Man... they just keep talking about the intricacies of this, and it just keeps looking worse and worse for them.
That’s actually typical for fake spikes, even though it’s not ideal. Take, for instance, the famous Marino fake spike, and look at the linemen just standing around:
Yeah, always think of that one. 1994. Where has the time gone? Still, once it becomes a non-spike play, you’d think more players would react. Maybe there is no defense play call, so guys just don’t know what to do?
One thing I haven't heard chatter about: were the Patriots in a setup that hammered the sideline routes, and basicallly dared/baited Ben into a middle of the field play?
I forgot that Marino didn't actually fake a spike once the ball was snapped, like Ben did. Are the OL standing around as part of the fake, or were they faked too, with just QB and WR in on the fake. It has to be part of the fake.
The nature of the fake spike is that the offensive team does not have time to have the QB sit in the pocket for five seconds and go through reads, etc. It's a quick-hitter with one option and if it's not there, he's gotta get rid of it. The rest of the offense is not really engaged because they're not part of the play. If the O has time to run a real play, they should run a real play. McCourty and Richards both jumped the slant; at the point Ben hesitated, he had to get rid of it. Instead he tried to wait and force it in there. He almost got sacked, which would have been just as bad as the INT.
Yeah, so if he was asking Tomlin, why was he bouncing around in circles looking around for someone or something? If he was asking Tomlin, he would have looked at the Steelers sideline, and only the Steelers sideline. I am not sure what he was asking BB when he was looking towards the Pats sideline.
i still say Ben started calling timeout. Saw sidelines say no we don’t want it. Then morphs to huddle signal thinks the get away with it. Watch how his hands cup as he progressed in his turn. But refs are tuned to give timeout as soon as possible. So Ben got his timeout.
The OL running 70 yards to clock the ball if they hadn't called TO would have been fun to see.
This may tie back to the bizarre expectation that the Steelers apparently had that if the replay review overturned the TD, that the ball would be at the 1 instead of an incomplete pass. Would that have given them a new set of downs? I can’t tell from the NFL Mobile drive chart, but if yes, I could understand where the confusion about downs might have come from.
No, it was first and goal. Either way it would have been second down. Occam's Razor applies here: Ben is pretty dumb. I mean, the guy said he wasn't fake spiking when he fake spiked, and said he wasn't calling a timeout when he was calling a timeout.
