BALTIMORE, Maryland October 26, 2014 - It was a whale of a game. John Harbaugh, the coach of the Baltimore Ravens, made sure everybody knew that, and he should know. He was right there on the field where the battle played out. On the shore of the great Ohio Rover, in the crisp air that helps make autumn what it is, two of the best football teams the NFL has in its stable had at each other on Sunday. The first three quarters were pretty good, but the fourth quarter was one for the ages. As that quarter began to play out, the Cincinnati Bengals seemed to have the game in control. They led, 20-14 (they had led by as much as 11 points earlier), and they had the ball at the Baltimore Raven 32 yard line. There was under seven minutes left and they were already in field goal range, a field goal which would have forced the Ravens to score twice in waning minutes to catch up. But the Ravens are champions and nobody watching thought this one would end quietly.
Nevertheless, the change was sudden. The Bengals faced a second down and six yards to go situation at the Baltimore 32 yard line. Their quarterback, Andy Dalton, dropped into the pocket to throw when he heard a grinding roar. The Ravens have the best defensive lineman in the game, Hloti Ngata, and he was bull-rushing one of the Bengals offensive linemen. A bull-rush is when a player just bashes right through an opponent. Quick as a flash, Ngata reached right through the linemen and grabbed Dalton. Dalton went down and the ball went flying backwards toward the Bengal goal line. Darryl Smith of the Ravens picked the ball up and went tearing down the field toward the endzone. One of the Bengals finally caught up to Smith and forced him down, but he was all the way down the field at the Bengal 8-yard-line. The Ravens came to life quickly after that. On first down from the Bengal 8, Lorenzo Taliaferro barged around the end and into the endzone. When Justin Tucker added the extra point, Baltimore had its first lead of the game at 21-20. There was six minutes and 36 seconds left on the clock. Hold on.
Because the Ravens were penalized for a supposed unsportsmanlike conduct violation after Taliaferro's run, they had to kick from their own 20. Justin Tucker boomed his kick some 74 yards to the Bengal 6 yard line, where Pacman Jones fielded the ball and ran it back 34 yards to the Bengal 40. The Raven defense went back to work. On first down Dalton tried a quick pass to Mohammed Sanu. Sanu appeared to catch the ball inside of a crowd of Raven receivers about 8 yards from the line of scrimmage. As he was hit simultaneously by two or three different Ravens, the Baltimore safety, Matt Elam, ripped the ball from Sanu's grasp. The ball flew up into the air, wobbling slowly. C.J. Mosely, the Ravens' superb rookie linebacker from Alabama, grabbed the ball and headed down the field again. He didn't get that far before running into Raven all-pro linebacker Terrell Suggs. Stunned briefly, Mosely collected himself and started again. He was taken down at the Bengal 43. I kind of thought the Ravens made a mistake at this point. There was 6:12 left, and they had only a one-point lead. I did not think they should sit on the ball. I thought they should keep right on going and do their best to put the game on ice. Instead, they ran three positive plays, all of which gained yards. Justin Forsett gained five yards on first down. Justin Forsett gained one yard on second down. Marlon Brown caught a pass from Flacco on third down, but he was tackled at once by Iloka at the 35 yard line for only a two yard gain. It brought up a fourth down and two yards to go. On came Justin Tucker, and his second field goal of over 50 yards in this game gave the Ravens a four point lead. There was now 4:05 left.
Now the Bengals marched methodically down the field. Whereas the Ravens had bull-rushed and bashed and ripped on the two previous Bengal possessions, this time it was the Bengals who were the aggressors. They marched to the one yard line of the Ravens, and from there all of their beef surged forward, with Dalton at their rear, for a quarterback-sneak-of-a-touchdown. Now the Bengals were back in front, 27-24. There were 57 seconds left.
The kickoff resulted in a touchback, and the Ravens took over at their 20-yard-line. Two passes from Flacco were incomplete. Now it was third down and ten yards to go, and the Ravens had long since run out of tine-outs, wisely using them near the end of the Bengals drive in the event that Cincy scored. There were but 47 seconds left. A NFL Side Judge with latent visions of grandeur was about to claim his moment of fame. His name, we are told, is Rick Patterson, and although he allegedly officiated the entire game, he wasn't watching very closely. He apparently didn't notice that a whole lot of physical contact between defensive backs and wide receivers was being overlooked. He missed it when, right in front of him, one of the Bengals defensive backs poked Raven wide receiver Torey Smith in the eye, an attack so vicious that it forced him to stop dead in his tracks on a crucial third down play. Joe Flacco threw the ball to where Smith intended to be. The Bengals intercepted. No penalty was assessed. He also missed it when George Iloka, the defensive back whom was the "victim" of the so-called offensive interference, was hanging, literally, on Steve Smith, Sr.'s back during a pass into the endzone earlier in the game. But now there were 47 seconds left, and Rick Patterson decided that enough was enough. Bully for him! Bully for you, Rick Patterson.
The call he made was for "offensive pass interference" and it was against Steve Smith, Sr., one of the game's elder statemen and a certain hall-of-famer. Joe Flacco had avoided the fierce Bengal pass rush that had played a role in the incompletions on first and second down. He ran to his left, then toward the line of scrimmage, where, long before he crossed that line, he heaved a long picture-perfect spiral to Smith. Three defenders, at least, were around Smith, Sr., and one of them, Iloka, got his feet tangled together and fell down. Everybody was pushing and grabbing, trying to get in position as the ball descended. Smith caught it and squirmed away from the other defenders. When last seen by the Bengal defense, he had run across the Bengal goal line to put the Ravens ahead. There were only 32 seconds left.
Rick Patterson had made his mark. And solely because of that call, termed "abysmal" and "just plain ridiculous" by NFL Sanctioned Media Observers, the Ravens lost to the Bengals in a pivotal AFC North showdown in Cincinnati on Sunday.
Let me interrupt my recounting of the event right here. What is wrong with this picture? What credo would a real professional official be following at this point of an extremely important professional football game being witnessed by many hundreds of thousands of fans? What would a real official, one who has permitted, and thereby encouraged the teams to settle the game on the field, have done? The answer, of course, is: nothing. Absolutely nothing. A real official would realize that football fans, having paid hundreds of dollars for their tickets, and the millions of fans watching on TV, do not come to watch dunderheaded stripeys making fools of themselves by sticking their mugs where they do not belong. The game on Sunday was great for the first 59:13 because it was a war between two great teams being permitted to have at each other. Fans everywhere want games decided on the field. And that is what was happening on the field in Cincinnati. As Ravens coach John Harbaugh said later, he saw a tremendous game played by two championship-caliber teams, bashing into each other with a vengeance for over three hours. They saw two tremendous comebacks and were in the middle of seeing a third really stupendous rally. One of the game's great clutch quarterbacks, in the prime of his career, finding one of the games great pass receivers, fighting with everything he had to make a sublime, breathtaking great catch in a crowd of defenders. And all Mr. Rick making sure as he did, that nobody was being held, that nobody had their hands clenched in a fist as they jockeyed for position, and making sure nothing untoward (like spitting or the like) was being utilized. Patterson was asked to watch. The worst part of what Patterson did was act like he missed the rest of the game. The officials throughout the contest, as they always seem to do when these two teams meet, let the men play. It was brutal throughout. A bunch of guys were hurt. A whole lot of the brutality was taking place right in front of Patterson. Torey Smith, the great Ravens receiver, was intentionally poked in the eye on a crucial third down play. He was so shocked and blinded that he stopped dead in his tracks, leading to Flacco's pass being intercepted. No call was made. Rick Patterson, without ever meeting him, emerges instantly as somebody with a personal issue, somebody who had a deep-seeded need to show how tough he was, how big he was. And all he did was show what a wee small man he is.
For the record, Patterson wasn't the only one deserving of criticism on the call. When an important game is in danger of being decided by such an awful call, the game referee, whoever he was (the NFL guards that information as if it were a national secret. They might announce it at the start of a television broadcast but after the game, forget about it. In fact at the NFL web page, the call played no part in the outcome). After the game and seeing the winning touchdown play many times on video-replay, another NFL-sanctioned media observer said, "we didn't see it (the alleged interference), the pinstripes "saw" it, and that's how this one ended."
Former NFL Receiver Quadry Ismail said on another NFL-sanctioned radio broadcast that defensive backs and receivers battle with their hands for position on a play like that, when all of the players involved get to the spot where the ball will land before it actually gets there. In such a situation, the official always lets them battle for position. ALWAYS. After the game, a Cincinnati reporter tried to goad Raven coach John Harbaugh into laying into the offending officiating crew, but Coach Harbaugh deftly pushed it aside.
"I saw a completion," Harbaugh said in describing the incident. When the reporter persisted, Harbaugh said, "You saw the play, write about it."
Let me say this about the call: only a third class, "C" League game official would think it was acceptable (laudable?)for a game such as the one he was officiating to end on a call like the one he made. Great games end with great players making plays, not with bonehead offials putting a wrasslin' brand on the proceedings. Steve Smith had been bumped, banged, pushed, shoved, held, including having his jersey held, tripped, slapped and all other manner of physical assaults that take place in an NFL game such as the one played in Cincinnati yesterday. Because apparently for Mr. Home Town Hero, the rest of the game and the way it was officiated didn't matter. Instead of a first-class on-the-field play deciding the game, it ended with a distinct air of professional wrestling wafting across the playing field.
There are times when league officials try to defend a knuckleheaded call like the one in question by saying it was a "judgment" call. But in the real world, a first class football referee would disagree. The wrong judgment was made when, seeing what occurred, the official still thought that anything at all needed to be called. Nothing needed to be called because no rules were broken. There wasn't even anything close to a foul taking place on the play. The call the official missed was extending both arms upward when Smith crossed the goal line. Important games need to be decided on the field. Good referees realize this. It is the knucklehead, the small man in need of attention, that needs to insert himself into such a situation. Ask yourself this, if the correct call was made - which was a no-call - would the Bengals have complained even a little bit? There was a game a few years back in Atlanta when a Falcons receiver obviously, really obviously, with arms extended and the defender stumbling backward, committed offensive interference on the deciding touchdown catch. Even on the replay the guys in the booth admitted the Falcons had gotten away with one. There was no league announcement after the game, however, and the Ravens didn't pursue it. The game on Sunday pitted two pro teams battling to the end and giving no quarter. And an officiating crew that from the beginning of the game to the end, let them play. There were injuries galore, there was sweat, effort and determination. Then one fool ruined it. Now his supervisors will either put their collective noses in the air "and let it go, or do the right thing. They can't turn back the clock, it's too late. All they can do is get rid of Mr. Patterson as a warning to other would-be-hometown-heroes. Some fool on Fox tried to provide cover for his former colleague. The networks do that now. They hire former referees to take up for the ones still employed when a controversial call is made. Rarely, if ever, do they disagree with the guy on the field, so you know you're not getting an objective opinion. In many ways football offciating it one big joke because there are, technically, penalties on every play. In Sunday's game the Bengals marched on their first possession. Near the goal line they were flagged for an obvious hold in the offensive line. I watched on the next play. Not only were there obvious holds, but the player flagged for the hold on the previous play doubled down on the next play. No call was made, and just for that the Bengals scored a rare TD. Their weak-armed quarterback was allowed enough time to step into his threw and complete it. Good for him. Comparing him and his arm to Flaccos is like comparing apples and oranges. It would be nice if an offensive coordinator came up with an system that fully utilized Flacco's abilities. Kubiak has a great plan and the Ravens are winning with it. But it doesn't capitalize on Flacco's arm. For the Ravens not to have scored a TD until the fourth quarter was disgraceful. I know that Kamar Akin dropped a TD pass. I know everybody thought he was ready for the pressure of being the go to guy on that play. I know the throw came out of the sun and was a tiny bit low, but Kamar - who will be a great receiver if given the chance - didn't have his hands right for the pass to begin with. He had both parallel to the ground and the ball just skidded across both. He needed to have his hands ready to make the catch. And for the record and while on the subject, why can't NFL fitness people come up with a regimen for skill players that addresses hamstring injuries. It, for the undereducated on the toic like myself, is absolutely amazing that a guy who has to be in great physical shape like Michael Campanaro, can pull a hamstring well into the second quarter, when you know he is warmed up. And, finally, Flacco and Torey have to get together and hash out the things that are keeping them from hooking up more often. Both of them are premier players - there are no better that their positions. And yet we don't get near enough from Torey and we hear that he isn't a great rout runner. Baloney. If he isn't running certain patters properly, change the patterns, don't avoid the receiver. Nobody tries harder in the game than Torey and Joe. Do this, dudes, OK? So here we are at the half-way point with a 5-3 record. Two of the losses are to a team that is not and will not be as good as you are. I believe Dean Pees is as good as it gets at his job. But there has to be a way to shut this Cincinnati team down. Their quarterback has weak arm. I know losing Jimmy Smith early was very tough. I know that Ladarius Webb still isn't at full strength. But our line and especially our linebackers are incredibly good. Everybody says the key is putting pressure on the QB. It's just like basketball. Put pressure on the ball and suddenly all of those marvelous passes evaporate.
The Ravens will be recorded as losing a game that they out-scored the Bengals, 30-27, not counting the extra point they weren't allowed to kick because of the dunderheads in pinstripes. Unless the NFL has totally succumbed to the PC police, they will eliminate a knucklehead like the one who made the awful call, and they will speak to the game official who didn't take matters into his own hands when the reputation of the game was directly threatened. If you're the captain of a ship and the man assigned to the watch tells you he just saw three mermaids, will you allow your ship to bash into the shoals or get another watchman?
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