Okay. It's Tuesday. Time to stop focusing on the blown call by the officials and consider that it should have never come to that.
I talked earlier about how the fins settled for field goals early on. But this sort of thing went on throughout and was especially noticeable later.
First take a look at the series that started with 5:32 left in the third. Miami started at their own 29 and marched to the Pittsburgh 27. First down is an incompletion to ricky. Second is a run to Ricky that gains 8. Third down Miami goes shotgun (??!!!) and it's an incompletion to Marshall.
It's 4th and 2 at the 19 and in comes Carpenter. That made the score 20-19 in favor of the Steelers. A TD here probably would have salted the game.
Then on Miami's next series, 14:39 to play, the fins get the ball at their own 41. Brown gets a 5 yard gain followed by a 4 yard gain that truly believe was mis-spotted (it should have been a first), followed by another run to Ronnie that was also mis-spotted for no gain.
It's 4th and one at midfield. And the dolphins punt.
And finally it's the series that gave Miami it's short-lived lead. Miami was in a 4th and 2 at the 22 and went for the field goal.
My point is that once in a while you have to - have to - take a chance in these situations!!!
Don't forget going for a single extra point when they were down by 2....
ReplyDeleteyou bet! thanks for jogging my memory on that one.
ReplyDeleteThe could/should have tried to tie it by going for 2, rather than "playing it safe" and taking the single.
Best case, the game doesn't come down as a 1-point loss. And worse case, they're down by 2, and still a FG wins it.