Bell: Steelers might be kicking themselves for late decisions
PITTSBURGH – Joe Flacco hung in against blitzes from all sorts of angles, kept his composure intact after two disastrous turnovers and made the big throw in overtime that ultimately allowed a sigh of relief.
Yet the night wasn’t complete for the Baltimore Ravens quarterback without a statement moment on the sideline during the final tense seconds at Heinz Field.
As coach John Harbaugh discussed whether to use Flacco for a hard count on a dummy play in an attempt to draw the Pittsburgh Steelers offsides, with the Ravens in range for another Justin Tucker field goal, the quarterback was a sudden voice of reason.
“Just let him win the game,” Flacco told Harbaugh, who recalled the exchange after Tucker’s 52-yard field goal lifted the Ravens to a 23-20 overtime victory that represented a statement in itself.
Flacco, banking on arguably the strongest leg in the NFL to finish the job, saw little need to take any more chances after his team rallied from a 13-point second half deficit. Tucker also kicked two field goals in the fourth quarter, including the 42-yarder with three seconds left that forced overtime.
It’s typical in a league where 20.7% of the games last season were decided by three points or less to come down the kickers, but there was no more glaring example of that make-or-break dichotomy than in this grueling AFC North battle that was the first full-game test of how the Steelers might survive with Michael Vick subbing for the injured Ben Roethlisberger.
On the Steelers’ sideline, there were no conversations in crunch time about setting up for a Josh Scobee field goal.
No, not him.
Scobee missed two field goals in the fourth quarter – hooking 49- and 41-yard tries wide left – that might have iced the game.
Mike Tomlin never considered giving Scobee a chance to miss again in overtime, going for it twice in overtime on fourth downs deep in Ravens’ territory. They came up empty both times.
“Not a lot of conversation,” Tomlin said of considering Scobee for what would have been 56- and 50-yard tries. “I made that decision.”
You can’t blame Tomlin for not trusting Scobee with the game on the line. But there’s a lot of second-guessing for the personnel decision to stick with Scobee as the replacement for the injured Shaun Suisham, after he missed two field goals in the six-point loss at New England in Week 1.
This loss for Pittsburgh (2-2) is haunted by that decision, with general manager Kevin Colbert and Tomlin in the line of fire.
“When you lose, you’re open to criticism,” Tomlin bristled.
Decisions, decisions.
Keeping Scobee off the field in overtime was smart enough, and might have been hailed as brilliant had the Steelers been able to convert either of two fourth-and-short snaps and gone on to win the game.
The decisions to go for it on fourth down were sound enough. But what the Steelers opted to do with the fourth downs is the inexplicable stuff that will fuel talk-radio debate for days.
On neither fourth down did the Steelers see fit to put the ball in the hands on LeVeon Bell, who was clearly the Steelers’ best player on Thursday night. Bell rushed for 129 yards on 22 carries, several of which were of the Houdini variety as he slipped, scooted, slithered and otherwise improvised to make something out of nothing or more out of a little.
Bell was the first runner to crack 100 yards against the Ravens defense in nearly two years, snapping Baltimore’s NFL-long streak at 29 games.
Yet early in overtime, on a fourth-and-two from the Ravens 39, the Steelers went with an empty backfield. It was an exotic formation, with O-coordinator Todd Haley aligning, 6-foot, 9-inch tackle Alejandro Villanueva wide right like a receiver. Bell was split left.
Vick sprinted left and was trapped at the corner by Elvis Dumervil for no gain.
Even though Vick, 36 and in his 15th season, demonstrated that he is still faster than nearly every other quarterback in the NFL, the play had no chance.
Why not just take their chances with Bell?
“Once you take LeVeon out of the backfield, what are you going to do?” Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb told Paste BN Sports. “Now you’re the man. You’ve got to run a quarterback draw or do something with it.
“Think about it: Are you going to let him throw the ball on fourth down?”
Well, yes. That happened the next time, on fourth-and-one from the Ravens’ 33.
Once again, the Steelers went empty and shifted Bell out of the backfield.
“And you saw what happened,” Webb said.
Vick threw a quick out to Antonio Brown that sailed high. Jimmy Smith finished breaking up the pass as Brown stretched to make a play on the ball.
It was Pittsburgh’s last snap of the night.
But the Steelers surely have not heard the last of all that went wrong.
Follow Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.
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