Pittsburgh – For more than three quarters Nick Saban was all brazen audacity and cat-burglar guts, bringing his Miami Dolphins into Heinz Field on Super Bowl celebration night and slapping the defending champion Steelers upside the head.
However, with the NFL lid-lifter on the line, the coach blinked, pump-faking with his red challenge flag once, twice, three times, like a rookie quarterback facing a live rush for the first time.
Can an entire season turn on a moment’s indecision? If the Fish find themselves flopping about and missing out on the playoffs on some cold December day in Buffalo, they might well look back to Thursday night and their 28-17 loss.
Joey Porter provided definitive proof that Daunte Culpepper is indeed back from last season’s knee injury. After tossing 12 picks in seven games for Minnesota a year ago, the Dolphins’ prized off-season acquisition set Porter up for a 42-yard interception return for the former Colorado State Ram’s first career touchdown. But the game’s pivotal turn may have come a few moments earlier.
With Heath Miller chugging toward the goal line on what will go down in the books as an 87-yard TD catch and run, the Pittsburgh tight end was tripped, clearly going out of bounds before stumbling into the end zone for the go-ahead score.
There was plenty of time for Saban to make a move between the time the refs hesitantly signaled touchdown and Jeff Reed converted the extra point. By the time he did, the zebras ignored it.
“They said they didn’t see it – whose fault is that?” Saban asked.
According to referee Walt Coleman, “We need to try to see the flag; unfortunately, it was a touchdown. We delayed the try (for the extra point) waiting for the possibility there would be a challenge. We lined up for the try and unfortunately we focused on the snap – the coach threw the flag but we didn’t see it.”
You know someone’s paycheck is going to be a little lighter on Friday morning when the word “unfortunately” is used twice in the same paragraph. Then again, it wouldn’t be the NFL without some sort of mishap with a replay or challenge or the officials. It’s amazing that a league that can send teams to Mexico and China, and put on the biggest concert extravaganzas since Woodstock, can’t find a way to make sure the actual game part of its three-ring circus goes smoothly.
And Thursday, there was everything but a bearded lady. With Terrible Towels flying throughout the stands, there was music for everyone’s particular bent, from Rascal Flatts to the latest incarnation of Sean Combs/ Sean John/Puff Daddy/P-Diddy/Ooh-Ah, Ooh-Ah, Do-Wah Diddy.
Besides the obligatory fireworks, there was also the unfurling of championship flags from each of the Steelers’ five Super Bowl victories. For the first four, Pittsburgh icons Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, Mel Blount and L.C. Greenwood were on hand. As for the one for the thumb, the Steelers’ win over Seattle in Super Bowl XL, a yellow school bus pulled up alongside the end zone and out popped Jerome Bettis, prancing about like it was February in Detroit.
But while all the warm and fuzzies sent the crowd into delirium, the here-and-now wasn’t looking so good for the home team. As coach Bill Cowher insisted to deaf ears throughout the pre-game buildup, the team that beat the Seahawks months ago wasn’t the team taking the field Thursday night.
Indeed, with Bettis in the television booth and Ben Roethlisberger’s star-crossed summer continuing – the quarterback on the sidelines after an appendectomy – for most of the night the most effective players for the Steelers were Santonio Holmes and Nate Washington.
Exactly.
Even after Roethlisberger returns, it’s hard to imagine the Steelers letting him fling the ball around like Peyton Manning. In truth, this may be the norm everywhere in the AFC except Indy – most of Thursday was about two teams trying to out-“manage” each other instead of going out and winning a game.
Perhaps that’s the formula for getting to Super Bowl XLI; if it is, the road to Miami is going to be a pretty dull one.
Staff writer Anthony Cottoncan be reached at 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
