Koch had a hot foot up to that point in the game having nailed punts of 55, 53 and 56 yards plus he pinned the Steelers in at their own 7 yard line with a nicely placed directional punt of 29 yards. And then came the shank.
The 27 yard misfire from Koch put the Steelers on their own 33. Clearly Koch had far more real estate to navigate and it’s quite conceivable, in fact highly likely given Koch’s rhythm up to that point, that he left more than 15 yards on the field, the price of Johnson’s penalty.
Clearly the two plays combined helped re-establish
Besides, Johnson’s penalty had nothing to do with the failures of Fabian Washington, Chris McAlister and Ed Reed three plays later paving the way for Santonio Holmes’ TD.
Another play that fell under heavy scrutiny was the apparent touchdown pass from Joe Flacco to Derrick Mason with 32 seconds remaining in the first quarter. To the naked eye the 15 yard toss looked like it was out of bounds. Yet the replay showed that Mason did get both feet in bounds and had the Ravens challenged the call it may have been ruled a touchdown.
The Ravens supposedly have two coaches in the booth responsible for reviewing TV replays. A few seconds after the sideline official signaled that Mason was out of bounds, ESPN ran a slow motion replay that showed Mason with both feet in bounds. The call on the field wasn’t that Mason lost possession. The call was that he did not get his feet in bounds.
Mike Tirico enthusiastically described the play as being a very close call. With the first quarter nearly over and three timeouts in their collective pocket, the Ravens’ coaches in the booth should have immediately instructed Harbaugh to throw the challenge flag. Even if the call was not overturned (and that’s a possibility) Cam Cameron and Joe Flacco could have used the time to huddle to discuss a critical third and 8 from the Steelers’ 15 yard line.
The coaching staff blew it on this one and those four points may eventually have been the difference in the game.
Potential points weren’t the only things lost when the Ravens failed to challenge the call. A superlative effort by Derrick Mason will also be forgotten. Mason has been outstanding in 2008 and that comes on the heels of very inspired play in ’07 despite the team’s season of despair. Mason is clearly the Ravens best downfield offensive weapon so far in ’08 – in fact it isn’t even close given the slumping Todd Heap and the rather stealth appearances of Demetrius Williams and Mark Clayton.
Part of Clayton’s problem is that his skills are more conducive to running the routes that Mason runs. There really isn’t room in the Ravens offensive scheme to accommodate players with such similar skills. As a result Clayton is asked to do things that don’t play to his strengths.
You may recall that in 2006 Clayton elevated his game and part of the reason is that he played the role that Mason now occupies. In 2007 those roles were reversed and the truth be told despite being Clayton’s senior by 8+ years, the 34 year old Mason has better hands, runs better routes and has a keener sense of the sideline than Clayton. The Ravens’ 2005 first round pick will simply have to adapt because Mason is showing no signs of slowing down.
And if he fails to adapt, Clayton could be and should be elbowed to the side. His 5 catches for 35 yards through 3 games and failure to catch a TD pass in 19 consecutive games suggests that such an elbow might not be far away.
