Comments on: Week 7 Recap: Grand Theft Miami

By: todd

todd — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 04:40:43 +0000

Chris, I’m surprised you didn’t mention the Steelers letting the clock run out in the first half rather than try to get in field goal range. I was dumbfounded that they would let the opportunity slip by for more points!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:42:41 +0000

Bro,

In the head-on shot from across the endzone it shows Ben fumble, then the Miami guys jump on it, then the ball pops out again, then Ben grabs it, then the city of Miami and Legursky (who needs to go back to the practice squad for a month or more) land on top of him. I know this sounds like I was watching from a grassy knoll, but I watched the replay a few times. The problem is CBS just skips straight from one shot of the fumble to another so many times they don’t follow through on the one that matters. He had it. No question. Not that it matters, we got the W.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:53:28 +0000

I wasn’t arguing where Gene was from, I said Union town because I know some friends who live there who know him. I didn’t know the other ref was from Pittsburgh too. Also, I didn’t say it wasn’t a bad call. I just said it wasn’t as close as you made it seem or as easy as a call. We all made our determination in slow motion. His happened in full game speed. When you look from the Pilon judge’s view (and there is the video of it) you can see Ben dive with possession, then roll and you can still see the tip of the ball, while the ball still looks to be in Ben’s possession while he crosses the plane. From the camera coming from the back of the endzone, it is clear as day. I don’t know how they determine it from there, but all I know is once the line judge determines it’s a TD, the play is dead and the rest of them stop officiating. He saw a Ball in Ben’s possession while he crosses the plane, even in slow motion from his angle, the ball still appears in Ben’s possession, you can’t tell it came loose prior to the break of the plane. From his angle, it appeared clear. All the ball has to do is be in Ben’s possession while breaking the plane. From that camera angle, it’s easy to see why he saw that at full speed. Even though, other camera angles proved otherwise, at full game speed and from the pilon view, the pilon judge didn’t have that luxury. Calling me a poor sport and lack there of is irrelevant. I am arguing your point from the pilon judge’s view at full game speed as he saw it and he saw touchdown and at that moment, nothing else matter because the play was dead. If it was not near the endzone then the play obviously would have continued and the scrum play out. Your opinion lies with the back camera view and when the Steelers players stop fighting allowing Miami to come up with the ball. Naturally, that looks fishy, but from the Pilon judge’s view, the guy who determined the field ruling, it was a TD and the play from that point on was dead. It’s the only way you can decipher this situation and that part only is the bad call. However, like I said, it wasn’t as easy a call when you break it down and look at it from that point of view. Sportsmanship? Why go there?

By: Derrick

Derrick — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:29:47 +0000

I don’t think Henne is a bad quarterback. He played a bad game against new england. If you deduct that game he has like 9 TDs and 2 INTs. Drew Brees threw 4 last week and he is considered a great QB and also has a ton more experience.

By: chris

chris — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 05:48:33 +0000

All day on Pittsburgh sports radio they’ve been saying Gene Steratore, the ref, was from Washington, PA. Whatever, it’s not that important.

The head linesman, Jerry Bergman, was also from the Pittsburgh area. He’s the one who made the TD call. He’s the one I was referring to when I said only one person called it a TD and that one person happened to be a local. I may have mixed up the two hometowns but my point was correct.

And your point about the linesman not seeing the fumble makes no sense. It’s clearly a fumble. Ben fumbled it before he broke the plane. If the linesman was in position to see him break the plane, he had to be in position to see him fumble it. The two actions happened almost simultaneously. How do you see one and not the other?

That’s HIS JOB to see if the ball is fumbled or not. If all he saw was the dive and then the ball rolling in the end zone, that’s even worse because then he’s GUESSING that the plane was broken. He shouldn’t be signaling TD if he’s not sure or there’s a possibility of a fumble. That’s terrible refereeing. He should’ve stood there like the other refs did and let the scrum sort itself out. THEN they could’ve looked at the replay and determined if there was a fumble or not.

Any way you slice it, he blew it in the Steelers’ favor while the Fins got hosed. Not trying to be mean or single you out but it I’m glad most of the people I heard on the talk shows today were good enough sports to acknowledged it was a horrible call.