Things are not going well for me so far this year. I am in last place. I only have ten points so far. Fortunately, I am only behind the leaders by four points. Jon, Gideon, and Sean are all at 14, while Jason is sitting at 11. So at least they are not doing so well either.
Underdog Special: Tennessee Titans (+3.5)
The Titans looked a little better last week. The Browns…I don’t know, they just do not look that good. I think Tennessee wins this game. I was wrong about the Raiders last week, which puts me in a hole. Uh oh.
Underdog Special Record: 0-2 (-$10.00)
Steelers Prediction: The Steelers did not look great last week. I mean, the defense was fantastic, but damn was the offense bad. To be fair, they have gone up against some great defense in the first two weeks, and I think the offense may look a little better against Las Vegas. I am taking the Steelers to win this game.
Steelers Prediction Record: 0-2
This week I want to rant a little about the Mike Tomlin challenge against the Browns. Allow me to set the scene. The Browns had the ball near their own end zone on 3rd and 6. Watson throws to Amari Cooper, who catches it as he goes out of bounds. The refs rule it a catch and Tomlin throws the challenge flag.
When they show the replay on TV, according to Joe Buck, it clearly looks like a catch because Cooper has both feet down. Steelers fans immediately screamed about Tomlin being terrible at challenges and that this was a stupid challenge because it was clearly a catch. But you know what? I agreed with the call by Tomlin. Hear me out.
If this call is overturned, the Browns will be forced to punt and the Steelers should have very good field position in the fourth quarter down 22-19. Everyone was looking at Cooper’s feet to see if he had two feet in-bounds, but my initial thought was: did he actually have the ball secured when that first foot went down. You have to make the catch, and keep two feet in-bounds. So if he left foot was down, then he secures the catch, it would be from that moment when he needs two feet down.
We have all seen referees overturn catches on dubious plays. They will say shit like “the receiver’s left thumb was moving while making the catch, therefore incomplete.” To me, it seems like a low-risk, high-reward type of challenge. Timeouts are important, but so is flipping the field in that situation.
People like to get worked up over these things. Tomlin has a terrible challenge record, but that may be more a result of his method for calling a challenge. This at least explains why he might have terrible numbers in this department.
