Well, Baltimore, it's a new day. Nah ... didn't work. I thought a night's sleep would make the sting go away, but it didn't yet.
Lee Evans had a game-winning touchdown pass in his breadbasket and had it knocked away, and Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard kick that would have sent it into overtime. Let's look at both, in addition to some other things.
Evans didn't exactly drop it. He had it for a fraction of a second, and New England's Sterling Moore knocked it away. The pass was thrown to Evans' chest, giving the defender the ability to reach over and bat it down. It may be a minor detail, but if the pass had been away from Evans' body, so that he had to reach for it and catch it on his hands, Moore wouldn't have been able to reach that far. Nonetheless, what you catch, you should hold on to.
"I feel, personally, that I let everybody down," Evans told the media afterward.
At a closer look, it was thrown slightly to the outside, and Evans had to turn to his left to catch it. He didn't even have it long enough to be reviewed, and it was non-reviewable since it was inside the last two minutes of the game.
From the rules:
In the final two minutes of each half and in overtime, only the NFL replay assistant in the television booth or press box can call for a video review. There is no limit to the number of replay reviews the replay assistant can request.
Here's a full explanation of what factors went into not reviewing it.
The next play, third down, was clearly pass interference, as Moore mugged Dennis Pitta about a yard in front of the goal line and knocked it away, preventing the catch. But Ray Rice was wide open in the right flat on the play. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
In hindsight, maybe you use third down to center the ball between the hashmarks, so that Cundiff isn't kicking from the right hash. Nah. It's a 32-yarder. You make that kick.
“It’s a kick I’ve kicked probably a thousand times in my career and I went out there and just didn’t convert,” Cundiff said. “That’s just the way things go. There’s really no excuse for it.”
Should you call a timeout if things are rushed as you get into field goal formation, and the play clock is almost out? I still can't figure out why Cundiff ran onto the field late. He may have lined himself up at a bad angle. The hold didn't look right. When the holder spun the laces, he moved his hand toward the front, rather than back and away from the ball. The tilt looked wrong.
On the other hand, how do we know it wasn't tilted that way because Cundiff asked the holder to tilt it that way? Maybe they had a pre-arranged understanding to do that if the kick is from an angle rather than head-on?
Maybe if things are rushed, and everyone is late getting into position, you use a timeout, since the Ravens had one left, to collect yourselves and get set. Maybe this, maybe that. Nah. It's a 32-yarder. You make that kick.
In remarks given to ESPN Monday morning, Terrell Suggs said confusion reigned on the sidelines before Cundiff ran onto the field, because the officials spotted the ball short of a first down on Anquan Boldin's reception one play earlier. Boldin was tackled just shy of first-down yardage at the 13-yard line and fumbled out of bounds. The spot was just short of the first down.
But the game was more than just that final sequence of plays. It can be argued that if Flacco hits a wide open Torrey Smith on the run early in the first quarter, that play is a touchdown. Instead, Smith had to wait for the ball. You can also say that when Flacco overthrew a wide open Smith with 2:18 left in the first half, the replay showed Smith had stopped running, picked up the flight of the ball, and started running again. Does he catch it if he knows what he's doing and never breaks stride?
It was a game full of if's. It's over. A disconsolate Baltimore, including a disconsolate blog writer, may take a while to get over it. On a personal note, I still haven't. Last year, the Ravens handed the Super Bowl berth to the Steelers, and yesterday they handed it to the Patriots. It will take a little time to get past it.
Ultimately we will. Ray Lewis already said he is not retiring. Ed Reed, we don't know about. Speculation will run rampant on Cundiff - who will probably go down as either the Bill Buckner or the Scott Norwood of Baltimore - and Evans.
Tom Brady had one of his worst games of the year, no touchdown passes and two picks, and he still won. The Patriots are in the Super Bowl, which will be a rematch against the Giants.
Someone congratulate them for me, will you?
(baltimoreravens.com image)
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