The Steelers shit the bed and I am wondering if this will be the end of the Tomlin/Haley era.
In other news, this happened.
Here is the transcript of the coin toss at MetLife. Seems like Slater just made a mistake. Game-changer. pic.twitter.com/ajuyE0u2Ml
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) December 27, 2015
This was the coin toss from the Patriots – Jets game. #NEvsNYJ https://t.co/afAXS15sY9
— NFL (@NFL) December 27, 2015
redshirt
These are not the PSI levels you’re looking for.
Bummer for your Steelers, Cole. They’re such a good team, but dealt a lot of adversity.
debbie
“Muscle memory”?
redshirt
The Dark Lord says he wanted to kick.
I believe him, of course.
raven
Wait till you see the fumble call in the Rams game!
WaterGirl
Can someone explain this to me? Someone won the toss and then made the wrong choice somehow?
raven
@WaterGirl: He meant to select a direction.
? Martin
So, what will the rule be next year for selecting kick/receiver next season? Ref needs to receive it in writing from the sideline?
Petorado
Was it “We want to kick,” or “We want the kick”?
Screwy question by the ref. Don’t ask leading questions of people who’ve spent the afternoon suffering precursors to CTE. And make sure you clearly understand the answer, without the gotcha moment.
redshirt
@? Martin: Giant flashcards from the sideline. Legally binding flashcards.
Bobby Thomson
@WaterGirl: the ref told New England what they were choosing.
raven
Gurley is a fucking beast.
J R in WV
In what world does anyone, someone, with the Clinton campaign believe that it will help me want to work for them when they send me 5 emails and counting today begging me to give them a contribution.
Any little $5 donation will do… right?
I’m supporting Hillary, will vote for her twice, primary (not that it makes any difference here in W Va!) but this is absurd! For someone on the bubble, this would push them AWAY, not make them anxious to help!
Spam is a killer online, do they not grasp this? Evidently not… sad, and depressing. Does not help me stay optimistic… I could just block the addresses as they come in, I guess, but I really do intend to help out, but on MY time, not when they want me to, when I want to.
Sorry you’re disappointed in the Stillers, but I can’t really root for Ben, he’s just too slimy.
WaterGirl
Thanks to Raven and bobbly Thompson.
Train set to arrive in 15 minutes. (Hope I didn’t jinx it.) Time to put my toys away. I have 4 furry guys to snuggle with when I get home. See you all tomorrow!
raven
@WaterGirl: They’ve redone the station, no?
Cookie
I have broken up with the NFL. They are greedy and prioritize money over anything and everything. It is rigged-they tolerate abhorrent behavior-the lack of care regarding players’ health and this whole relocation to LA has been nothing short of disgraceful. They have demonized fans in San Diego and could care less about any fans. The teams do not belong to anyone other than the insanely rich owners and the names should reflect that-Rooney Steelers. Snyder Redskins. Kroenke Rams. Spanos Chargers. I will no longer wAste my money enriching a truly disgraceful “non-profit”
Satby
@WaterGirl: Skritch the kids for me!
raven
@Cookie: so?
WaterGirl
@raven: union station or champaign? They took my favorite restaurant/bar out of union station – the place I most often hang out at while waiting for a train. Since I was 16! Bastards! If they changed the champaign station I haven’t noticed. They add the polar express in place of my restaurant/bar. It really reminded me of the bar my parents had the whole time I was growing up.
different-church-lady
According to reports, Belichick confirmed it was a deliberate decision to kick the ball away.
I usually don’t go in for conspiracy, but I gotta believe either…
a) Slater screwed up and Hoodie is taking the rap for his player
b) Hoodie wanted to throw this game to the Jets to get rid of the Steelers.
raven
@WaterGirl: Champaign. Have you seen Billy Morrow Jackson’s painting of “The Station”?
WaterGirl
@Satby: I will! I jinxed it – we are. Ow suddenly more than15 minutes late!
WaterGirl
@raven: wow, I had t noticed any change. But I basically walk in and walk up the stairs to the Amtrak part. I will have to look for the painting .
WaterGirl
The new mobile site is awful- how do I switch out of it on my phone?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@J R in WV: weird, I don’t think Ive gotten anything from the campaign, but I get so many and don’t open (DNC< Emily's list, names of people I don't recognize) that some could be from them. The most aggressive for me are Joe Sestak, who I think I have given to, and a candidate (Aguilar) in AZ whom I've never given to, never heard of, and I don't live in his state, much less his district.
I'm vaguely curious about which of those fabled "email lists" I am and not on, and why. I'll click on a "sign this petition!" email even though I know what it is, because apparently those lists are signs of influence and I want Warren and Brown and the like to have what little support I can give them. The birthday cards, OTOH, kind of creep me out
raven
@WaterGirl: Oh no, it’s not there it’s OF the station.
? Martin
@Petorado: I heard ‘we want the kick’, which is a dangerous way of stating it if the ref isn’t willing to consider having misheard it.
redshirt
@different-church-lady: Or more likely, C. Belichick trusted his defense to hold the Jets to a punt, and they failed him. Also implicitly not trusting his offense.
WaterGirl
@raven: ah! I was waiting to click the link til I have something bigger than my phone out, but it looks cool. Old times and filled with people.
different-church-lady
@redshirt: Would YOU trust the defense after the four quarters you saw today?
Maybe he wanted to give the defense an opportunity to step up, or to get some high-pressure experience.
Heliopause
For real? Two Super Bowls in 9 years, never had a losing record? When did Daniel Snyder buy the Steelers?
raven
@WaterGirl: Do you know about him?
? Martin
@different-church-lady: If he wanted to throw the game, just rest Brady and Gronk.
It’s obvious that Blakeman wanted a different result regardless of what Belichick says.
JPL
@different-church-lady: If they chose the side, most likely the Jets would have chosen to receive. The odds were the Pats were going to kick anyway. What happened was technically the Jets got exactly what they wanted. They chose the side and the Pats kicked to them. It would have been better for the Pats to choose the side. I couldn’t watch so I have no idea whether or not it was windy out.
Also .. Belichick was right.. they were going to kick and then he went to the locker room and said to Slater x.x.x.x.iieoijwaiu
max
@J R in WV: In what world does anyone, someone, with the Clinton campaign believe that it will help me want to work for them when they send me 5 emails and counting today begging me to give them a contribution.
Any little $5 donation will do… right?
Dude. I’ve never given any money to Hill (or contacted them or asked them for email) and they signed me up to their fucking list. This is pretty much the same shit the DNC friendly candidates pull, presumably as the suggestion/behest of DWS. I got tired of trying to get unspammed by the DNC crowd, so I just routed all the DNC emails straight to the trash.
The best part of the unsolicited emails was that they were heavily emailing me on FUCKING CHRISTMAS.
max
[‘Jesus Christ.’]
redshirt
@different-church-lady: The defense was much better in the second half and especially in the 4th quarter. Still doesn’t justify his decision if that’s what this was.
Mike J
Re the Sehawks: I jumped in the shower at the 2 minute warning because it was obviously over.. I get out, both teams have scored and there’s 17 second still left.
Mr Stagger Lee
Ex Detroit Lion coach Marty Mohrniweg did that once thinking if he had the wind he could win, that he is an ex coach. On the sad side Rest in Peace Dave Henderson, enjoyed your love of the game, Hendu!
redshirt
Hendu’s performance in 1986 immortalized him in my memory.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
Hey, it looks like I’m going to get more hohurs for the next month. Someone just quit, so we have holes in the schedule to fill. The good news is that:
a) it’s at the post I like; and
b) he gave two weeks notice, so we don’t have to panic to fill those holes.
The extra good news is that I may be able to finagle my way into a better schedule for the next few months, once we’re fully staffed: Mon-Thur overnights instead of Fri-Sun.
redshirt
@max: To all: Don’t use an email address you care about when signing up for anything.
JPL
@efgoldman: My son mentioned flying up to Boston to walk on. He never played football but he’s a big guy with quick instincts. At this point, they have to protect Brady.
Baud
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
Heliopause
@Mr Stagger Lee:
Shame about Dave Henderson, he was a fan favorite here in the Seattle area. Always played with enthusiasm.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@efgoldman: Yeah. I meant that I’m going to get more houris for the next month. I’m a lucky bastard.
Mr Stagger Lee
@Heliopause: I saw him play when he was with the A’s. I agree.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@debbie:
is now my (current) all time favorite color quote.
Nerull
@? Martin:
Even more likely, the ref checked with the teams to see what they wanted before the flip, and his question was a “Are you sure?!?”. But that involves fewer conspiracies.
redshirt
Interesting there’s no Patriots in the Sunday Night Football opening. Not like the defending Super Bowl champs have any stars…
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
There is a switcher button at the very bottom of each page.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: thanks! It was so far down that I had t seen it when I looked for it at the bottom. And now I see that I was NOT using the mobile version – it was the regular version that was so awful on my phone!
different-church-lady
@redshirt: It’s the only thing Yahoo is good for.
Well, that and being a playground for Ken M.
different-church-lady
@redshirt: Don’t they only use the teams playing that night?
marduk
@different-church-lady: It’s really simple. What Slater was telling the refs was “we want to kick it to that side”. In other words, we defer possession and want to choose the side of the field. The ref responded “if you choose to kick it you don’t get to choose sides”, and Slater responded “WTF”? Because what he intended was clear but he said “kick” first and that’s what the ref chose to listen to. So it was a miscommunication but not a mistake. Many refs would have understood exactly what Slater meant but the ref didn’t and there isn’t really any recourse.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
I was wondering, because the mobile version works pretty well now. I wish the font was bigger—and there was a brief moment last week when it was bigger. But the big thing for me is the whole “back button” navigation function, which is so convenient as to be almost a necessity. That works now. But you don’t get recent comments or recent posts, so you have to go up to the space between the original post and the start of the comments to see if there is a “next post.”
I hope there will be further site improvements, although progress seems to have slowed. I’m hoping that’s just the holiday.
BD of MN
@redshirt: The “logic” I saw mentioned earlier this week is that Vikings-Giants had playoff implications, so it got promoted to the night slot…
Even as a Vikes fan, this game is getting boring, the Giants are either terrible or have just checked out…
different-church-lady
@marduk: It’s really simple except for the “You idiots, why didn’t you take the ball?” part.
Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)
@marduk:
It was a mistake, and it was a mistake with a precedent: The 1962 AFL Championship game.
“The first overtime started with a potentially damaging gaffe by Dallas captain Abner Haynes, who won the toss and elected to “kick to the clock”. What Haynes wanted was the strong wind behind his team, but, by saying “kick” first, he gave the Oilers the choice of having the wind at their backs. As it turned out, it didn’t matter. The first overtime went scoreless, but Bill Hull intercepted a Blanda pass to end it with the Texans at the Oilers’ 48. In the second overtime, Jack Spikes picked up ten yards on a pass reception and nineteen yards on a rush. After the Texans ran a couple of plays to position the ball, rookie Tommy Brooker came in on fourth-and-nine, and calmly kicked a 25-yard field goal after 2:54 of the sixth quarter, or 17:54 of sudden-death overtime, to end the game.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962_American_Football_League_Championship_Game
marduk
@different-church-lady: Yeah, I would have taken the ball, but the reasoning isn’t that confusing. Belichick has actually deferred in overtime before in situations where the matchup of your defense vs their offense is better than vise-versa. Since the pats held the Jets to 3 points in the 2nd half the idea is to hold them to a punt and kick your own FG to win, not needing a TD and making life easy for your offense. Obviously didn’t work out but it isn’t crazy.
redshirt
The Dark Lord wants the Steelers to fail.
VanyaJosefstadt
I am almost convinced the Pats tanked that game on purpose to keep the Steelers out of the playoffs. The Patriots made a lot of weird calls in that game beyond electing to kick. As long as the Patriots beat Miami at home, which should be fairly easy, they still keep the number one seed, and the best offense and QB in the AFC, assuming Dalton doesn’t come back, is now sidelined.
marduk
@VanyaJosefstadt: You have to remember half the damn team sat the game out with injuries.
Joel
Surprised you didn’t post this.
Seems like the Packers (a large number of players on the team are implicated in this expose) were playing distracted yesterday…
Uncle Cosmo
@VanyaJosefstadt: Go back & check the timestamp on the coin-flip against that of the 4th-down incomplete pass that sealed the Ravens’ victory over the Stealers. I’d be willing to bet serious money that the latter preceded the former by enough of an interval for a Pats flunky in the stands following PGH@BAL on his smartphone to get the word down to Darth Hoodie. In which case the smart money says he tanked it.
PGH ran into the perfect swarm yesterday: bitter divisional rival in their enemy’s house, a crippled & jinxed but proud team looking to do some damage to someone’s playoff hopes, no LaVeon Bell, Pig Ben on an off day vs an mostly-unknown QB for Poe’s Crows with a live arm & quick release…(Disclaimer: as a lifelong Baltimorean & a dedicated Ravens fan, I savored nearly every minute of it.) As BIll Cowher noted in the postgame, when you’re talking divisional games late in the season you can just throw out all the numbers.
But everyone knows the Tar&Piss…um, ‘scusi, I guess that’s “Black & Gold” on this site…are almost certainly at this juncture much more the team that’s ripped up opponents in the last few weeks than the one that faceplanted in Charm City–the team that no one in his right mind wants to face in the playoffs. Now, thanks to that upset & a deft deferral by the Pats, no one might have to…if the Jests can figure out how to beat Rex Ryan on the road…