My personal post game analysis

by HighSchoolSteeler on Oct 6, 2008 12:20 AM EDT Comment 21 comments

First off let me apologize for not being present on the boards, however i finished the game up about 20 minutes before I posted this message-shout out to Tivo.

Secondly, ALRIGHT WE BEAT THE JAGS!

Ok so I got those two statements off my chest, now here's what else I wanna say:

The refs...my god...now that the game's over, they should have an escort to their cars before Silverback mauls them. That had to be the worst game of officiating in 5 years. The calls on Taylor's phantom pass interference, Nate Washington for presenting the ball to an official (I know he was doing it as a first down gesture but that is just plain sad), Silverback for playing the game the way it's supposed to be played, and the accelerated game clock when we attempted the two point conversion, all should bring about a mumbled apology tomorrow from the NFL.

How 'bout Harrison and Woodley? Not to toot my own horn here, but as I have thought since the team announced Woodley had the starting job,our outside combo of Wood and Silver, is like putting two cement rollers up against a squirrel (man my attempts at wise cracks are getting worse and worse).

Uh, so Max Starks must eat a lot of beans before games, 'cause warming the bench for $7 million dollars is impressive. Why oh why did Essex play over a guy we kept for $7 million dollars when Smith went down? Sometimes, Colby, sometimes...

Finally hats off to M&M, Ben, Aaron Smith, Hoke and company, McFadden, and Polamalu, Hines, Heath, and Nate, you guys really boosted us today, and hey even the Offensive line was halfway decent.

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No love for Stapleton?

I thought he really played well. Some of our bigger runs came on the right side. Yeah that call against Harrison for roughing was garbage. The calls on Nate and Ike could have gone either way. Nate pointed the ball at a coaches face. Thats going to get called. Harrison and Woodley is just a ridiculous combo coming off the edge. I liked what they did with Woodley having him swing from the outside up the middle. That caused pressure at least 3 times.

by SteelerDomination on Oct 6, 2008 1:18 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The thing with Nate's play though was

some asshole Jax coach was waving his hands and yelling that the pass was incomplete, which was obviously bullshit, so Nate had something to say to him.

Still, someone made a good point in the celebration thread that there were also some big calls against Jax today, several holds, a taunting call, an unnecessary roughness. So it does even out somewhat.

by houksyndrome on Oct 6, 2008 1:52 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Harrison himself has something, a lot of something, to say about the call.

http://post-gazette.com/pg/08280/917859-66.stm

I personally like his comment that refs should be fined for bad calls.

by steelguy99 on Oct 6, 2008 3:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sorry bout that

yea I forgot about him, but yes he did a very good job as well.

To the tune of the classic children's song "This Old Man" (the part with nick nack patty whack)

Big Snack, Silverback, take the Dawg Pound's Bone, the Black and Gold sent the Brownies crying home.

by HighSchoolSteeler on Oct 6, 2008 6:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

officials

I thought the officiating was terrible but fairly even. Ike clobbered Matt Jones. I seriously doubt he would have caught the ball, but it was close enough. And he seriously tackled him. Ike shouldn’t have gotten burned by a white former QB, and he should have made him make a play. Nate said something to the Jags sideline guy that was waving incomplete. That made up for the taunting penalty on Jacksonville for no apparent reason. The Silverback thing was amazingly terrible, but there were several personal fouls on the Jags earlier that I’m sure their fans weren’t happy about. You don’t want to see that many big penalties, but you can’t say they all fell on us.

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Oct 6, 2008 1:35 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

and the call on Clark was hard to take given the circumstances and what happened after, and it certainly wasn’t the worst “defenseless WR” hit I’ve seen, but it was well within the bounds of the penalty.

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Oct 6, 2008 1:38 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

+1

Agree I thought it was just a poorly officiated game. We won some and lost some on that. I counted at least 5 false start penalties that SHOULD have been called on us and were not. We got LUCKY, because those were really blatant and could have killed some drives.

I think Jacksonville got three or four personal fouls before we started getting our phantom ones. I didn’t think Ike was totally to blame on the PI, but I thought it close enough to call.

The deebo roughing the passer penalty – pure bullshit. This ain’t kindergarten recess refs. Sometimes the QB gets hit (see under: Roethlisberger, Ben)

The play clock thing was just strange.

by SteelerBuddha on Oct 6, 2008 1:56 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

See BadMaafala and SteelerBuddha

Agree with both of you completely. Steelers fans, we should not be saying the refs screwed us on some calls in any way, because there were plenty of questionable calls against the Jags in this game too that kept drives alive for us. What we can be saying, however, is that the refs were way to influential in a close game like this.

SteelerBuddha brings up an interesting point about false starts. It seems to me that the o-line gets amazing jumps off the ball half the time in shotgun formations (particularly Colon, right?). Refs don’t often miss false starts, so are they just allowing it, or are these guys actually getting off the ball that well in pass protection? Is Hartwig doing something unique on shotgun snaps? Not sure what to think about this. . .

by The IC Lion on Oct 6, 2008 10:48 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

seriously

Ike on Matt Jones? Are you guys kidding? There was no contact. The DB is allowed to jump for the ball, which is all Ike did, the only contact that happened was when Ike was on his way down from making a play on the ball … i.e., he made a play when the ball was in the area, that is not pass interference, that was textbook coverage. Worst call of the game right there. On top of that, the ball was uncatchable. Mafaala where did you see clobbering? If you are talking about when Ike fell on him AFTER he jumped, then yes, but that isn’t interference after the ball is already past. I’m honestly baffled how anyone could call that interference. I watched the replay 15 times, and I think I’m going to save it if I have sons who play football to show them how to cover a deep ball perfectly.

by TheMostViolentTeam on Oct 6, 2008 1:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

regardless

we dominated the game, and the score was only close because of a few (3) questionable penalties on us at untimely moments/bad spots.

by TheMostViolentTeam on Oct 6, 2008 1:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Pass Interference, Number Twenty Four, Defense. . .

This is called pass intereference:

He’s not “jump[ing] for the ball,” he’s contacting the wide receiver before the ball gets there. You didn’t see Ike complain, you shouldn’t either. Hope your sons play offense. . .

JAX’s defensive holding and taunting penalties extended to PIT drives after failed 3rd down attempts. . . talk about timely

Nate Washington taunted, period, end of story. It was stupid, but we scored the go ahead touchdown on that drive anyway.

It was pretty even throughout the game. The late hit on Silverback was bull.

by The IC Lion on Oct 6, 2008 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

um, no

you took one single frameshot, he did jump for the ball, previous to when this photo was taken (by a split second), his arm was up high in the air reaching for the ball, his arm came down as the result of coming down from his jump and extending his arm. i could do what you did for a DB on a WR on any play of any game where i could find one split second where the corner might be touching the receiver, that’s ridiculous. this photo shows his hand touching his arm, what it doesn’t show is that it barely grazed it, and the ball is already in the area, hence Taylor is justified to make a play for the ball just as much as the receiver is. your photo proved what i said, Ike made contact on his way down, after the ball is passed, look at where the ball is in this picture! Jones is fully extended and Taylor isn’t stopping him from being extended, he’s coming up short for that ball no matter what, you CAN touch the receiver, you just can’t interfere with them getting the ball—watch the video, Taylor does nothing to INTERFERE with him getting the ball, it’s not like he grabbed onto his arm (which you are trying to insinuate with this photo). hopefully your sons have a higher IQ than you.

by TheMostViolentTeam on Oct 6, 2008 3:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ike was going for the ball, and the contact only happens on his way down, but he’s on his way down (as the photo shows) while the ball is still within a foot or two of the WR. Jones isn’t going to catch this ball, but it’s be hard to call it “uncatchable”, especially while you’re watching it real time. It’s an unusual play, and the rules aren’t always good at dealing with such plays, but I’m going to chalk this up as “part of the game” before “the refs are trying to rob us.”

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Oct 6, 2008 3:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Uuuuh, TMVT

That photo shows a lot more than incidental “grazing” by Taylor. If he wasn’t called for pass interference, he could probably have been called for attempted rape. About 3/4 of his body is in contact with Jones.

by robert ethan on Oct 6, 2008 3:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

its

a STILL FRAME of an incredibly fast game. watch the video, his body isn’t slamming into Jones, he is grazing his back, he is not interfering. anyone, feel free to explain what Taylor is doing that is stopping Jones from catching this ball. and his hand grazing Jones arm does not count, because he isn’t holding Jones arm back or impeding Jones progress towards the ball……..ready, go.

by TheMostViolentTeam on Oct 6, 2008 5:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

and to Mafaala

i agree with you on it’s part of the game, I just believe that was a bad call, it was minimal contact, I didn’t think the refs robbed us, but a couple big calls made the game closer than it was. And that happens.

by TheMostViolentTeam on Oct 6, 2008 5:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Why are we still explaining this?

Ok ready. . . go:

Watch it a 16th time. This time, watch Ike’s left hand grab and pull Matt Jones’ left shoulder before Taylor jumps. It is clear that he uses Jones’ body/shoulder as leverage to jump, thus interfering and slowing Jones down. That’s why the flag comes from the field judge along the opposite sideline (left side of the players) rather than the back judge (right side of the players, same view that you see). In the slow motion replay you can clearly see Ike’s left hand wrap around to the front of the shoulder pad and pull. That’s pass interference. That’s always pass interference. That’s never not pass interference. The ref got this one right. This is also the same explanation that Madden gives for the call during the broadcast.

That is “what Taylor is doing that is stopping Jones from catching this ball” I’m not “baffled how anyone could call that interference,” I’m baffled as to why this still needs any explanation.

by The IC Lion on Oct 6, 2008 5:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

obviously

your eyes aren’t working well. “Pulled” his shoulder? He touched his shoulder. In slow motion everything looks different than what it really is. Just like the picture makes it look like Taylor is grabbing his arm (in the video, his hand just touches his arm), slow motion makes gentle touching look like grabbing in this case.

by TheMostViolentTeam on Oct 6, 2008 7:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

To be honest

When i saw it live, i thought it was PI bc of the off (left) hand. It appeared he used Jones’ shoulder to help him jump. I have not seen any replays, and i did think it was ticky tack, but This wasn’t egregious as you are making it out to be.

Now the “late” hit call on Sliverback as Garrard was releasing the ball was beyond ridiculous.

by _ET_ on Oct 6, 2008 10:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

agreed

about Silverback, and I don’t feel like arguing with fellow Steelers fans about this call anymore, since I hate bringing up officiating anyways in the first place.

by TheMostViolentTeam on Oct 6, 2008 10:57 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The most anonying thing...

…about the officiating is once again our guys get called for things the other team gets away with. I don’t have a prob with a ref calling a play even if its borderline, but call it the same both ways damnit.

I don’t know who, but there was a Jag receiver that did the ball towards the sideline thing before Nate. No flag. Heck Nate was probably there watching and thinking, "Oh I see how it is.

Harrison’s flag was ridiculous. Ben gets pounded by opponents almost every time he throws the ball. I know there were some times were extra steps where taken by the jags – or licks thown after he was already wrapped up…still no flags. Why doesn’t ben get these mamby pamby flags thrown for him? Do the refs just expect him to get hit?

Don’t get me wrong….I think (prob said this before) it’s just football and he’s gonna get hit, but when our guys get the flags and the other guys don’t seem to be getting the same fouls falled against them it gets my goat.

by SCSteeler on Oct 8, 2008 6:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs