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This is from Hector Longo, subbing in for Bill Burt:
You get the feeling Bill Belichick needs a new flat-screen after throwing a shoe through his old one watching the Sunday nighter.
Between the officials and Norv Turner’s stupidity, the Pats suffered an awful blow with Indy stealing one at San Diego.
First the officials did the Pats in by handing Indy two first downs via pass interference, one which John Madden aptly called a “Phantom” call and the other which was at best “questionable.” Then, they blew a quick whistle on an Anthony Gonzalez fumble, calling it incomplete when replay showed it was clearly a fumble.
The Colts got a field goal to go up two scores on that drive.
The Chargers then showed some guts with a TD then a stop setting up Turner for a timeout call that should cost him his job.
Repeat, this was a fireable offense.
With 1:50 or so to play, down three and facing a third and double digits the Chargers came up three yards short at the Indy 27.
Instead of running the clock down as far as he could, Turner called an immediate timeout, in essence giving Peyton Manning and his offense an extra 30 seconds to play with. Manning had only one timeout left.
Al Michaels and the NBC folks tried to cover for Turner, but they also showed the footage of the coach, not a player, asking the ref for the timeout.
I’ll be listening to San Diego sports radio to hear the what their fans are saying.
You know the drill. We’ve all seen it before.
With an extra 30 seconds, maybe 35, on the clock thanks to Turner, Manning drove his troops down the field and Automatic Adam nailed the 51-yarder as time expired to win it.
By the way, the Colts got in position when Marvin Harrison used the umpire to screen off his defender and get open, so in essence the refs and Turner made this happen
The Indy win hurts a lot, as the Colts pull even with the Pats at 7-4. Remember, Indy has the head-to-head tie-breaker.
Now the Pats are in essence on the outside of a 3-way tie for the wild card with the Colts and Ravens, each of whom have a better conference record than the Pats.
Pats fans can thank their maker that you have Bill Belichick, a man who doesn’t cost you games. Look around the NFL, every week guys like Turner, who get paid millions to coach a football team, throw games away. It’s not fair that the Pats have to suffer the consequences like this.
Again, this one hurts the Pats … a lot.
Repeat, this one hurts a lot.