The Game Ball Thread: Week 15 at Pittsburgh
- Thread starter SeoulSoxFan
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I don’t know. Brees completed 124 balls to running backs last season. That is a ton. NO also had two other WRs but Cooks still caught a lot more balls in the short and intermediate range than he has here. He averaged around 13 yards per catch in NO and 17 with us.
I thought it was that Ben wanted to clock it but sideline overruled that, so Eli ran the play.
Either way--Steelers talk before the game, lose, talk after game.
Shut up dudes.
I'm not too sure how well taken Rodney's point is anyways given that nobody else seemed to be running the play.
Either way, it reminds me of that last second Pats FG a few weeks back. Just those little things we always seem to be prepared for whereas other teams aren't.
Not related to Game Balls at all, but I think this game is going to make an excellent installment of NFL Turning Point -- especially the audio. And BB's analysis will also be fun to watch.
Yeah, I agree with this point overall, I wouldn't say Cooks has been a disappointment, and he has never been a pure move-the-chains type receiver, but there have been a couple of matchups this year where teams were daring the Pats to go to him outside on 3rd down and the execution wasn't really there. It's something I would hope might come out next year with more offseason work.
Not sure what Charlie Weiss is complaining about. 2nd half for the Pats was 2 TD drives, 1 FG, 1 punt, 1 INT. And the INT was on Brady, not the play call.
Anyway, it's a stupid rule, in that it relegates player performance to mere technicalities. But, the replay reversal is NOT why the Steelers lost. There was a legal series of plays that was perfectly suited for the final drive: a spike and a field goal. I don't see how any trickery has any higher probability than the chip shot field goal and the 50/50 chance to win in overtime.
Game ball to Gronk; there's a reason why he was so badly missed last week.
Anyway, it's a stupid rule, in that it relegates player performance to mere technicalities. But, the replay reversal is NOT why the Steelers lost. There was a legal series of plays that was perfectly suited for the final drive: a spike and a field goal. I don't see how any trickery has any higher probability than the chip shot field goal and the 50/50 chance to win in overtime.
Game ball to Gronk; there's a reason why he was so badly missed last week.
Yeah I didn't want to be the turd, but I was a little surprised there was no taunting call on Gronk. I'm glad, because it was hilarious.
There should be a montage with radio highlights on Toucher and Rich tomorrow morning. Might be best to tune in at the top of each hour or get the podcast.
Also I believe it was Richards who wrestled a Steelers receiver (Bell?) to the ground hard after forward contact was clearly stopped — could easily have been called a personal foul.
Agreed, I've seen the same thing, as well as timing being slightly off on slants and other bread-and-butter short patterns. I'm hoping that it just comes over time.
This is like the worst post ever. It implies that you're judging another post based on who they root for rather than the quality of their posting.
not a catch and not a catch
If there is such a thing as an atrocity in a professional sport played for entertainment, any rule that leads to the decision that Calvin Johnson did not catch that ball is a sports atrocity.
Wasn’t that the fourth time or so he’d (or others) tried to explain to that poster why it wasn’t a catch?
The rule is you need to maintain possession all the way to the ground. I guess the confusion is at what point does the rule no longer matter.
You need to read what you’ve written before you hit reply. You’ve done this a few times in this very thread.
As you, yourself just said.... the rule no longer matters after a player has gone all the way to the ground.
And it’s not the confusion. It’s your confusion. It’s an easy rule to understand. Everyone here is having no trouble grasping it.
I'm sorry, but the judges were looking for "he was always playing the angles".
Yeah, that was my implication. We were on about the third or fourth post by the same poster going over the same ground. I was a couple of replies to the poster into it and we weren't connecting. We all have obvious biases. I think it's an easy call, but there's no shame in admitting that may be because I'm a Patriots fan. If axx is really a neutral it's interesting to me to try to understand what he or she is seeing and to understand it. But as the conversation wore on it seemed likely what people were saying about the rule just wasn't sinking in. That's still the case. If axx is a Steelers fan then it's probably best to just let it go because we're more likely having an emotional discussion (on both his and my sides) and it's not really going to get anywhere.
I believe both Roethlisberger and Eli confirmed in post-game interviews that Ben signaled that he would throw a slant to Eli. Part of the problem is that there was no time to signal to the entire offense that there would be a play, or what the play would be. So everyone but Ben and Eli were expecting a spike; therefore, no chance for any pick plays or other moves by the other receivers. So the only option was to throw into triple coverage with a predictable result, or throw the ball away and hope that the officials don't call grounding.
The play had no chance of working. So, it was not a daring play call to win the game; it was just stupid.
Wasn't this a drop by Bell? I thought they could have called something there, but it would have been a marginal call at best. Richards can't assume the Bell dropped it, and we can't assume that he saw the ball hit the ground. He played that as if it was a catch and the runner needed to be tackled. Also, if you watch the play again Bell makes it look worse than it actually was because he tries to fling Richards away after he had dropped it. Good no call in my book.
I have to apologize to Corrente’s crew. I was dreading them on this game as they are flag happy.
For the most part they stayed out of the game, and not the staying out of the game where people want the refs to just let them play by not calling egregious penalties.
They were fairly consistent on what they called.
For the most part they stayed out of the game, and not the staying out of the game where people want the refs to just let them play by not calling egregious penalties.
They were fairly consistent on what they called.
I too was worried /curious when I saw him do that live. Completely expecting a taunting flag at that point and glad it wasn't thrown. As the 4th quarter progressed and Gronk made play after play, by the 2 pt conversion he had amped himself into such a rage that he was walking around in a continual flex. Great to see but hoping he didn't go "Gronk SMASH" on someone.
He was clearly annoyed by the contact and rolled to fling the defender off which made it look worse. I had a running tab with a friend who is a Steelers fan and after that play and his complaint my message to him was AFC NORTH FOOTBALL!!!
Gronk. Maybe he would have had a monster game even if he played last week, but the week off sure didn't hurt.
Brady - another 4th-quarter comeback. It sounds so cliche'd, but he lives for these moments.
Belichick and the coaching staff, for drilling situational awareness into the team. They practice the fake spike all the time in the two-minute drill - sure didn't look like the Steelers had the same level of preparedness on their side.
Mike Tomlin - yet another pretender who thought he could outsmart the master.
Brady - another 4th-quarter comeback. It sounds so cliche'd, but he lives for these moments.
Belichick and the coaching staff, for drilling situational awareness into the team. They practice the fake spike all the time in the two-minute drill - sure didn't look like the Steelers had the same level of preparedness on their side.
Mike Tomlin - yet another pretender who thought he could outsmart the master.
First, grounding requires imminent loss of yardage due to pressure. That wasn't the case. Ben double pumped. He had plenty of time to throw it away. Grounding was never in play. It was just a very poor decision. He tried to force it in there. That's on him.
Second, I might be in the minority here, but I think they had time to call a play. They had 21 seconds, he should have a couple quick plays he can call. I think it was just moving too fast for him. I mean if you are going to spike it then take your time and let the clock run. No need to call it right away. I think they panicked a bit when they were tackled in bounds.
Probably shouldn't have thrown anything sorry of the end zone if they weren't prepared. Which they had plenty of time to do. That review was long, they had time to discuss options and scenarios.
Agree with your second point. The mistake was throwing into the flat on 2nd down if they weren’t prepared to immediately run a play if the receiver was a stopped in bounds. Either only throw into the end zone on 2nd or have a play ready to go on 3rd. The fake clocking was dumb, and it was totally a panic move. There was lots of time to run a real play into the end zone with multiple receiving options.
Live it looked more like the lunge (with his knee down) toward the EZ could be considered a "football move".
I understand what you're saying, but I'm not 100% sure on the bolded. When Roethlisberger throws the pass, he's about to be hit by a Pats defender coming from his right. And I can never get over how Brady got called for grounding in Seattle a few seasons ago when he threw the ball out of the back of the end zone at the end of the half. So, while I would not necessarily expect a grounding call, it's certainly not out of the question either.
Anyway, that's a minor detail. The problem was that they ended up in a bad situation entirely of their own doing once the reversal occurred. As you said, they had plenty of time to audible an actual play and be prepared to throw it away.
i finally found a screen capture of the Seattle play. There isn’t a pats player within 20 yards of where Brady threw the ball.
I go back to maintaing show me the last time someone sailed a ball out the back of the end zone 15 feet over a receivers head (which Ben could have done) and it was called intentional grounding.