NFL Week 13 thread

Was Artie Burns offsides on that one, too?

 

Somebody was.

 

Joe Haden was offsides on the first miss. It was Burns on the block and the one that counted.

 

Plays are often overturned without incontrovertible evidence. The Jesse James touchdown against the Patriots last season proved that to be true. I thought it was a mistake to challenge the call, but it was a minor one.

The issue with Tomlin is his team's lack of discipline. Roethlisberger seems to think his idiotic mistakes are just part of the deal. The Steelers were ready to blow the game open when a long run by Conner was nullified by a holding penalty on Ramon Foster. Sure, it was a weak call, but Foster did hold even though the play was well past him. I think the Chargers fold and things continue to snowball if the Steelers score on that drive.

The tough part of making a comeback like that is that even one mistake can bring the rally to a halt. Rivers made that mistake on his team's first drive of the third quarter. His pass into the end zone should have been intercepted by Joe Haden, who made a great break on the ball. Then his teammate, Sean Davis, slammed into him, knocking the ball up into the air for Keenan Allen to catch it. Again, that is a dumb mistake that gave the Chargers new life.

The penalties were part of why the Steelers got away from the run. They were running on the first drive of the third quarter until a hold pushed them back to second-and-20. A hold put them behind the sticks on their next drive, too.

Roethlisberger isn't horrible, but he's erratic and the two you mentioned cost his team 10 points in a three-point loss.

 

It was close, but I do think it was outside the upright.

 

And that call isn't subject to replay.

I'd put money on it that it was good, fwiw.

 

Aaron Donald is so frigging good.

 

I thought the first kick was good too. But it is what it is.

The Steelers main problem is they have been too hesitant to move past Roethlisberger and with him they have a team just good enough to not beat the gatekeepers in the AFC. He tends to play bad football at the worst possible times and now he's playing the "maybe I'll retire, maybe I won't" game, when the Steelers organization should really have figured out a plan on how to push him out the door while they still have this elite offensive line and talented assortment of skill players.

I can't say if the Chiefs are going to pull it off this year or not, especially with the fallout from the Hunt situation, but they had a plan to push Alex Smith out the door and so far it seems like it was the right decision.

 

Those were some sweet five yard passes the Vikings were throwing on 3 and long.