No. The Colt who was flagged wasn’t even the same Colt the Steeler grabbed by the facemask, and the two incidents were a few seconds apart.
In my experience, there’s a lot of lenience given the ball carrier. I’ve seen Emmit Smith take a guy’s head off during a run, and not get flagged. Offensive players rarely get flagged, and the ball carrier almost never. So they were consistent in their playcalling with the way they do things, even if the runner got a handful of facemask before he was brought down.
Am I the only person here who thinks Peyton Manning is a whiney bitch? Suck it up, dude. You lost. Be a leader and lead, instead of blaming it all on your teammates.
Maybe so, but they’re still in it, which is better than 28 teams can say. I think the Steelers can win in Denver. They’ve been world-beaters on the road all year, they have a stellar run defense, and Rod Smith and company are not Harrison and Stokely so barring some bizarro calls like this week’s game I think they should take it.
Actually, it’s their job to know the rules better. However, I have yet to see/hear anyone quoting any rule that would explain the reversal.
On the NFL.com site, they posted an article that says “The issue was whether he had possession. The ball came loose when he was getting up. Pete Morelli determined it wasn’t a catch,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. “That was his judgment.”
Particularly since Manning oh-so-often audibles to the linemen the protection scheme he wants. Ya know, if they didn’t block a particular blitzer, perhaps it’s because you directed them to block someone else? Mayhaps it was because you didn’t see that X defender was coming after you?
This was admittedly not the classiest thing he could have said, but I would tend to give him just a little bit of slack for something said in a state of such bitter disappointment and I would also point out that it was accurate. The biggest problem the Colts had was that they couldn’t keep the heat off the quarterback. Peyton had a pocket about the size of bathtub all day long.
What are you basing your assertion that the Colts were the better team statistically on?
QB Rating Manning - 90.9
QB Rating Big Ben - 95.3
3rd Down Efficiency - Pitt (6-14) was better than Indy (3-13)
4th Down Efficiency - Pitt (2-2) was better than Indy (1-2)
Pittsburgh also had more sacks than Indianapolis (5-2).
The difference in total yards wasn’t that great (305-295) in favor of Indianapolis. The only statistical area where the Colts had a clear advantage was in turnovers (2-0).
This is a good point and he’s also the play caller, so if he was talking about either play calling or blocking schemes he was talking about himself. All that would be left is the execution of the O-linemen themselves and to me it didn’t look like the O-line sucked so much as they were just overwhelmed by the blitzes all day. Manning also threw a few airballs and missed open receivers when he wasn’t under duress so maybe he needs to look i the mirror a little bit.
I still think you almost have to ignore what people say directly in the aftermath of that kind of loss, though. People are going to say things they don’t mean just from sheer frustration.
What was more surprising to me was how aggressively Joey Porter went afterthe officials. He literally accused them of “cheating” and of “wanting Indianapolis to win.” And that’s after he won.
I think that what Airman is trying to say is that coming into the game, the Colts were the better team statistically, but in the game, the Steelers played better.
Besides, by any definition of “choke” I’ve ever heard, a “better” team simply doesn’t execute under pressure and gets beat by a team that outplayed them(see: Ottawa Senators 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004).
I disagree. The biggest problem the Colts had was that they had one of the best rushers in the NFL this year and took him out of the game so that Pitt never had to worry about him. James only got 13 carries, in which he rushed for 56 yards. They only had one good drive in the first half and it prominently involved James getting lots of touches. I guess Manning got a bit jealous then because James got only 3 rushing attempts in the second half, and only had 3 receiving opportunities (counting the times James dropped a ball or something). I wonder how many times the coordinator called a rushing play, just to have Manning change it. It’s like Martz screwing up the Rams’ second Super Bowl chance because he wanted to win by fancy passing instead of using Faulk.
Here’s a plan, genius boy. Since Pittsburgh made it abundantly clear they were going to bring extreme pressure pretty much every play, why not call a bunch of quick dumpouts to James that way you can pad your passing stats AND not kill your team’s drive?
It’s not like that wasn’t on the tip of everybody’s tongue. I said it before: those refs were either terribly incompetent or homers. This was the worst game I ever saw officiating-wise since Bettis called the coin toss on Thanksgiving a few years back and everybody on the planet but the ref heard it.
Q: When you’re caught and banned from football, what will you do?
A: Well, I don’t see any reason why I would be banned, but after I retire, I plan to spend more time with my son.
Q: And do you plan to teach him deception and chicanery?
Good times…
Hey, I’m not saying Porter was wrong. I’m just surprised that he said it out loud. He still has to play next week. If Porter comes in on a blitz and some Bronco tight end or running back decides to grab a handful of jersey, I have a feeling the officials might not see it.
No, we don’t agree. I think the two teams were about equally matched, but the Colts were the team that went 13-3 in the regular season and were all but preordained to win the Super Bowl. And they lost. That is the textbook definition of a sports choke.
As a fan, of course I’m going to talk my team up. Are they the best? Maybe. We’ll see. I, however, am not constrained by objectivity, so I’m going to talk them up every chance I get.
Just out of curiosity, why are you being super-analytically obtuse about this? The bottom line is that the Colts lost. None of the other stuff matters.
Well, I guess we disagree about the definition of a choke. Unless you lose to a team that you should beat, I don’t see how the word can apply.
Oh, mostly residual frustration from other message boards. I’m a Giants fan, but I did enjoy watching the Colts play, and I was hoping they’d win the Superbowl. Instead, they lost, and all the Peyton Manning haters come out in full bloom anyway, for some reason. Manning’s a choke artist (which is BS*); Manning’s a whiner (granted, but so are most football players); Manning’s getting help from the refs (absurd).
Besides, I’m not the one who brought up the “other stuff.” I’m just disagreeing with some opinions others have shared.
–> Mannings stats from his last six playoff games: 317 yards per game, 66.2% Comp., 8.81 yards per attempt, 14 TD : 6 INT. Five of those six games were against elite defenses (New England, Denver, and Pittsburgh). These numbers compare favorably with virtually any other QB, Tom Brady included. Peyton Manning is not the reason the Colts haven’t won a Super Bowl.
