Jack’s Blog

Situation: The New England Patriots were up six points, 34-28, against the Indianapolis Colts, in Indy, with 2:08 to go and had possession of the ball on their own 28.             

Decision:  Punt, of course!

But head coach Bill Belichick, possibly not yet recovered from the shell shock of the Colts’ previous possession - one in which Peyton Manning took his team 79 yards in 1:52 and scored a touchdown - using no times out!), decided to go for it.  His reasoning?  His vaunted offense certainly ought to have been able to get two yards, for goodness sake.  So he went for it. 

And, got it!  Or would have, had Kevin Faulk, the receiver on the play, not bobbled the pass.  His initial reception was just beyond the 30 yard line (which would have resulted in a first down) but, once he bobbled the ball, was not given forward progress and the Pats came up about a half a yard short.

What the talking heads had only briefly mentioned, was that, on this series, due to a “miscommunication on personnel” (according to QB Tom Brady), NE was forced to take a time out.  Actually, on the possession, the Pats took two times out (their final two).  This meant that, although the completed pass was bobbled, it was by no means a foregone conclusion that Faulk came up short - and since the clock had not yet gone under two minutes, the call could be challenged.  But . . . a team needs a time out in order to challenge.  So, the Patriots had to take the official’s word for it that he spotted the ball properly.

Reactions: Sunday Night Football color man, Cris Collinsworth, vehemnetly disagreed with the decision.  ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer called it a “horrific” call and gave no wiggle room, i.e. the decision was 100% wrong - period.  Tony Dungy, a former colleague of Belichick’s (and coaches are notorious for sticking by each other because every one of them has been second guessed by people with 1/1,000,000th the amount of knowledge, so empathy runs deep) said, “You have to punt the ball.  No matter how much you respect Peyton Manning (and no one respects him more than Dungy does), you have to punt the ball.”  Even Rodney Harrison, a former player for Belichick and someone who understands the genius that is Bill Belichick, said, “This is the worst decision I’ve seen Bill Belichick make.”

Now, let’s step back, take a deep breath and give some rational, rather than emotional, thought to the decision.  Any choice anyone makes in life has a risk vs. reward factor to it.  Without prolonging this blog, the risk far outweighed the reward.

Sure, if they made it, the game would have ended.  However, the season is just a shade over midway complete.  While he is saying, “I trust you, offense, so much that I’ll risk going for it on our own 28, knowing full well, if we don’t make it, Peyton Manning will have to go (at most) a whisker under 30 yards in 2 minutes,” there’s a message he’s also sending is to his defense.  “You guys did intercept Manning twice on the day and, in general, or at least up until that last oh-so-brief-drive, did as good a job on him as we could have hoped.  But, if we punt, we’ll be giving him 70 yards and two minutes to beat us.”  With that (not so) subliminal message, is there any wonder they couldn’t stop him from engineering the winnning drive of 29 yards?

This game was the first in 88 contests that a Bill Belichick-coached team lost after being ahead by 13 or more in the fourth quarter.  Actually, the Pats were up 17 and were up 13 with less than four minutes to go! 

Although his initial reaction seemed not to be second guessing his decision, but rather, questioning whether they really didn’t make it, i.e. feeling they got a bad spot, look for Belichick, one of the greatest NFL coaches ever, to act like the leader Antoine de Saint-Exupery described:

“A chief is a man who accepts responsibility.  He says, ‘I was beaten.’  He does not say, ‘My men were beaten.’  Thus speaks a real man.”

The opening game of the professional football season is always a thrilling time, even if it’s on a Thursday and this year’s opener did nothing but leave the fan wanting more.

First of all, the defending Super Bowl Champs were one of the teams involved and although they (the Pittsburgh Steelers) won, they did so only after being behind late and blowing a golden opportunity to win it in regulation.  The blunder was committed by three-time team MVP and four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Hines Ward, not only a talented, but highly intelligent player.  It was the classic Cardinal Sin (one so bad, that, had Pittsburgh lost and he’d have tried to go to confession for it, he might have found a “Closed” sign on the confessional door).  The game itself was an overtime thriller, exactly what the true football fan wants (you’ve seen the commercials, “We’re not ready for this game to be over yet“). And it carried a couple sub-plots - one going into it and the other after taking a look at some stats.

Expanding on Ward’s miscue: with under a minute to go in the contest, after rallying to tie it at 10 with a field goal, Mr. “I’m Totally Cool And In Charge” (after being nervous as all get out at the beginning of the game and playing a horrible first half) QB Ben Roethlisberger directed an apparent game winning drive, (nearly) capping it with a strike to Ward.  The Titans (oh, yeah, they were the other team in the game) forced a fumble when Michael Griffin stripped the ball from Ward with a great effort, hammering it loose from the wideout.  Tennessee regained possession inside its own five and ran out the clock, sending the NFL’s season opener into OT.

Sub-plot number one involved announcer Cris Collinsworth, a very good player in his day and an even better color commentator, attempting one of the most difficult jobs (in terms of scrutiny and achieving success): taking over for a legend.  If you’re not sure of which legend I’m referring to, just go out and buy an NFL video game.  The answer will quickly be apparent.  If CC had to be graded on his first performance, it’s too early, as well as unfair, to assign him a grade.  But if it were a Pass-Fail arrangement, he clearly passed.

Near the end of the game, with Pittsburgh driving for the winning score (until Griffin swiped Ward), Collinsworth pointed out that all the time Big Ben had in the pocket was due to the Titans refusing to change their strategy of rushing only four men.  Their inability to put pressure on the Steelers’ QB was mainly due to how gassed their D-linemen were, the commentator noted.  He did seem to belabor the point but, in all fairness, the Titans never did try another tactic - until Pittsburgh went to the run.

Then, the “rookie” Collinsworth commented after two straight running plays, which netted the Steelers basically nothing, that they should just stick with the pass since they were having so much success with it.  On the “I’m not sure if he gets a positive or negative grade for this observation,” Cris did tell the viewers that Ward should have wrapped up the ball and fallen down, not only to avoid the fumble but because the Steelers didn’t need a touchdown - especially that soon - because it would have given the ball back to the Titans.  The problem?  He didn’t make mention of this until the game was into the OT period.  And he never once said “Boom!” like John Madden did.  Just in case you were stumped for that legend reference. 

This game also produced one of the most eerie statistics you’ll ever see.  In the Steelers last game (last year’s Super Bowl), Santonio Holmes won the MVP award with the following stats: 9 receptions, 131 yards, 1 TD.  His numbers last night?  9 receptions, 131 yards, 1 TD.  That’s just for those readers who don’t believe in coincidences - or people who are looking for consistency in players.

After last night’s opener, the NFL seems to have nothing to worry about when it comes to entertaining their fans, especially in relation to Michael Gerber’s comment on businesses:

“If they don’t fail outright, most businesses fail to fully achieve their potential.”  Â