In what has been a (!) entertaining Monday night game, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans have traded blows nicely.
But the Steelers really should be killing the Titans. The problem was that the Steelers utterly botched the final minute of the first half. Just murdered it.
[Join FanDuel.com's $2.5M Week 12 fantasy league: $25 to enter; top 21,840 teams paid]
They were driving at will into Titans territory on what should have been their final drive of the second quarter, earning a first down at the Tennessee 20 with 1:05 left in the half. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin uses his first timeout. We didn't love it, but we can live with him calling it there.
After an incompletion, the Steelers ran the ball ... and Tomlin quickly called a timeout. Why? There were 52 seconds left, and it was third and 7 from the 17. How many plays did Tomlin think he was going to run? That's a situation where no timeout is needed; just get up on the line, get the call and maybe catch the defense huffing.
It was the 15th play of the drive (including penalties) coming up. The defense had been on the field much of the first half, and for the previous seven minutes of game time.
So on third down, Ben Roethlisberger threw a horrific pick in the end zone, trying to make something out of nothing and throwing off his back foot.
That left the Titans with plenty of time — 44 seconds — to go to work. Any less, and Ken Whisenhunt (who called a timeout before the next offensive play) likely goes into halftime, happy his team was down only 13-10 after having saved seven points.
Instead, Whisenhunt went for the corotid artery. He called for the "go" route to Nate Washington, and Zach Mettenberger hit Washington — who blew by a flat-footed, faked-out William Gay — for the 80-yard score before the half.
Why in the world was Gay not keeping the ball in front of him at all costs in that situation?
A 14-point swing. And why do we keep wondering why the Steelers play down to their competition? Bad situational football and awareness. Wow.
- - - - - - -
Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1ETVCEm
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire