Let’s get the obvious out of the way now. The Pittsburgh Steelers should have won Sunday’s game.
They had so many chances. In fact, the ending, with all its histrionics, could have been avoided altogether had the Steelers simply played their game as time grew short. Instead, they went three-and-out and gave the Patriots the ball with a 6-point lead.
Then, they put woefully inadequate coverage on Rob Gronkowski (is there such a thing as adequate coverage?), allowing him — in three catches — to go to the Pittsburgh 8-yard line. Then, they parted the Red Sea for Dion Lewis to rush into the end zone. Referees didn’t do that.
Even after that, they had a chance. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger found rookie receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, who avoided at least four Patriots tacklers for a 69-yard catch-and-run play that put the Steelers in excellent position to score.
Then, they had a touchdown called back. The purpose here isn’t to comment on the call. I thought it was terrible, but just about everyone I know — all of whom have suddenly become experts in the vagaries of the NFL rulebook — tells me I’m wrong.
Be that as it may, the Steelers had chances after that to score — or at least kick a chip-shot field goal and tie the game at 27-27. They chose to go for it all, which is fine. I can respect that.
But Roethlisberger’s throw into double coverage, which resulted in Duron Harmon ‘s interception that effectively ended things, was not only ill-advised, it showed stunning ignorance of recent NFL history. Did the Steelers not watch the Super Bowl three years ago?
So here’s the thing: There were about five different ways the Steelers could have won Sunday’s game, and they couldn’t come up with one of them. So let’s just stop all this talk about how “the Patriots shouldn’t have won that game.”
No. The Steelers should have won it. That’s a fair statement. But it’s unfair to say the Patriots should not have won it. There’s a difference.
I always get miffed when I hear people complain about teams that “shouldn’t have won that game.” Aside from the fact that the final score says otherwise, there are other things to consider.
The Patriots hung around. It never seemed as if they were in this game, even though the score was close. It seemed as if the Steelers had all the answers and the Patriots didn’t have any.
Yet the Steelers couldn’t put them away. That’s Rule No. 1 when it comes to winning: put enough distance between you and your opponents so that you don’t have to survive late-game histrionics. How many times do you see teams that hang around, and who seem to have no business winning game, turn things around in the end and win.
The Patriots hung around last February, climbing back into that Super Bowl while the city of Atlanta (and perhaps the Falcons themselves) was putting the final touches on the victory parade. Before anyone knew it, the Pats were within striking distance — and struck.
Another thing: the Patriots have Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. That means they’re rarely out of games, unless, I guess, they’re in Miami. As long as Gronkowski is going to be ridiculously open, the Patriots have quick-strike capability. Look how badly things broke down last week when he was out due to suspension.
Then there’s this: the Patriots lost the week before while the Steelers beat a Cincinnati team that simply has never learned how to win. That might have created a false sense of invincibility on the part of the Steelers, but it also gave the Patriots a dose of urgency. No way they were going to lose two games in a row, and blow their time-honored path to the Super Bowl.
Finally, never underestimate the propensity of certain coaches in the NFL — and Mike Tomlin of the Steelers is one — to freeze like a penguin in Antarctica when the heat’s on. Just about everything the Steelers did in that last couple of minutes of the game defied common sense. Just about everything that happened came out in the Patriots’ favor. But they also made the plays. And even though Pittsburgh may have had a terrible call go against it, the Steelers had two more chances to win or tie it, and they didn’t make the plays.
It reminds me that while rivers were forged from all the tears shed over the Tuck Rule game, few traumatized Raiders fans remember that even after Walt Coleman’s infamous call, the Raiders still had several chances to stop the Patriots and come away with the win. Just like few Patriots fans want to talk about the fact that even after Ray Hamilton got called for roughing the passer in 1976, the Patriots had chances to keep Oakland from scoring to win that game too.
Any team that wins an NFL game deserves to, because somewhere, somehow, during that 60 minutes, it did enough things, and made enough plays, to score more points than the other guys.
