And then Mike Tomlin and his staff took over. He called what appeared to be designed run for Big Ben on 3rd and six. Not even close. Folks, you have to be able to throw the ball to run out the clock. It's seems counter-intuitive, but it's been proven to my satisfaction this season. The reason the Patriots are 16-0 is largely because team's think they can eat time by running the ball. Wrong. You eat time by getting first downs.
The difference in the game was Tomlin's bizarre two point conversion strategy. It was probably the right call down five points, but when your attempting it from the twelve due to a penalty, just kick the extra point. He ended up failing on consecutive conversion attempts and losing by two points. That can't feel good this morning.
In the end both teams played exactly how we expected. The Steelers were horrible in most respects, but could throw the ball. That made them dangerous against anyone. The Jags have an unproven offense and poor pass defense. It showed. They were very lucky to win this game. An interception return for a touchdown and a kick return to the one yard line masked a mediocre night on offense. The over-hyped running back duo was mostly bottled up, especially Fred Taylor.
Neither team looked capable of beating the Patriots next week. The Steelers probably had a better chance because they have better secondary when Polamalu is playing, and they have Big Ben. I think Garrard seems like a good leader and nice guy, but I think he showed his true colors last night. I hope I'm wrong, but I'd pick them to lose by 14 if the game was played this afternoon.
3 comments:
Least surprising moments of the game - Del Rio wasting both of his challenges in typical moronic fashion. Are there stats out there for percentage of challenges won? He's got to be bordering on zero percent. The Jags should just start the game with 2 timeouts per half and no challenges. The only difference is the game would move faster.
I hesitate to say, but I think Dungy once had a long string of failed challenges, so many that he didn't challenge for like a half season. 2003? 2004?
Also, great job getting an actual jaguar photograph (insted of a leopard); it shows good knowledge of big cats and great attention to detail. Who knows, maybe some day your dream will come true and all the transvestites in west Hollywood will be wearing jaguar-print leotards instead of leopard prints....
There are failed challenges and FAILED challenges. Both of Mad Jacks's challenges were obviously wrong. Tony had a run where he couldn't get a break. Both of Jack's on Saturday were pretty cut and dry
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