as i'm sitting there, watching new england beat pittsburgh, i can point to one thing, and one thing only, that told me the game was over before viniateri kicked the field goal to win it:
the steelers gave the patriots too much time remaining after scoring their touchdown.
i can't have been the only person in steeler nation to be screaming "but there's too much time left!" at the TV after ward caught that touchdown pass. and i can't be the only person in steeler nation to be a bit confused as to why the steelers -- a power-running team if ever there was one -- didn't try a few rushes during that 50 yard drive. you know, to kind of take some precious tick-tick-tick-ticks off the clock.
mind you, they did rush once -- a gutsy quarterback draw on 2nd and 1 from inside the new england 20. and it got good yardage. but not one, but two linesmen were called for holding, and that led to the improbable 4th and 11 pass -- again, a great call -- that should have been caught. i mean, it sure looked like quincy morgan had the ball ...
wait. what am i thinking? quincy morgan is the go-to guy in this circumstance? i'm guessing that russ grimm spilled some primanti bros. sammich toppings all over cowher's little laminated playbook. bill looked at the sheet, saw that "4th down +10" was covered in mayo, and decided to call morgan's number.
but they scored. great. game tied with about a minute and change left. we all knew that brady would get huge chunks of yardage on pass plays -- 14 and 17 on the first two snaps -- but then the patriots ran the ball, got nothing, and cowher calls a time out, to preserve the clock.
what i'm also wondering is this: why did cowher call time out on that down, but never again? why did he let the clock run down to nothing leading up to viniateri's kick? what kind of half-assed clock management is that?
the steelers deserved to lose this game, from what i saw. the better team won -- again.
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