On Mistakes.

The critical play that put the Baltimore Ravens in position to melt down and give their divisional round game to the Pittsburgh Steelers wrapped up with a bow happened at the end of the fourth quarter, when Terrell Suggs knocked the ball out of Ben Roethlisberger's hands near the Steelers goal line, and after the ball lay almost entirely unnoticed on the ground for a few seconds, was picked up by Ravens tackle Cory Redding and taken, uncontested, to the house while most of the Steelers offense was forming a huddle for their next play.



They were doing this, of course, because it looked for all the world like an incomplete pass; all eleven Steelers and ten Ravens assumed it was an incomplete pass and ignored the ball. Only Cory Redding made to pounce on the loose ball, and then he noticed no one else was making any such attempt and wisely decided (especially since he had heard no whistle, which was because there had been no whistle) to pick the ball up and jog into the end zone. Just in case.



And Jeff Tripplette signaled touchdown.



Now, Jeff Tripplette's reputation precedes him. It is well known to most anyone that follows football that Tripplette and his crew are openly, obviously, boldfacedly incompetent. They screw up four or five plays in spectacular ways almost every game they call. So right off the bat, the outrage from Steelersland was (a) predictable and (b) probably justified. And the replay sure looked like it was an incomplete pass.



But pause.



Tripplette messed up. But he was FAR from the only man that messed up on that play. In fact, he isn't in the top ten people who made terrible errors.



First, Ben Roethlisberger. Now, Ben Roethlisberger is a scumbag, but he is also a great quarterback and no one holds him in higher regard as a quarterback than I do. I would rather have him on my team for his career than Peyton Manning. He was very, very dumb on that play.



Roethlisberger knew, or should have known, that speed rusher extraordinaire Terrell Suggs was lined up to his right, opposite Flozell Adams. He definitely knew, or should have known, that Adams has no more chance of significantly impeding Thuggs' progress than he does of medaling in Olympic ice skating. Therefore, when he drops back and sees Thuggs disappear to his right, he knows, or should know, that he has about 2.5 seconds before Thuggs wrecks him.



And anyone should know that means that you had better get rid of the ball or get the hell out of Dodge within 2.5 seconds. Anyone DEFINITELY should know that, whatever you do, do NOT stand still and pump the ball three times. Which is what Roethlisberger, inexplicably did. That this resulted in a strip-sack by Thuggs surprised no one. So you can't complain about Tripplette when that ball should never have been on the ground in the first place. If you absolutely have to hold onto the ball, roll right and get away from Thuggs. Better yet, if nobody's open, you have to tuck it down and run forward. But Roethlisberger isn't programmed like that--one of the reasons he's such a great quarterback has to do with him not being programmed like that. But he should know better than to stand there and wave the ball around when he KNOWS Thuggs is going to hit him any split-second.



Second, the ball lay on the ground, THERE HAD BEEN NO WHISTLE, and all 11 Steelers ignored the ball and headed back to the huddle. That's squarely on Mike Tomlin's shoulders; that's just bad coaching. It's inexcusable to do anything but tell your players, over and over, if there's a loose ball on the ground, I don't care if all 70,000 people in the stadium are blowing whistles, you get on the ball.



The Steelers didn't, and that is bad coaching.



So, once again, there's no reason to blame Jeff Tripplette for doing what everyone knows he does. If anything, his crew's known shakiness is MORE reason for players to be careful, and for coaches to make sure to teach them to be careful.



Had the Steelers lost the game, they would have no one to blame but themselves.