There has been a ton of debate over the decision by referee Walt Coleman to overturn the call on the field during the final minute of the Ravens v. Steelers game on Sunday evening. Clearly a case could be made that the Steelers’ Santonio Holmes broke the plane of the goal line during his catch at the 0:50 mark of the fourth quarter. Yet just as easily you could make a case that he didn’t break the plane.
The point is if the call is that close, then there’s no irrefutable evidence and if such evidence does not exist, the play on the field should stand as called. This isn’t any new revelation. It is simply how the replay system works.
Er, make that it’s how the replay system is supposed to work.
In the legal system, criminal cases are tried and the accused is convicted when there’s evidence that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of said crime. If there is reasonable doubt, the defendant is set free.
On Sunday reasonable doubt existed on the field and in the replay booth and the choice by Coleman to ignore the rules – ignore the NFL laws, was a crime. He shouldn’t be allowed to be judge, jury and lawmaker.
The bad news for the Ravens is that the “crime” in question could potentially sentence the team’s post season aspirations to death by lethal injection.
But since Coleman’s call and the game’s demoralizing ending, John Harbaugh’s team has collectively taken the high road. To a man, they all say that if they had done what they were supposed to do during the preceding 59 minutes, the blurred observation by a part-time NFL employee (Coleman) would not have impacted the game’s outcome.
And you know what – they are right!
The most disturbing thing that happened in the Steelers’ game (and it could be argued that this is a trend because it’s happened before), is the Ravens’ inability to put a good team away. It has happened twice against the Steelers and it also happened against the Tennessee Titans. Each of those games was a winnable game for the Ravens and the truth is, they blew them – each and every one and THAT is not irrefutable evidence.
The team’s failure to finish games against better teams is interesting in that the Ravens do just the opposite against weaker teams. Offensively against inferior teams, the Ravens aren’t bashful at all about throwing gadgetry at their opponents and they boldly stick in the proverbial daggers to kill any hopes for a comeback. Defensively, when the Ravens smell blood against less inferior competitors, those teams have survival rates – particularly at M&T, on par with seal pups trying to navigate shark infested waters.
Yet go up against a tough opponent and both Cam Cameron and Rex Ryan seem to get a little skittish with their play calling, particularly against the Steelers when they held a huge field position advantage for most of the contest.
Admittedly the Ravens did go up against the league’s No. 1 defense and yes the Steelers are the league’s stingiest bullies. But if you want to beat a bully, sometimes you have to punch him in the mouth before he gains confidence. Cameron opted to go conservative, to orchestrate a physical running game and attempt to beat the Steelers at their own game. He stole a page from Brian Billick’s formula for success – win the game of field position, protect the football, eat up the clock and hope the defense bails you out.
Well I’ve got news for you Cam, that formula is a poison pill when you face Super Bowl caliber teams like the Steelers.
Why not throw more on first down and give your rookie quarterback a chance to get a rhythm going? Why not pass early to set up the run and place the team in more manageable third down situations, thus opening the playbook more? Why not throw out some gadgets and get the Steelers extremely capable defense to play a bit on their heels and slow down their reaction time? The reason that you implement these gadget plays isn’t to beat bad teams. Those teams can be beaten without the slight of hand.
The gadgets are supposed to catch the good teams off guard. In baseball, you don’t throw a change up to a hitter with slow bat speed. You do it to the good hitters to keep them off balance.
On the other side of the football, Rex Ryan attacked on defense until Fabian Washington went down. After that, the Ravens went with the tender touch approach as Ryan morphed into Mr. Softee calling in defensive formations and sub packages that I assume were intended to protect the flank being manned by Frank Walker.
How many times have we heard, “Next man up”?
Like it or not, it was Walker’s turn and it was time for him to step up and for the rest of the team to continue to execute their assignments in a game plan that was working. Why change it before given a reason to change it? When they threw Walker’s way, he reminded no one of Deion Sanders in his prime yet he wasn’t exactly Willie Gaston. If anything the conservative protect- against- the-deep-ball approach seemed to shake Samari Rolle’s confidence a bit.
If you want to play with the big boys, you’ve got to act like one. In every chance they’ve had to do just that this season, the Ravens have failed.
What they do against the favored Cowboys (-4.5) this week will tell us once and for all if the Ravens are genuinely a playoff caliber team or simply just a pleasant surprise in ’08.
It’s time that they step up and attack for four quarters against a good team.
Otherwise it’s time they step out of the way and let the big boys play.
