Steelers vs. Colts '05 Divisional

Tonight @ 8 PM on NFL Network

 

And they're having some other special after the game.

A few things about this game...how nice it was to have a good OL...and i think they could FINALLY be on their way back to that. Krieder, enough said! Some quick passes by Ben...imagine that! When Bettis had the infamous fumble...part of me still thinks they should have taken the knee a couple times and then on 3rd try to run it in...force them to use their T/O's...but oh well...thanks to Ben's tackle it worked out fine.

 

Most exciting game ever...!

 

I think about this game all the time. I don't know if everyone else feels this way but there are still times that I just take a deep breath when I think about "the tackle" and the missed field goal. I DESPISE the Colts and Peyton and the soft style of football they played. There are few games that you can think of where eventhough you know we won them it still takes your breath a little when you remember just HOW close we came to losing. I'm the same way with Super Bowl 43 also. Am I the only one that feels this way?

 

Hell yeah. I still find it hard to watch the game, to be honest! Any time people raise the whole "the refs gave us the Superbowl", I remind them of this game. Also, on "the tackle", replays don't do justice to the original view we got on tv - where (as I recall) Ben is out of the picture almost until he makes the tackle, so he literally comes out of nowhere to save the game.

I also remember how the "storyline" of the season was gearing up for a Colts SB victory. That might just be me being cynical, though.

 

did we win?

 

Don't forget about the McFadden pass defense that was equally as important and remarkable yet mostly unsung. I will and have never said too much bad about him because he saved the day with that play.

 

Wasn't it twice? Also, the big take-away is the momentum change after the Troy interception that wasn't....Does he get robbed of some great steals or what?

 

Yes - when I first saw that I was sure they were going to call PI... maybe they had realised the BS call on Troy already...

 

I don't think I'll ever watch this game again. This game was the most heart-stopping, thrilling game I've ever witnessed, and that's how I'll choose to remember it. Watching it again just wouldn't have that same excitement.

 

I always wonder if that dude wouldn't hace gotten stabbedwould ben have stopped him. Either way great play by ben and nice basketball skills

 

Overturning Troy's interception still rankles.

 

I honestly still get angry every time that I just THINK of how ROBBED Troy got. And actually not alot of people remember this but the next day the league came out and said it WAS an INT so that went down in Troy's stats as an INT. I just wonder if they would have done that if we had LOST the game. I hate the fact that the score makes this look like a close game. If the Bus hadn't fumbled we would have won by double digits. The refs did EVERYTHING THEY COULD TO GIIIIIIVE PEYTON THE GAME. However, Joey Porter and the boys had a little something different in mind. Joey Porter was actually calling the refs cheaters DURING the game! Man I'm getting fired up just typing this! If you lived in East TN you would understand why I despise the Colts so much. Peyton played here in Knoxville and so when he went to the NFL soooo many people that had NEVER liked the colts were suddenly die hard fans. I DESPISE bandwagon fans more than pretty much anything other than child molesters and during this year everyone was thinking the colts were gonna be champs and it just really sucked for me to see these people acting like they had been through so much heartbreak as colts fans. There were people avoiding talking to me after this game because they knew that I was gonna give them so much grief. This will probably always be my favorite Steelers game just for that reason alone! Absolute classic!

 

People tend to forget the sacks that porter had on peyton at the end of that game.

 

Nah. The one on 3rd down McFadden almost picked off, but he didn't break it up or anything. It was a miscommunication and Peyton threw it to no man's land. The one on 2nd down, Reggie Wayne had the ball in his hands in the end zone, and Bryant knocked it out. Actually, I think he got his arm in between Wayne's arms, and swiped it through like a credit card, and Reggie couldn't hold on. With Ike Taylor locked on Marvin Harrison, and Deshea often taking Stokely, and Dallas Clark in the mix, McFadden had a huge order that day, and stepped up. I'll never talk crap about him either, because we don't win the Super Bowl XL without him.

The importance of that play cannot be understated. Every bit as huge as Ben's tackle (bigger, actually, since there was basically no time left for us to play offense at that time). If it wasn't for him and that play, we don't get to the Super Bowl and we have to marinate in Troy's pick being overturned FOREVER and marinate in Bettis' career ending in the worst fashion in NFL history and wonder if we would have even beaten Denver and Seattle. And then all the "realists" like ScottChab would say, "No way. A #2 seed and the NFC's #1 seed? On the road? When we couldn't even beat the AFC's #1 seed? Indy may have cheated, but we still lost the game. Maybe if..." and then they'd pick one random play in the middle of the game that we actually did mess up, and say that's why we lost, and we'd have to deal with that... And then, you know how the butterfly in Japan can start a tornado in Mexico or whatever... Do we even win the Super Bowl in 2008? Maybe, maybe not, but I can guarantee Mike Tomlin isn't the coach. Bill Cowher would still be here. Maybe we don't win it because he does something different. Maybe we win it all in 2007, or do better somehow. Probably some wins and losses are different. Maybe James Harrison doesn't make that split second last moment decision to drop into coverage from his 1 yard line. That play would never happen anyway. Maybe we don't draft Timmons, trade up for Revis, and win the 2010 Super Bowl. Who knows. I don't want to. Thanks, Bryant!

Here it is, for those that didn't get to see it:

[youtube:2llzna37]A4C6cRPytfs[/youtube:2llzna37]

 

Of course, the nerves were already on edge in that game after the non-offsides call in the fourth quarter (where the whole Colts line jumped offsides, made contact, as I remember, and the referees determined it was a 'no-play), which unfortunately gets edited from every replay I've seen of the game since then.... probably because it wasn't really a play, but still a telling point in the game. In the end, what a memory on the way to our 5th championship!!!!

 

I never forget Joey's back to back sacks, or the 2nd McFadden pass defended (but he doesn't get nearly as much as the first one) or the league admitting Troy's INT was in fact one.

 

They do? That's how we got the ball on the Colts' 1 yard line in the first place. I would imagine for the average person the most memorable things about that game are

1. Jerome's fumble and Ben's tackle
2. Vanderjagt's missed field goal
3. Troy's pick that got overturned on a rule the ref literally made up while under the hood viewing the play
4. Porter's and the rest of the Steelers' sacks on Manning, especially right at the end.

And there's nothing wrong with that order. The grief Peyton caught for saying, "We had some problems in protection" only helps people remember the pressure we brought.

 

I'd forgotten about the offsides.

I do remember the safety that wasn't called - though on replay I guess that was probably the correct call, just that in the context of the game it felt like we were being done. I remember it more because I was watching in a pub (because they had the channel that showed the game) and I was the only one watching it. When that play happened I jumped up making the sign for a safety, hands over my head, yelling that it was a safety. Suffice to say, the rest of the pub found it slightly bewildering.

 

As I recall, the "no play" was absolutely a bad call, because it was clearly a penalty on one of us. It had to be either a false start or offsides. You can't say no play. But I think what happened is that one of the refs swore up and down it was a false start that drew the whole team offsides, and another ref swore up and down that the defense moved unprovoked. I didn't see the game this time, but if memory serves from early 2006, I was convinced that Indy had moved on its own until I saw like the third or fourth replay. Then I thought I saw Faneca move, but it was so slight that I would have been surprised to see it be called a false start if Indy hadn't jumped. You know, because everybody moves a little bit, all the time. It wasn't a flinch, but more of a rock. It was so minor that I didn't even see it the first few times, and so I'd be shocked if that's what drew everybody on Indy.

The "no play" call was basically the refs saying, "look, we don't really know, so we're going to bite the bullet, do something wrong and admit we don't know instead of screwing over one of these teams." Frankly, I like it. They let the players determine the outcome on the next play instead of basically flipping a coin on which official to trust.

 

This game ALONE is one the many reasons I'll always be a Ben fan. What's so amazing about it is the fact that actually we got a glimpse of what Peyton would look like behind a bad line. Even during the broadcast Dan Dierdorf was like "When you put pressure on a guy he becomes JUST ANOTHER GUY"! He didn't know that what he was saying at the time was actually going to be proven false by Ben for basically the next 5 years or so. But here is another reason why I despise Peyton so much is because after the game and after getting knocked on his butt over and over by some real men he comes out to the media and says "I'm trying to be a good teammate here but there were some protection problems". Now how many times did we hear Ben come out throwing his line under the bus? But if ANY QB IN HISTORY would've had the right to do so it would have been him!

 

This whole post is ridiculous. I'll start at the top.

A glimpse of what Peyton Manning would look like behind a bad line? Manning has never had a good offensive line. Now, they were especially bad that day, and going against a hungry and extremely talented defense. Manning is who he is because of who he is, not because of his line. Give Tom Brady Peyton's line and see what happens.

The "we had some protection problems" line got people upset at Peyton, and all of those people were wrong. Here are the reasons why: 1) He said "we," and he meant it. Okay, so I can't get inside his brain to know his intentions, but it's logical that he meant it. He is hugely responsible for calling out blitzes and planning protection. He doesn't block, but he plays a huge role in protection and he knows it. He's one of the protectors. Furthermore, if you go back and watch the pressures and sacks, most of them weren't the result of missed blocks. It wasn't our guys beating their guys mano a mano. It was our guys rushing free because they weren't blocked at all! And most of the time we didn't even have to rush more than 4 or 5 guys. It was LeBeau's zone blitz at its finest, which can only be beaten with smarts and communication, not simply talented blockers. 2) He was 100% correct, and it's freaking obvious to the entire world. The reason we limited them to so few points (basically 10, since that first TD never should have happened) is because of the consistent pressure we got on him. Their line's collective head was spinning, as evidenced by the play where they forgot to block Casey Hampton. Although it was only an incomplete pass, that play had to be fresh in Peyton's mind. Then come crunch time, they were too confused to block anyone.

You advocate spouting BS just to play nice? Suppose Rashard "Fumbles McGee" Mendenhall fumbles 11 times in a game, and all 11 go the other way for touchdowns. Someone asks Ben why they lost the game. He says, "Well, gee, our running back fumbled 11 times..." Would that be throwing Rashard under the bus? Is there no room for truth in this world? My god, players get yelled at by coaches and other players all the time. I never liked to see QBs screaming at receivers because of dropping a pass, because to me that's crying over spilled milk. But if that receiver keeps running wrong routes? The QB better get in his ear and tell him to F-ing fix it or get out. Peyton called out his line and himself, and that was the correct answer to the question. I don't see anything wrong with it. It's true that Ben has never said a bad word about his line, or at least I've never heard it, but that is basically a joke. Sure it's nice of him, but is it any different than some Somalian kid bragging that he lives in the greatest country in the world? Besides, his line and the way the Colts' line played in that game are different situations. The Steelers' line has suffered far less from being brainless and disorganized, like the Colts were that day, and far more from lack of talent. Our problem hasn't really been that 3 out of 5 rushers reach Ben without anyone attempting to block them, our problem has been that 3 out of our 5 blockers try to make a block and fail miserably. Complaining about THAT would come off as a bad teammate, sounding like he considers himself above his terrible blockers (which he is, but shouldn't say). Peyton called out his line and himself, because they weren't up to the challenge that day, and that is the correct answer to the question. I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

I guess Peyton was also calling out himself when he called Vanderjagt an "idiot kicker" as well. Yeah Vanderjagt was a huge "idiot" for choking against the Pats again and again and again. Peyton can not play under pressure like Ben can. If you remember a few weeks before this game the Chargers sacked him like 4 or 5 times and the colts lost that game as well. The whole point of my post is that Peyton DID throw his line under the bus by saying that. And to say that the colts had a bad line is just beyond me. How can you say that when Edge was getting 1500 yds and Peyton never hardly got touched?

 

Everyone was behind Peyton calling Mike an idiot. It's not 'cause he missed, it's because he kept talking crap about how Peyton was never gonna win the big one. That was ironic not only because it was a stupid thing to say, but because Mike himself could have fixed that if he didn't choke in "the big one." He was one of the best kickers of all time and Peyton knows that. He also said Mike was drunk when he said it.

He was hardly ever touched because of the way he played. I didn't know there were people out there that believed he is so hard to sack because of the blocking. Interesting. Do you have any rebuttals for my points on the previous post?