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What's wrong with the Steelers' defense

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Steelers in must-win situation

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was stopped short of a first down with less than a minute remaining in the first half of their game against the Browns this past Sunday.

The officials brought out the sticks to measure, and it was clear to all that the Steelers had come up just short. Even the players on both teams began to walk toward the sidelines.  That's when something totally unexpected happened.

Referee Walt Anderson signaled a Pittsburgh first down.

This was not only a surprise to the thousands watching the game, but to the players themselves. Steelers center Justin Hartwig said that they were definitely short of the lead stick. Browns coach Eric Mangini and his defensive coordinator were beside themselves.

You can view video of this measurement by clicking here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAxsgBYFPaw

How can this happen? How can any NFL official get this so wrong?

According to Anderson, “The ball has to penetrate the plane of the stake.” When told that it appeared the nose of the ball was short of the stick, Anderson replied that it could have been a bad camera angle that gave that impression.

There are two problems with that explanation.

First, in all my years of watching football on television, I must have seen thousands of measurements from that same camera angle. Never once did an official signal a new first down when my eyes were seeing the ball short of the sticks. It has never happened. Therefore, please spare me the camera angle excuse.

Second, how do you explain the Browns players running off the field celebrating as if they stuffed the Steelers short of a first down? Even Steelers players admitted they were short and were “lucky” to have gotten that call. Did they have a bad angle as well?

This is completely ridiculous. The NFL has the same officials making the same bad calls year after year. One e-mailer mentioned that it seems the Las Vegas betting line almost always seems to be in the balance when these bad calls get made.

According to bookmaker.com, the Steelers were 8-point favorites in the first half. All that was needed was a field goal at that point in the game for Pittsburgh bettors to cover their first half wagers. This is eerily similar to the 2008 Steelers - Chargers regular season game when a late (and valid) Troy Polamalu touchdown was waved off. The Steelers won the game 11-10 instead of 17-10.

That day, the Steelers were 4-point favorites, and a Vegas sportsbook operator admitted that the nullified touchdown saved thousands of dollars that would have been paid out to Pittsburgh backers in that game. I guess Pittsburgh 1^st half backers were more fortunate this team around.

Perhaps the betting line has nothing to do with a call like the one that took place in Sunday’s Steeler game. And perhaps the NFL would find one e-mailer completely annoying, if not absurd, for linking such calls to a conspiracy tied to Las Vegas.

That is just too bad for them.

If they want to put an end to this kind of speculation, then make the refs full time and hire younger officials.

At the very least, schedule Walt Anderson for an eye exam!

The sports media could also do a better job here.   Officiating might possibly be the most important aspect of sports, yet it is the least-publicized. Many Journalists often refuse to get into a discussion about the officiating in a particular game, almost as if they had been trained to do so. It is a shame that many don't realize just how much the officiating can impact a game.

Consider the following:

- For years the NBA's Detroit Pistons were known as a tough, defensive-minded basketball team. Their physical brand of ball was the catalyst for their success.

But on any given night, they might run into an officiating crew who was near the tops in the league in calling fouls per game. The Pistons would often give up an unusual amount of points in an upset loss as a heavy favorite, mainly due to the fact that the opposing team spent quite a bit of time on the free throw line as the officials took the Pistons out of their game. This is one reason you will occasionally hear of teams that do not like to play in a game that is officiated by certain crews.

The story in the sports section the following day, though, would most likely focus on the Pistons suffering a letdown when their defense didn't come to play. The coach will accept blame and say he didn't do a good enough job. The Players will say they didn’t hit enough shots. Meanwhile Pistons fans are left scratching their head just trying to figure out how their team lost.

- A young starting Major League pitcher begins his career with an 8-1 start. He throws a great sinker ball and ESPN has decided to showcase him on a Sunday night to a national audience. The fans and the press would be expecting a dominating performance that will consist of many strikes and very few runs.

What goes unreported is that umpire scheduled to be behind the plate is known for a higher strike zone. All of a sudden those low pitches become balls instead of strikes, and those balls translate into walks. Forced to bring his pitches up into this umpire's strike zone, the rookie begins getting rocked. Instead of his team winning in a low-scoring affair, the game gets out of hand by the fourth inning, and the public will have never seen it coming.

- Take the Baltimore Ravens in week 4 of this NFL season as an example. They not only had to deal with Tom Brady and his offense, but they had to deal with Ron Winter and his officiating crew. Everyone knows the Ravens play a very rough and aggressive-minded defensive game that gets after the opposing quarterback. The NFL league office knows this as well. Most likely in an effort to protect its prized possession, Tom Brady, the league assigned Ron Winter's crew to officiate that game. Winter's crew is always near the top of the league in penalties called. In fact they have called the second-highest amount of roughing the passer penalties this season through Week Six.

Brady admitted that his coach, Bill Belichick coached them on this fact in the week leading up to the game. It shouldn't surprise anyone that Brady was seen gesturing to the officials each time he was touched in that game. Two controversial roughing-the-passer calls went against the Ravens defense and that was truly the turning point of a matchup between two teams that power- rated nearly dead even entering the contest.

Belichick thought so much about the officiating crew that he apparently included it in his game plan, but I am absolutely positive that the officials got little or no mention in the pre-game write-ups.

The officiating is just way too important to be ignored or brushed off like it is so much of the time