Game Officials toe the company line and get Pittsburgh undeserved win. In Baltimore Monday there was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth because the Ravens lost to Pittsburgh. There is also a lot of finger-pointing. Some blame the defense. Some blame Cam Cameron, the offensive coordinator and play-caller. There are always a few who blame Joe Flacco, who shouldn't take it personally because in Baltimore there were those who blamed Johnny Unitas. For what? you ask. It didn't matter. Except when the Colts were the champs, it was somebody's fault.
As far as the Ravens-Steelers game Sunday, the blame should lay squarely on the shoulders of the game officials, who, doubtlessly having heard talking points about how well the Steelers draw on national TV and how a win yesterday and then getting Ben Over-Rateds-Berger back next week and wow what a story line.
Three things jump out at you about the way the game was called and wasn't called, and all three favored the Steelers. First, in the NFL, when Ray Rice or Maurice Jones-Drew run into the line then bounce out and go around the pack, it is what you call great athleticism and great quickness. When the Steelers' hulking Jonathan Dwyer does it time after time, what are you witnessing is wholesale holding by the offensive line. Why so? Simple. Dwyer runs into the line but there is no hole. Yet he can step back with care and saunter around the pack. By comparison, of course. But don't take my word for it, watch the replays. You'll see Ngata's arms pinned to his sides and you'll see him in a bear hug. Yet not one holding call yesterday on the runs by Dwyer or slow Charlie Batch in the pocket. Not one. Well it was just a great performance by this unduly criticized line. Sure it was. This is why the offensive holding call on an offensive linemen is pro football's tribute to pro wrestling. And those pro wrestler's are great athletes too. Especially when those gritty steelers need the win. They're so tough!
Let's look at the call on Paul Kruger. Awful. And really, embarassing. Phil Simms is the best color man on TV and this is because he won't follow the company line, preferring instead to tell the truth. Such a novel idea; maybe he could give a seminar for the lads and lassies at the New York Times. When Simms saw the replay of the call on Kruger he nearly swallowed his tongue. How many times was Flacco knocked down yesterday? And not just knocked down: he was thrown down on at least two occassions. By thrown I mean grabbed around the waist and whipped down. But it was right after he threw the ball. Sure it was. Again, watch the replay with your timer. Make a count of the seconds between Flacco's passes and his being hit and knocked down. Then time the space between Slow Charlie's pass and Kruger's love tap. You say there is more time on the hits on Flacco? Shocking! The Steelers could not have won without that extra fifteen yards on the last drive. Doesn't that answer your question. Oh and the FG would've been good from 57? For you lads at league headquarters, that is 42 (distance of winning FG) plus 15 (penalty yards assessed on Kruger).
This is the third time the Ravens have lost a game directly because game officials called a late hit that wasn't even close to being a late hit. And what ever happened to the absolute duty of game officials to avoid winning or losing games for a team in the final minutes? Sunday's boneheaded call lead directly to the wrong team winning. And by wrong team, I don't mean the Steelers as opposed to the Ravens. Say what you want, but the Ravens outplayed and outscored the Steelers for most of the game and still lost because the league office sent some talking points to the refs. (And don't you dare tell me that this doesn't happen.) Not one Steelers drive was halted because of a holding call. In fact, holding against the Steelers wasn't called, period. I suppose they just stopped holding. Right. And Flacco was knocked down how many times? And not one was just a bit late, like the one Kruger did. And after Kruger flung Batch down early in the game (he took the drama of the call away from the refs on that first quarter play by doing it when Batch still had the ball), he forgot how to rush an old warrior like Charlie Batch, so the Steelers didn't have to hold him. And, of course, all those times Dwyer ran into a road block at the line of scrimmage, not one Raven defender could reach out to grab him as he taried at the road block. Not a speed demon like Dwyer. No siree, he just out-quicked Ngata and Kruger and Suggs, because he is just that quick, quick as a turtle, that is. Right. If you watched the game on CBS you saw a closeup of Mike Tomlin in the first half berating a game official for what Tomlin called, over and over again, a "bad call." That call was pass interference, and while it was correct, it was close. There were no more such "bad calls" on the steelers, even though replays caught several that were not called. I know I wasn't the only one who saw Dennis Pitta being held on the play when Flacco was intercepted. On another occasion Tandon Doss was held, flagrantly, by his jersey, but didn't draw a call. Tomlin's derisive shouts, league talkling points, and common sense left at the airport and by gollie we have a race in the AFC North.
Valparaiso Anchors Under-the-Radar Tough Horizon League: Even as Maryland's resurgent basketball team begins corralling votes in the Top 25 Coach's Poll, enough so that if the poll were extended to a top 40, the Terps would be No. 40, there is a growing feeling that a relatively obscure league in the midwest, made even more obscure by the defection of their most prominent member, might be the best kept secret in all of college basketball.
The league we refer to is the Horizon. The defector is Butler, already back in the headlines with their stunning upset of previously undefeated North Carolina and their tough loss to Big Ten Power Illinois one night later in the prestigious Maui Invitational. The Bulldogs were in the Horizon last season, where they struggled to finish in the middle of the pack. Everyone knows that in the two seasons before that the Bulldogs played in the National Championship Game. The Bulldogs have had far more success over the last three seasons playing in the NCAA Championship Tournament than playing in the Horizon League. The teams left behind in the Horizon saw to that. Now, Butler says they have matriculated to the Atlantic 10 to play against the likes of Dayton, St. Josephs, LaSalle and George Washington.
Those "left behind" teams are the likes of Valparaiso, Northern Iowa, Cleveland State, Green Bay, Milwaukee and, of course, Detroit. It was Detroit that won the Horizon last season, coming from behind to beat Regular Season Champ Valparaiso when the Crusaders best player - and the Horizon League Player of the Year - was badly injured in the first half.
That player, Australian native Steve Broekhoff, sprained his ankle near the completion of a strong first half, a half that saw Valparaiso in front, which wasn't a surprise since Valpo had alread whacked the Titans twice before that game. Tough as nails, Broekhoff played in the second half, and somehow scored 5 points, but was a shadow of his normal self. He had scored 19 points and snared 16 rebounds in the Crusaders semifinal win over Butler. He had 8 points at half-time against Detroit, but in the second half he could neither jump or cut on the ankle and was pounded on by the Titans' huge front line. Strange thing about Valpo: you will not find a word about that injury on their website. Game after game he put up double-double numbers - not just in the laughers, mind you - but in the big games against the big front lines. Yet the 13 point performance is not explained and the game story doesn't even mention the injury. If you didn't see it yourself, you won't know it happened. I saw it. They don't make excuses at Valpo. It's called character. Detroit beat the champs that day and took the Horizon's only NCAA bid. Valparaiso played in the NIT and took the ACC's Miami to the buzzer in Florida before losing in the first round. They only had six regular players available. Broekoff was one of them and he scored 18.
This season the Crusaders are again off and running with a 5-2 record, the only losses being a two=point nail-biter at Nebraska of the Big Ten, and a 62-49 loss today at St. Louis, playing the day after their coach died of heart disease.
{Majerus had resigned suddenly before the season, and while the reason wasn't made public, news began to circulate that it was a serious cardiac disorder. A month ago the school confirmed that the leave of absence was, in fact, permanent. Jim Crews, the top assistant, is coaching in the interim, and one would expect a quality guy like Crews, a former player and assistant coach for Bobby Knight at Indiana and former head coach at Army and Evansville, would stay on at least until the end of the season. One wonders why somebody like Crews was an assistant anywhere with his credentials. But if you had to be an assistant, being one for Rick Majerus would seem like the place to be. Last season, with Majerus running the show and Crews his tip assistant, the Bilikens were 26-8 and made it to the third round of the national tournament, including a second round win over Memphis.}
Valpo was only down four with 15:44 left and still within 8 with 3:22 left, but the height and defense of the Bilikens was too much on this emotional day. After a home game this week against IPFW, the Crusaders get to play in the snake pit at New Mexico, which broke the top 25 this week.
Maryland, meantime, beat back always tough George Mason, 69-62, in the one game that still makes up the old "BB&T" Classic at the Verizon Center in DC. Dez Wells poured in 25 to lead the Terps, and he got help from Nick Faust, with 14, and Alex Len with 12 and a huge inside game. The Terps should be in the top 25 but this isn't to say they will be. On Tuesday night they pummeled UMES, 100-68. Logan Aronhalt led the Terps with 17 points and Conner Lipinski hit two free throws in the final minute to break the century mark for the Terps, now 7-1.
Soccer's Final Four includes surging Maryland: It was fitting that Patrick Mullins scored the goal that assured Maryland of another appearance in College Soccer's Final Four. Late in the second half of a one-goal game, Mullins scored to put Maryland up 3-1 over Louisville. That was also the score at the end, and the Terps play cross-town rival Georgetown in the national semi-final at 5 pm on Friday in Hoover, Alabama, a game to be televised on ESPNU.
And Finally: A poll of journalists who cover the Atlantic 10 had Dayton finishing eighth. Don't bet on it. Tuesday night the Flyers went south to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to play the University of Alabama's powerful Crimson Tide. And Dayton took it to them. Don't be fooled by the closeness of the final score, 81-76, because the Flyers led by double digits for most of the second half before a storm of three point shots from the desperate Tide cut the lead to respectable portions at the end. Going in, the Tide's defense was hailed as the best in the nation and teams were scoring under 60 per game. Dayton showed the undependable nature of these early season stats by lighting up the Tide with great guard play and wonderful rebounding. Senior guard Kevin Dillard scored 25 points for the Flyers, and got lots of help from 6'9" Senior Forward Josh Benson, who had 21. This is the same Dayton team that held a decent Northern Illinois team to five first half points on December 1. That is the lowest number of points scored in a half since the NCAA started using a shot clock, and the fewest number of points ever allowed in a half by a Dayton team in the "modern era," that is, since 1917. Overall the Flyers are 6-2, and they play an incredible schedule, with very few, if any, patsies.
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