Commentary
Blame latest Steeler loss on poor execution PITTSBURGH – You, too, can be an expert on play calling in football games.
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It’s this easy:
If the play doesn’t work, it was a bad call.
Second guessers abound after the Steelers lost a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter and settled for a 34-34 tie with the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
Coach Bill Cowher kept emphasizing that it wasn’t a loss, mostly because it felt so much like one.
The basic recurring criticism of the Steelers was that they got too conservative.
This one holds that they built the lead throwing the ball and then decided to run when they were up by 17 points.
If you think this one is valid, you must have skipped school the day Football 101 started.
Running the ball accomplishes two things: It’s low risk and it kills the clock. Don’t minimize the second part of that equation.
Throw an incomplete pass and the clock stops. Run the ball, though, and those seconds tick away even while you’re standing in the huddle. That’s exactly what the Steelers needed at that point in the game, more than anything.
What’s amazing (and short-sighted) about this criticism is that the Steelers aren’t some run-and-shoot outfit that doesn’t know how to run the ball. Not only has it been the franchise’s tradition, they ran the ball effectively on Sunday. They just didn’t do it late in the fourth quarter.
They couldn’t make 10 yards on three downs against a team that found a way to convert a third-and-24 situation in the fourth quarter.
Is that an issue of play calling or is that play making?
If you want to deconstruct what happened, rewind the tape well beyond the fourth quarter. Watch the Steelers fumble a snap inside the 5-yard line. Watch them clank a medium-distance field goal off a goal post and have an extra point kick blocked.
Watch Atlanta’s Warrick Dunn skip through three missed tackles on a 59-yard touchdown run. Check out how the special teams dragged the Falcons back into the game by allowing a 34-yard punt return that led to the tying touchdown.
And, of course, there’s Antwaan Randle El’s fumble of a punt that led to the Falcons’ other touchdown during the rally.
Is any of that play calling? Of course not. This loss had little to do with coaching decisions and a lot to do with shoddy execution by players in every phase of the game.
That’s almost always the way it is.
Coaches can select the perfect play but it isn’t worth anything unless the players do what they’re supposed to do.
The people who let Sunday’s game get away wore helmets and shoulder pads, not headsets and caps.
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The best summation of linebacker Joey Porter’s day came from Falcons receiver Brian Finneran.
He said, “Porter was a beast. Every time I turned around, he was sitting on (quarterback) Michael (Vick).”
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If nothing else, Sunday’s result dispels the myth that NFL overtime games are automatically decided by the coin toss.
Conventional wisdom holds that the team that gets the ball will also likely get into field goal position and win the game without giving the opponent a possession.
The Steelers and Falcons wound up like a couple of heavyweight fighters too weary to throw the big knockout punch and trying to hang on at the end.
It might not have been the best football but it was a good spectacle.
John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehno@lycos.com