every time he goes into prevent mode it prevents him from winning. It took a lucky tackle by Roethlisberger and and king-sized choke from Vanderjagt to win, and that’s way too close by far when you have an 18-point lead in the 3rd.
Bettis, in what might have been his valedictory, almost blew the game. You can bet that that won’t happen again. Not that it was really his fault, mind you, but you know that he’ll protect the ball better next time.
My heart can’t take any more of those shenanigans. The next game needs to be convincing one way or the other.
In conclusion: bwahahaha! Suck it, Indy fans. Your team choked again, not that that’s a big surprise. It’s on to Denver, and then Detroit for the fifth Vinny for the best team in football, and it’s home for the biggest choke artists.
It’s different for offensive players. The reason that face masks are dangerous is because you can do serious damage to the neck when you drag somebody down by the facemask. The ball carrier is never trying to drag a defender down, so the facemask is fair game. For a prime, high-profile example of this in action, check out the Giants Bills Superbowl recap during Superbowl week this year; Otis Anderson literally grabs hold of a defender’s facemask (complete with fingers curled around for maximum grip) and holds it in place while running down the field. No harm, no foul.
You’d think he’d have learned his lesson in the Jets game last year in the playoffs.
Ah well, there’s always next year (living in Indy, one gets kinda used to saying that). Congrats to Pittsburgh, if the Colts can’t win a game at home, with interceptions and two questionable calls in their favor then, oh well. All in all it was a good game, the Steelers put up a little of the “finesse” game while we tried to play a little too physical in the first half. Having put their 21 on the board, the Steelers switched to the physical game and the Colts never made the transition. Leave it to our local drunk Canadian (no offence to either drunks or Canadians) to miss his first playoff kick ever.
Congrats to the Steelers again, stratigy well played, and I still believe NE softened up Denver enough to get youse guyse into Detroit, after that the NFC should be a cakewalk.
I may have to start watching “Saturday Night Live” again, just to see if they put on a skit ripping this ref by name. You can bet Jay Leno will be mentioning it…
Which raises the following trivia Q: what NFL ref was thus mocked in an SNL skit, featuring actor John Goodman as the unflappable ref heckled by the audience?
You’re pretty much right on every count. Contratulations to the Steelers. For about eight weeks I’ve felt it was the race to lose to Denver but best of luck anyhow.
First as Canadian I’d like to say to Vanderjagt: don’t lace them up again. You’ve had exactly two meaningful kicks in your career and you blew them both. Who cares if you’re money in the regular season. You can’t kick under pressure.
Secondly as a Colts fan I’d like to say to Dungy, Manning et al: You’ve had six weeks (or so) to prepare for the playoffs all the while knowing you’re playing in a dome right through the superbowl. I don’t really care how you had a rough couple of weeks. You are professionals. Act like it. You will never again have a better chance to win the superbowl. Fire your coach, rip apart your team, and start over, I’m tired of this.
Sorry if this sounds like a rant, I’ve had a bad day.
The ref knows the rule a lot better than we do, the replay was very clear, and he stated the reason for the reversal. In all liklihood, he made the right call according the rules; dumb rule, but good call (also see Brady, Tom; and ‘Tuck Rule’).
Agreed that that the false start/offsides non-call was awkward, but it’s a tough spot. They didn’t see it, but half the Colts defense jumped up and pointed at once, so it pretty much had to have happened. Then the Steelers stand up and shrug their shoulders, while the Colts are pointing with their arms across the line. Really, according the spirit of the law, a do-over isn’t that bad of a result.
(Yes, I realize that the second paragraph is completely antithetical to the first. I’m comfortable with that, strangely.)
Look, you can’t have it both ways: either the Colts are the better team, or they didn’t choke.
Then how come every single NFL analyst, both during the game AND in the post-game, called it one of the worst calls in NFL history. The rule says you must have possession and make a ‘football move.’ Now, while that’s ambiguous, I don’t think any ref in the history of football has ever considered falling on the ground, and rolling as if down NOT to be a ‘football move’ and extend it so that he has to get completely OFF the ground cleanly again to have it count. It just defies all reasoning. Like Airman said…if a defender touches him while he’s on the ground, it’s a pick, plain and simple, which means he HAD POSSESSION when he was on the ground. NEVER before has a player been required to get off the ground completely after a catch in order for the catch to count. The call was horrible.
There were horrible calls throughout the game…it’s just that the two worst were on plays seriously could have affected the outcome in the Colts favore…the INT reversal, and the non-call on perhaps the most blatant pass interference I’ve ever seen, on a 35-40 yard pass play. That call should have been made, and would have led to at least 3 points by the Steelers. The bad calls missed for the Colts were there too, but they weren’t as game-changing as the two biggies.
I’m just glad that the Steelers won, and they outplayed the Colts at nearly every turn, which is a good thing.
I’m guessing because it’s a dumb rule with which TV football analysts are unfamiliar. We’ll see – the NFL will probably make a statement about the call in a day or two.
Well, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s print edition had Morelli’s explanation for his call (if I can find it on-line, I’ll link to it). Here’s what he said:
I still don’t understand this ruling at all, but there it is.
I hear Steeler fans say this all the time and I just don’t understand where it’s coming from. Cowher has only lost 1 game in his career as the head coach of the Steelers when he’s had a lead of 11 points at any point during the game (now 102 wins, and 1 tie), a stat that is almost always mentioned during the game when he has a lead. Paul Alexander made this point on UPN last night after a complaining phone call. Bill Cowher is money when he has a substantial lead.
Also, last night I saw a replay of Big Ben’s tackle from the other endzone and that tackle may have been lucky, but Ben made that guy make 4 or 5 cuts before he tackled him. Instead of running toward him when he picked up the ball Ben went backwards and weaved back and forth making the ball carrier do the same, slowing him down significantly before making the tackle. It may have been the most heads up play by a QB after a turnover I’ve ever seen.
What do you expect from a fan base that has to be begged by the organization to come to the game and not sell their tickets to Steelers fans.
I have it from 2 sources that during the 5 minute review of Polamalu’s int, that the only only sound that could be heard in the stadium was a “Here we go Steelers, Here we go!” chant.
Yeah, but in close games when he is supposedly “protecting” the lead he has lost many a game, and his conservative do-nothing-but-run strategy at the end when they had up to 9 in the box almost cost the Steelers yesterday. They had to convert 2 4th-and-inches, when they could have run a play-action pass and gotten big gains, maybe even put points on the board.
He might win when he gets an 11-point lead, but he makes it much more exciting than it has to be far too often, especially when he doesn’t have a lead that sizeable. Think back to Week 3 when they lost to the Pats. The Steelers were up, and he tried to defend the lead rather than just playing the game.
The Prevent defense only prevents you from winning. It gives up everything underneath to stop the deep pass, and a few quick outs will get you down the field and put you in a bad position almost as quickly. The only way to defend a lead is to play like you’ve been playing the whole game. In yeasterday’s game, that means mixing a few passes in to keep Indy honest.
Somewhere (GQ, I think), I posted about this whole “football move” thing being absolute crap. For some reason it doesn’t apply in the end zone though. More to the point, according to Morelli’s reasoning about having to “make an act common to the game of football,” if Polamalu would have landed on his back with the ball tightly clutched between his arms and made no attempt to get up, for say, 35 minutes, then tried to get up and knocked the ball out with his knee while one knee was still down, then it would have still been incomplete. Yes, that’s taken to an extreme, but according to Morelli’s ruling, that’s how it would have gone down.
So the call was awful because of the “football move” idiocy, or CBS producers said they didn’t want people tuning out, or Fat Tony called and said make Indy win by 4 to blow out the teasers. Too close to call.
All that being said…Steelers win, Pitt beats Louisville…a pretty damned great day. On to Denver!!!
Wow! What a finish!
I just wanted to see if anyone else picked up on the wonderful psychological study in emotions shown after the missed field goal? Three words uttered by the 4 principal players as shown on the telecast.
Tony Dungy: “He missed it.”, mouthed in quiet disbelief.
Manning: “He missed it.” said through clenched teeth and a rictus smile.
Bettis: “He missed it.”, said with growing relief and joy.
Cowher: “He missed it.”, as his cartoon frown burst into a toothy grin of happiness.
I thought the same thing at first, but when they showed the replay you could see that Ward got facemasked first. They both had hold of each other’s grills for a second but the Indy DB (I don’t remember who it was) did it first and did it a little bit longer. The zebras actualy got that one right.
Not that it excuses any of the other miserable calls- especially the Polumalu reversal.
They showed that very montage on ESPN this morning. The only thing different was Bettis was last and the announcer filled in the voice, showing more and more excitement with each person, ending with Bettis jubilant.
