Mike Tomlin Could've Saved Official Embarrassment of Not Knowing Rules

Salon's King Kaufman makes a solid point: while it's easy (and fun!) to blame the officials for bungling another end-of-game call that affected the final score, it didn't have to come to that in Pittsburgh yesterday afternoon.

Referee Scott Green has been exposed as a fraud, but if Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin wasn't such an awful clock manager, we'd be none the wiser. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way, which must've made it a joy for Mike Pereira, NFL head of officiating, to come into work today.

Anyway, Kaufman writes that instead of kicking on third down with 15 seconds left in the game, Tomlin should've instructed Ben Roethlisberger to take a knee and then call a timeout with one second left. Skippy Reed would've had to convert a 34-yarder instead of a 32-yarder, but given how it turned out, he still would've easily converted.

Armchair strategists would point out that Tomlin did the right thing by kicking on third down because there's always the possibility of a bad snap or muffed hold. After all, the Steelers long snapper has been on the job three weeks and almost put a ball over punter Paul Ernster's head earlier in the game. That's a legit point, right? Uh, not quite. Kaufman explains:

The problem is, this never happens. Muffed or fumbled snaps are rare enough. Now consider, once that snap isn't fielded cleanly, who's more likely to recover it. The kneeling holder and his soccer-player pal, or the 11 defenders bearing down on them at full speed?

Have you ever seen a messed-up field-goal attempt on third down, followed by a successful one on fourth? I haven't. But I've seen a few amazing, sensational, dramatic, heart-rending, exciting, thrilling finishes on kickoff returns and Hail Mary passes.

Okay, I've never actually seen a messed-up field-goal attempt on third down, followed by a successful one on fourth, but I have seen a messed-up field-goal attempt on second down, followed by a successful one on third. But that was once, six years ago, and in the thousands of field-goal attempts I've witnessed before and since, it's never, ever even come close to happening.

Put differently: Kaufman's argument is a good one, and, frankly, I was hoping the Steelers would run the clock down before attempting the field goal because the thought of Darren Sproles getting his hands on the ball one more time was a frightening one.

Logic aside, I don't think Tomlin's coaching decision -- one you can question but hardly find fault with -- should obscure the fact that Green totally mangled the call. I mean, it shouldn't be the coach's responsibility to make sure the officials don't make fools of themselves. Not unless Roger Goodell issued an executive order declaring as much and I somehow missed it.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

11-17-2008 @ 4:10PM

Ddub said...

Had the Steelers lost, this entire debate would be valid. But they won, so why are we second guessing a decision that did not lead to any type of bad outcome in the first place? Does Kaufman have nothing better to whine about than a hypothetical mistake that could have but did not, in fact, have any impact on the game's final score?

Now the Eagles/Bengals game - there's one we can second guess a few times.

11-17-2008 @ 5:49PM

Chris said...

This Kaufman guy is a bloomin' idiot...Coach Tomlin is in the business of winning football...not to cover-up the misstakes of an overpaid stupid referee, who is employed to know the rules.

11-17-2008 @ 5:48PM

justin said...

You say why are we second guessing an overturn on that play?..............The Steelers were penalized13 to 1........The officials sort of gave the first TD of the game to SD on a fake pass interference call against Pittsburgh on their 2 yard line..................Pittsburgh was favored by 5 points.....millions of dolllars changed hands on that final play......Do you understand the significance of officials manipulating the final score?.......and also millions of dollars were bet on SD that Sunday morning ........by whom I don't know...someone with connections to the officials,maybe????

11-17-2008 @ 4:28PM

you, sir, said...

are and idiot.
the reason he did not take a knee is because they wanted another shot at a field goal if, let's say, the snap was fumbled. it was basically an insurance policy to kick it on 3rd down.

11-17-2008 @ 4:34PM

you, sir said...

Um, yeah, that was Kaufman's poin-- ah, forget it.

11-17-2008 @ 4:12PM

Pete said...

Actually the Steelers had one of those 3rd down FG attempts get blocked, but then recovered by the Steelers, and they got to kick again, since the ball never crossed the line of scrimmage. Ended up winning the game.

It was against the Browns sometime in the last ten years.

11-17-2008 @ 4:14PM

Oh well now you've updated your post, and I misremembered it as being a 3rd downer.

11-17-2008 @ 5:47PM

rich said...

and what if Troy had incentives in his contract for fumble returns and etc...seems like NFL should financially penalize the refs.....poor guys who bet for Pittsburgh to beat spread...maybe they can get their wagers from NFL>>>>

Mark said...

The question isn't so much how often has a field goal attempt been muffed or blocked and the team got a second chance because they had the extra down. The question really is how many times have teams had fourth down field goal attempts muffed or blocked and then because they were out of downs, didn't get the chance for another try and lost the game? Romo and the Cowboys out of the playoffs a couple years ago on a muffed field goal attempt spark anyone's memories? Kaufman is an idiot. Tomlin makes his money coaching in the best league in the world. I will take Tomlin's thinking 100 times out of 100.

11-17-2008 @ 5:40PM

billy boy said...

what was the line on the the Pitts game?

11-17-2008 @ 6:25PM

Larry said...

The Refs actually made the right call, just for the wrong reason.
The ball was not fumbled nor intercepted. The loose ball was the result of an INCOMPLETE LATERAL as such a defender may recover the loose ball, but he cannot advance it. Therefore the touchdown was properly called back.

11-17-2008 @ 6:27PM

Jim said...

wHAT!!!!? An incomplete lateral? That is A FUMBLE!!! It was by the way a completed lateral forward or backward and then it was thrown backward again that is when Troy picked it.
Referees screwed up like they always do against Pittsburgh

11-17-2008 @ 6:57PM

Mack said...

A win is a win is aa win. The real shame is Troy won't get credit for his outstanding play. When we read his stats we all have to remember to add one to the TD total.

11-17-2008 @ 7:17PM

Jim - Calling an incomplete lateral a fumble doesn't make it so. If Troy had intercepted the lateral instead of knocking it down, then he would have had a right to advance the ball as with any other interception. Why football rules treat incomplete laterals different than fumbles I suspect has to do with not wanting to inhibit offenses from running the pitch play. I saw it called once against the Jets. The QB pitched the ball behind the running back and the Jets linebacker scooped up the ball with no one close enough to catch him. He got about 15 yards with the ball when the refs blew it dead at the point of recovery. The announcers commented how earlier that year the refs illegally allowed a Jets opponant to run a lateral back.

11-18-2008 @ 11:48AM

BMF said...

Larry - From the NFL rulebook:

"A backward pass that strikes the ground can be recovered and advanced by either team"

I don't know where you got the "incomplete lateral" idea.

11-17-2008 @ 7:47PM

Lee said...

I belive the offense stands the chance of having 10 seconds run off the clock if there is a penalty at the end of the game, I could be mis-taken about that, maybe someone here would know about this. The Steelers had to play the officials most of the day and I suspect they didn't want to take any chances with 15 seconds left. They were the worst officiating crew I have ever seen. Green had to play with the bill of his cap at the end of the last play because he was so disconnected for the explanation! I watched the Steelers beat the Browns a few years back by attempting the winning field goal on third down, as it turns out the ball was blocked at the line of scrimage and recovered by th Steelers, thus they got to kick the ball on fourth down and won the game, Tomlin made a very good decision to approach it the way he did!

11-17-2008 @ 8:11PM

Diane said...

Over the past few games, a few of the Steeler players have had monetary fines put against them.It appeared they were singled out.Now it's 13 penalties against 2 and a touchdown taken away. Maybe the refs need to be penalized with a monetary fine. That might make them be more accurate when it's their paycheck on the line!

11-17-2008 @ 8:53PM

lonnaecheyenne said...

Why should Mike Tomlin have saved the ref an embarassing moment ? The refs should know their jobs. This ref had an agenda from the very start, calling players for weak penalties. What is wrong with the league that they can't see this ? I'm sick of hearing these tired excuses, especially when it comes to my team. Start giving these refs fines when they screw up. Who cares about a reprimand? IT'S NOT ENOUGH!!. Give us our points and make the ref pay the bookies

11-18-2008 @ 9:40AM

joe said...

whatever a coach decides to do in a game ,has nothing with a referee knowing their rules.The referees blow calls all day long and no one takes them to task for it. It is about time something is done about the poor quality of the referee calls made in these games especially on prime time television.