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The 2005 Steelers (Part 2): Serious as a Heart Attack! · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to another episode of uh Pittsburgh Sports Memories.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm Steve Wirt, and as usual, I'm here with my co-host.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Tim Hannon.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: And uh today we're gonna cover um one of the more famous uh Steeler playoff games in uh recent history, I would say.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Um it'll be the Steelers Colts game.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: Um we're titling this it's it's as serious as a heart attack.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: And it literally was.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's literally heart attack.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Some of us some of us uh didn't survive.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, we did, but not not not the same as we went in, I guess.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: But uh it's a 2005 Steelers Colts, huge playoff game.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Um the the Steelers were a big underdog, so um let's sit the uh Wayback Machine all the way back to the good old days of 2004.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: George Bush was president.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't think we're in a Iraq war yet, uh, but maybe maybe close, getting close, and then uh I don't know what else was going on.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I don't even think Barack Obama was in the Senate yet.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what other other current events Saddam Hussein was still in charge, so yeah.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: Osama Bin Lan was still alive.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: So that's all the stuff that was uh at least uh not not not sports related going on in 2004.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: I guess we're starting off like the beginning of the Civil War Ken Wards.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: What else was going on that year?
1:37
SPEAKER_00: He was born that year.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Taylor Swift was I don't know what Taylor Swift was doing, but anyway.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: So in 2004, um the Steelers went 15-1, and they had gone to the AFC Championship game.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: We uh covered that season extensively in on in a uh earlier podcast.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: They had lost to the Patriots, and it was a very heartbreaking loss.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: So that offseason, um, and at some point in the future we'll cover this season more in doubt depth, but I really wanted to dedicate a whole episode to just this game because I think it's one of the more pivotal, if not fun games to talk about.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so uh Bettis almost retired.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh Heinz Ward uh like really cried like on TV, which was a big thing back then, I guess.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it still would be.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: I I'm not sure but how that would be received now.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: But um it was like they really liked Jerome Bettis, you know, he was a beloved veteran, and he had never gotten to even play in a Super Bowl.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: He'd gotten close a couple times, got to a couple championship games, I guess three, three championship games, and had lost everyone.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: So uh the team had uh young players in their prime like Troy, Paul Malu, Ben was coming in second year, Heinz Ward was definitely a a veteran, Deshea Townsend.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, but they had uh revamped their secondary, which had kind of been the problem, um, with uh guy named Ike Taylor and uh rookie named Bryant McFadden and uh Chris Hope was the safety, and they and uh they were all kind of gelling.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: They had finally gelled from the previous year.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: So the defense as good as it was the year before was actually I think probably a little more improved that next year.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Um so the drone bettis almost retiring thing kind of seemed to give bring the team closer together and give them purpose, and Bettis decided, well, we got a pretty good team here, and I'd like to go out on a high note if I could.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: So let me come back.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: So and also he also knew that that year's Super Bowl was gonna be played in Detroit's hometown.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: So there was a lot kind of going into that.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: Um so to to just kind of fast forward through the season, uh the Steelers barely make the playoffs as a succeed and with an 11th, 11-5 record.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Um at that time only one wild card team had won the Super Bowl, that was the 80 Raiders, and no six seed had ever even made it to the conference championship game.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: Um Bill Cower had not won a Super Bowl, he'd only ever been to one, and he had not won a playoff road game his career until the week before this game.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: He had won in Cincinnati, so it actually had one playoff road win, but they had only played like I think three road playoff games.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it was Kansas City in the nineties, that stupid Joe Nedney game that we covered.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh and the then the Cincy game, which we'll we'll cover all that.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we'll cover this the whole season.
4:37
SPEAKER_01: I I think the New England fog game too.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: I think that was after New England.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I guess yeah, yeah.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: But but you're right, most of the time under Cower, the Steelers went into the playoffs as a a home team because they were like the one or two seed.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: And rarely did they did they go in as a wild card or a team that was had to play on the road.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: And like you said, a sixth seed, that was at the time that was like unheard of because you would have had to have beaten I I mean if the sixth seed wins their first game, first of all, they're beating a division champion in that first round.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: Then they have to go play the number one seed in the next round.
5:09
SPEAKER_01: So that's why they had never made it to a even to the conference championship game.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they get through the three seed and the one seed just to get to the conference championship.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: Well just that divisional ground is so like like I think it's still seventy, even like you know, it's shifted more, like it's not as heavy as it used to be.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: I think it used to be like over 80 or 90 percent.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: Like the home team almost always wins in the divisional round.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: The conference championship game is more of a toss-up, but I mean, and it's still I think at like 70, 75 percent.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Like that divisional round, like the home team almost always wins.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, because they're on a two-week break.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, at that at that time, yeah.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they can rest up all their players.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and the other team had to play the previous week and they're banged up potentially.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're right.
5:53
SPEAKER_01: That's a huge advantage.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: So Coward's playoff record was one and three.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I guess that was the road record.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Um the this overall perception leading into that game was that the Steelers were just kind of an also ran, like, oh, they made it that year.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: So um, and just to go over the Colts, who was their opponent for this game, was uh in 2004 the Colts had gone 12-4, but they'd lost to the Patriots in the playoffs a game, and that was really seen as the premier, I guess, matchup or rivalry in the uh NFL at that time because it was Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, you know, Bill Belichick, Tony Dungey, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: So the um the Colts had uh Peyton Manning, as I said, Edrin James, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, a very good defense.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: They had uh the the kid from Erie, Bob Sanders, who played at Iowa, uh Dwight Fellini, who played at Syracuse, and Gary Brackett, who is pretty good.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: Um the 2005 Colts were probably the had had like uh a really good regular season, and they had stayed undefeated until late in the season.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: They had lost in week 15.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Um and they had clinched everything by that point, so Tony Denji just kind of rested his players.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: He they really wanted to win the Super Bowl, not go finish the season undefeated, they really could care.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: And so even with that, they had a pair of late season losses, they still finished with 14-2.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Um the Patriots, uh just because they were kind of the other big team of that era, had a slightly down year for them.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: They went 10-6.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: And um the Saturday before that Sunday, because it was a Sunday, I think one o'clock game, yeah.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: That the they had lost to Denver in Denver by like it was a blowout game, so they got the Patriots got blown out in Denver.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Um the Colts were considered an overwhelming favorite to win the Super Bowl that year.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: Um Tony Dungey was a sentimental favorite to win the Super Bowl.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: He had been a long time assistant under Chuck Null and Dennis Green.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh he had had to wait a long time to become a head coach, and he was a head coach in Tampa.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: And he had had he had built Tampa from kind of like a laughing stock, like Tampa was what Cleveland is now.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: Or well, maybe Cleveland might be on the Cleveland's on the way to respectability, but like Tony Dungey kind of like resurrected Tampa because I remember that in the mid-90s, like Sports Illustrated had like a cover, break up the bucks, you know?
8:22
SPEAKER_00: Because it was like, oh my gosh, the Tampa Bay was so horrible.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: But they the uh Glazers, I guess, who still owned, yeah, I guess they owned the team back then, had uh had gotten rid of Dungey for John Gruden and they had won a Super Bowl.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: John Gruden basically won a Super Bowl with Tony Dungey's players, so I mean, you know, Tony Dungey kind of got a raw deal there.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: Um the Steelers go on a waning streak late in the season just to get into the playoffs.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: And on a rare lot on a rare loss on Monday Night Football, the Colts actually kind of blew out the Steelers 26-7.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Um home teams, they rarely lose those divisional playoff games.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Um I remember this, I remember the Colts were accused of piping in artificial crowd noise during the end of the field, which I guess, you know, when remember when they used to have fans in the stadium?
9:10
SPEAKER_00: That was so that's such a novel concept.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: They used to have people in the they used to have these things called like fans, and they would sit there and cheer really loud, especially in the dome, making it hard to hear.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: You couldn't just hear like, you know, the what the quarterback and the players were saying.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: And that was when they were still playing in their old stadium, the uh the RCA dome or the Hooser Dome, whatever it was called back then.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: And that that place was like one of the loudest stadiums.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, was it yeah, Seattle I think was louder, the old King Dome, but Yeah, yeah.
9:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Seattle, Kansas City, those those places were always pretty loud too.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: But but yeah, that old Indianapolis Stadium was considered one of the hardest places to play.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: And like you said, the Steelers that got blown out there earlier.
9:51
SPEAKER_01: And and like the Colts were so good.
9:54
SPEAKER_01: The Colts were so good that year.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: Like you said, they were undefeated.
9:56
SPEAKER_01: They were almost an undefeated team.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they just kind of like the they rested their players a lot of the games.
10:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they just kind of put the brakes on at the end of the season.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: Like they really hadn't lost like a legitimate game.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: They just kind of like, ah, we don't want to get anybody here.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: We want to win the Tony's just like, I'm winning the Super Bowl, I'm I don't really care about what I defeated.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: And uh you know I can understand that.
10:16
SPEAKER_01: And literally they're only the only thing people were saying is, well, maybe the one team that could stop them, even though they had a down year, would be Belichick and Brady because they had beaten them the last two years in the playoffs.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: But then when the Patriots lost the night before, it's like, well, that's coronate the Colts because they're they're winning the Super Bowl.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: So um before that week, like uh the Steelers were trying to fly under the radar.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: There was definitely like I don't think even in Pittsburgh, any I uh I don't I don't remember too many people picking the Steelers to win that game or being but nationally definitely nobody was picking the Steelers.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: Joey Porter, who was not oppressed with the Colts offense, he uh he gave a quote because like Cowers trying to keep everybody under wraps, but uh Jerry Porter as he became to know later in his career, his playing careers.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: But Joey, but not to be confused with Joey Porter.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh he said uh in the post exec, I don't want to just sit there, line up.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to just sit there's regarding the Colts, sit there, line up and play football.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Porter told the Pittsburgh Post ext they want to try and catch you off guard.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to play smash mouth football, they want to trick you, they want to catch you substituting, know what I mean?
11:28
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to just call a play, get up there, run a play.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: They want to make you think.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: They want it to be a thinking game instead of a football game.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: I guess like you know, Jerry Porter's like the whole, you know, Jerry Porter smashed offensive linemen, not think about a run or pass.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what's Peyton Manning doing thinking about the play?
11:50
SPEAKER_01: He's just a quarterback.
11:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: Just throw the ball.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: Better you just run it up the middle and knock guys over.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: So so there was that.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I guess it was kind of a newfangled thing.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: Like this is so commonplace now that I mean it's hard to believe how much football has changed.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, and Peyton Manning, especially.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: I remember he used to run he used to run up to the line, he would do 57.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: Like Omaha.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: That was before Omaha.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what he was.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: But he would just be waving his arms around, he'd be yelling stuff.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: And like a city in Nebraska that he might pick, I don't know.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: And half the time he wouldn't even be um, I don't think, audibly.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: Dummy audibleing.
12:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, and guys would be in motion.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: Like they definitely I mean Porter was right.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: They but I don't I don't know that that was a bad thing.
12:34
SPEAKER_01: They won a lot of games doing that kind of offense.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Well they had uh Tom Moore who had actually been with the Steelers in the 70s.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: So him and Tom Moore kind of developed that offense over the years.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Right.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: And we talked about Tom Moore in our 80s Steelers episode, how they fired him in the late 80s and then he went on too.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, bigger and better.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: Bigger and better things.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Edrin James had 124 yards in the November matchup, uh, which would seem to lead to like discounting Joey Porter's theory, but he said it was a cheap one hundred, so the Colts couldn't line up and straight run straight at the Steelers defense.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: Which in Porter's defense was probably true because they had Hampton and Aaron Smith and I mean good gravy, Jim Brown in the you know, 1960s Browns probably would have had uh trouble running against that defense.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever seen anybody get into the heads of people more than Joey Porter?
13:25
SPEAKER_01: I like I've never seen that before.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: I've I've never seen I've never seen any other athlete capable of doing that.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh maybe Rodman.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah.
13:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he used to get into people's heads.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: That was more that was usually more during the game.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:42
SPEAKER_01: Like I feel like Porter could say just say stuff to people.
13:45
SPEAKER_01: Like he he m totally messed up that Seahawks tight end in the Super Bowl that year.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: Jeremy Stevens.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he dropped the fourth down.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: He dropped the fourth down, yeah.
13:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, even when he was an assistant coach, he got he got the Bengals to throw away a playoff game.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Because they were more well, they they're more obsessed with like going after Joey Porter than than winning a winning a playoff game.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean that the Joey Porter just Well, I mean, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean you gotta let Joey Porter get the last word.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean just winning the game wasn't good enough.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: I just I've never seen anybody able to get into people's heads like that.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the the only other guy I could think of is that guy that um in the World Cup that made the that got the guy from Italy to head up.
14:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: That was the I would prefer the whore that is your mother.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't think it was said in English.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: I think it was said in either Italian or French.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: So I don't that's what it loosely translates to.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: But that that guy in the world.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: It was Zenadane Zidane was the guy who headbutted the other guy.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the Italian, yes.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: But he he might be on the same level of Jody Porter getting getting somebody to um get disqualified out of overtime of the World Cup fight.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: I prefer the like who even gets like you just laugh that off.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: I mean, well, Zenadane Zidane, not so much.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, World Cup soccer coming into play there.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Um from the fans' perspective, I think there was some skepticism.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: I know I felt that the Steelers could be.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: I kind of felt like not quite like Joey Poor, but I thought that the Steelers just kind of had a bad game.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: Ben had just come off injury, and the Colts didn't do anything.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like a game where I thought, oh man, the Colts are just so much better than the Steelers.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: I thought the score wasn't indicative of how close.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Like I remember Ike Taylor got burned by Harrison, but that was because Ike Taylor bit on a play action.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like Marvin Harrison just like like he did to Dion Sanders, I think earlier that year or the later the next year, like he just ran by Dion, like, and there was nothing Dion could do about it because Dion was very old at that point.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: I just felt like Ike if Ike played it straight up and let his, you know, what are you doing worrying about the run anyway, Ike?
15:57
SPEAKER_00: Just just play, you know, what yours should be that I didn't feel like they were gonna get burned like that again.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: And that was like the first play of the game, too, remember?
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:05
SPEAKER_01: Or the first series at least.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was early in the game.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: It was it was right in smack at the beginning of the game, and it's like right off the bat, long touchdown pass.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: They were down early.
16:13
SPEAKER_01: This they couldn't play their game.
16:15
SPEAKER_01: Like with Ben back then, Ben was not No, he wasn't what he is now.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: Like I run back and I rewatched that game, and it's amazing the evolution from the Ben now to the Ben then.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Like you could see glimpses of it, but he definitely wasn't going up and changing the play and adjusting.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: And they had a different offense.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: They were definitely a running team back then.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: They had some weapons at wide receiver, but they're definitely a running team.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: They're they're a team that was way more comfortable not being down 7-0.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: Like that was a bad place for them to be.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: You're right.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: That that first game was a little fluky.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: But you still thought like But I was the only one.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: I was in the minority.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Like I remember talking to other people, like that we all know the Colts are gonna blow it, they're gonna do it again.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: And this you know, but there are some fans that are just fans, like, yeah, I think this team, like just kind of like you know, being fans.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: But from the media, like I said, even locally, like there were very few, like maybe Bob Pompeiani, maybe.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: I like there was really nobody in the media locally.
17:15
SPEAKER_01: I was very cautiously optimistic, but I I really didn't think they had much of a chance.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: I was I was number one, I was happy that they made it to the playoffs because they had to win those last four games just to make it in.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: And then I was really happy that they had beat Cincinnati because that was the year they had the big division case with Cincinnati, and it just felt good to stick it to Cincinnati.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, okay, if we lose to Indy, you know, it was still a pretty good season.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh but you know, if if we could just maybe like not go down early, maybe we'd have a chance at this one.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, enough hype on the game.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Let's get on to actually playing the game.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: So that kind of sets the scene.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: So the Steelers wandered into the RCA dome with all their piped in noise.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: But they did have like 60,000 fans there too, so they probably were making enough noise.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: But uh and there weren't a lot of Steelers games.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Steelers, like sometimes like even a playoff game, like there'll be a fair there were like I'll give the Colts fans credit.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: They they really showed up.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they they have actual fans like that that show up for their big games, yeah, for sure.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: And um so the Steelers um they they start the game, they win the coin toss and they start the game on offense.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: And uh so like we said, like the Steelers were definitely a running team, and the Colts were ready for that.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: They were like kind of set up for the rent.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: So Ken Wisenhunt, who was the coordinator at that time, decides that like, hey, we're gonna cross it up.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: They start throwing the ball, and boy, bed, this is when like the legend I would say this is when Big Ben became a legend was this game.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: This is like uh if he wasn't a legend already, this is this is when you kind of knew he was for real.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh so he bec he completes a big pass to Heath Miller, and they and they get inside the 20 yard line, and uh they I think they complete another pass and maybe they didn't run much early in the game.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean he hits Antoine Randwell for a big touchdown on the opening drive on a third and four.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: And seven and oh, they're up seven-nothing in the Steelers, and they're just getting started.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: Um let's see.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh and that was shocking.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: Like that was that was almost like, you know, hey, like you said, they were they were they're expecting us to just run, play conservative, like like let's just go for it.
19:29
SPEAKER_01: And if Ben, the second year quarterback, throws you know, an interception or whatever, like they just were gonna throw a cost into the wind and say, we're not gonna beat this team unless we can get some points on the board early.
19:39
SPEAKER_01: So that was that was gutsy.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um after the in the Colts punt and they look out their offense looked out of sync.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: So maybe, like you said, taking their foot off the gas pedal a little bit might have affected them, plus the by you know, they came out they come out a little slow on offense.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Because they really haven't played a meaningful game, like you said, in like what a month.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Right.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: So um disaster strikes.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh Ben gets hit by Dwight Freeney and throws an interception.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: It really wasn't completely Ben's fault.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Dwight Freeney's really good.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh Marvell Smith was really good too, but Dwight Freeney really played a heck of a game in this game.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, but no worries, the Steelers defense has the back and they force another three and out.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, so the Colts get an early break and the defense stands up.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: On the uh next possession, the they're facing a third and ten.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: I remember this.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: Ben throws an absolute strike to Heinz Ward and he fights off like it's a classic Heinz Ward catch.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: Like he fights off like Bob Sanders and somebody else, like they're absolutely all over him, and he fights them off and runs after the catch.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Um he also draws a penalty, he gets a face mask because the Colts are trying to tackle him.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: Didn't he lose a hue on that play?
20:48
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think so.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: I didn't see it in the replay.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: I think I would have because I actually did go back and actually watch this whole game.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: It was like, but like two guys like it almost looked like the two guys like cracking.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: It was like one of those ones where he caught it and they hit him, but it's like, you know, do you always hear the saying like the the hardest hits on defense are normally on the other defensive players, and that's kind of what happened is the one defensive player kind of picked off the other defensive player and then Heinz is still running.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean they hit Heinz Ward too, but you know, knowing Heinz Ward the way you know it's gonna take more than like, you know, that than bring down Heinz Ward.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Um so that was a big third down.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: Um Ben throws a uh perfect pass to Heath Miller for a touchdown.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: So they're they're up 14 to nothing now.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Um the Steelers uh were where the run, they they cross it up, they are now passing the ball.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: They have a 14 point lead by uh coming out with uh passing instead of running.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Um they had the the Colts have some uh you know, they're out of sorts on offense right now, but their defense didn't look that bad.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: I think their defense just got caught flat footed early in the game.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Um and then the defense uh starts to uh Really hold down.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: It's not just like Peyton Manning's out of sync, like the defense of the Steelers is playing well, too.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: So they knocked down some passes early and they totally shut down Edrin James, the Colts running back.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: They're starting to get some pressure on Peyton Manning with sacks by Keemon von Olahoffen, who doesn't break Peyton Manning's leg like he had the week before.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: So Palmer.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: James Farrier has a great game too, this this game.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: This pressure, like uh I think Peyton was definitely a rhythm passer.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Like if you could either make him hold the ball or hit him, like you know, if you sat back and like played zone or like let him kind of get in a rhythm, like even under a blitz, like he would pick you apart.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: So um it was so nice, like too.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: I remember like a lot of other teams doing this to the Steelers like over the years, like just coming in and actually having like a hot start to a playoff game.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: It was like the perfect start.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Like if you could script up a way you want to start a playoff game, this is uh you know, come off throwing, catch the other team off guard, and get 14-0.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: You even have a turnover and you're still on 14-0.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: So the team's really playing up to what you thought they could.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: And and like that's what uh again, that's what everybody said they had to do.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Like you couldn't you couldn't get down against the team, you couldn't be like 3-3 because eventually like you said, they were rusty, but eventually Peyton Manning was gonna get going.
23:22
SPEAKER_01: So you you had to like make them uncomfortable.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: And uh Chemo Lov and has another uh has another pass rush, so Chemo's like, you know, one of my favorite players, underrated Steeler.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: He was don't hear much about him, but uh chemo's great.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh like I said, the Dwight Freeney smoking Marvell Smith, he was really good.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: Um uh Nick Harper, actually I'm a Nick Harper note here, he got hit in his knee by his own teammate on Hind on the Heinz Ward catch on that third and ten.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: He went out of the game.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: It's his opposite leg from which he was stabbed by his girlfriend the night before.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was really bizarre that he got he literally got stabbed in his other leg the night before the game.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: And I do you remember the details of that?
24:09
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: She just got mad at him and stabbed him.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: And I guess it must not have been too serious because he did play.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: And he played well.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: I remember watching, it was like, boy, for a guy that like kind of went through a lot the night before, he like he played really well.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: So Yeah, he did.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he comes in to play the game.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, he definitely rem like I don't did he leave the toilet seat up, like I don't remember what exactly happened.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he ate all the leftovers.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: And uh uh the uh officials uh start to come into play here.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: Um they they have a bad no pass interference call on Antoine Randall.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: He like the Colts DB Marlon Jackson who's filling in.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: And the the the it's such an obvious pass interference that Dick Eg, who's like like the most call it down the middle of the road, like national announcer, he doesn't normally even says oh my after it.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: And if you get an oh my out of Dick Enberg, something's something's going on here, you know?
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was definitely a sign of things to come from the referees.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: So um after that play, Nick Harper, he comes back on the field and he he has a gutty performance.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: He really does.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: He like like they when they try to subform like the other, you know, what was that, Marlon J just isn't as good as Nick Harper, even on one leg or no legs now, I guess, since the other knees hurt and he's stabbed in the other, so so um Ben is running for his life from the Colts defense.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Um he fakes uh Dwight Freeney out of his shoes, but he's only able to get an incompletion out of it.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Um it was like really great early Ben, like remember he used to run around like crazy and play black rolled for backyard football.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: It was kind of like those those Ben Ben moments.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Um he he throws uh throws a pass into triple coverage, so we still got like kind of like those like rookie kind of like early career mistakes.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: It almost gets intercepted, thank God.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Didn't uh the Colts start from their own one-yard line and they go in a long drive, and this is kind of at the end of the half, and they they figured out that like they just gonna run the ball.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: I guess the Steelers started playing pass a lot, so they started running Edrin James and they have some success.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: So they're playing the Joey Porter what he what what Joey Porter wanted them to do.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: They're lining up and running the ball at him.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: So the the James is kind of getting going here.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: On a second and goal from the Ted yard line, uh Larry Foote made a huge tackle on a pass the James uh to Edrin James.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: He he literally stopped them at the one-yard line.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: Like it was he it was Larry Foote and Edrin James, I think I remember one-on-one, and he tackled them.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: So that was a big play.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh and they were at the one, so they really weren't that far off.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh Tarek Glenn, uh, their the Colts offensive line had a really bad game.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh he committed a false start, so that backed them up to the five.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: That really kind of hurt them there.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: Because from the one, I mean, it took like a miracle tackle by Larry Foote, you know, maybe they just run the ball.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: And you know, but then Aaron Smith, who, you know, another great like kind of well, I guess he's more well known than maybe Chemo, uh, jumps offside and makes a third and goal from the two-yard line.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: But then uh just like you, you know, um was that dumb and dumber, just when you do the dumbest thing ever, you go and totally he totally redeems himself.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: From the from the two-yard line.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh he makes a nice tackle on Edward and James while being blocked.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: It was it's quite impressive.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: So two really big plays on Edgun James on at the end of that drive.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: They kind of bend, but they don't break.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: So they the Colts settle for a Mike Van or Jack field goal.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: Um the Colts offense is uh showing some signs of laugh life after like kind of like we said, a listless first half.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: Like they definitely had some rust.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: The score at the half is 14-3.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: So the Steelers are kind of you know right where they need to be, like we said.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: They're up 14-3 and doing well.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh but the Colts, Colts remember the Colts get the ball to start the second half.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: So like that's always big scoring before that, even if it is a field goal, because you can kind of pull like you call it the double.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: I call it the double, you know.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: You get like, you know, two scores, like going in the half and coming out of half.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: That can really turn a game.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: So it was uh on a second and seven uh preview, a tipped ball looks like it's intercepted by Paul Malo.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: The refs call it incomplete.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: It was a close play.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: It looked like the ball may have been caught.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: It was really close to call.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't like egregious.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: It was kind of like, yeah, you one of those 50-50s, you can cut it all to incomplete, you call it, you know, interception.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: But you know, the refs decide to call it incomplete.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Um defense does force a big punt on the on the next play, a third down.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: It's a big play.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: And you know, like I said, so the Colts couldn't pull off the double, so that's like another big play with a Steelers defense.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the Steelers defense still through three quarters are holding the Colts to three points.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: And so now the Steelers' first drive of the second half.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: They get a couple first downs, but they're really forced to punt.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh Dwight Freeney still like totally owning Marvel Smith.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, I remember they made a big deal about this game.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: At the time I didn't think much of it.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it had any effect on the game, but uh while getting sacked by Freeney, Ben gets hit by Robert Mathis in his throwing arm.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: Um they made a big deal about a TV.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just because you know anytime Ben gets hurt, and this is like he always like shakes his hand or he always like kind of plays it.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he plays it up or but like the media just goes absolutely crazy.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: And like I've watched enough Ben Rothelsberger over like how many years, like, yeah.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: You you wouldn't it's kind of like you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't like him when he, you know, it he did the same thing, you know, just recently.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, he he hurt both his knees.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, Ben.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: It's like, yeah, watch out now.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: Now now you just you just done ticked him off, so you're in trouble.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: So the worst thing you can do is hit Ben really hard because it seems to wake him up, especially if he's having like a bad game.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: And you're right, there's s there's so many times in his career where he's got up like visibly like wincing or holding something, and then he's fine.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, or like he'll be playing like a really bad game, and then they'll hit him and they'll be like, yeah, you know, it's like, oh my goodness, and he'll get up and we are and then it's like it it's like all of a sudden he just makes up a mind like, oh, yeah, you know, the heck with this.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: Remember the game where Baltimore broke his nose and beat them in the last minute.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
30:40
SPEAKER_01: There's there's lots of examples of that.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so uh Casey Hampton actually gets some pressure on Manning.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh it was always uh fun to see uh big old Casey Hampton get after the quarterback.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh on third and ten, uh James Ferry gets a sack on Peyton Manning.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Um this was like right at the the the Colts like half-yard line.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: Like it could have been a safety.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: Like at first, I remember seeing it thinking it was a safety.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe Manning's knee was down.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: It was a definitely uh like favorable call for the Colts because you don't want to give up another two points.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: I guess it would have been 16 to 3 at that point.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: But and to be fair, like what typically those calls like for a safety, you really have to be like in the end zone.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, it was kind of one of those ones where you could have called forward progress too, because like he was going back, which is like if you're going back and giving yourself into the that's supposed to be the rule, like it was close.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: And it was a it was another call, it was just kind of like, well, if it's 50-50, like it seemed there's a lot of calls, like if they are down the line, they always went to the Colts.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: So that's a good way to put it.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't it wasn't egregious, but like every close call went their way.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: It's becoming a theme.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: Right.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: So the Steelers get the ball after uh uh after that at the Colts 30.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh like they kicked it to the 50, but Randall had a nice punt return.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: So now it's uh uh Bill Cower decides to like channel his inner uh Marty Schottenheimer, and um I'm not gonna let no darn rookie lose me the game.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm handing off to my veteran running back, so they're uh we're calling out Jerome Bettis, and uh we're just gonna run the ball a lot for the rest of the game.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: So this is our offense.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh welcome to Navy or Georgia Tech, right?
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: We are going to run the ball.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: So they run the ball literally on every play on this drive.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: First by Willie Parker, who actually has a nice couple runs, then by Bettis, who had like an awesome like the way he scores a touchdown, he like literally jumps over the pile.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like I've ever like I think like they had like I watched the NFL like little like I still have like the Steelers like little highlight video from that year, and it was like you didn't know buses could fly.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: I think Hil Grove says that or Tonjokan.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: So uh it's now 21 to 3 and we're going into the fourth quarter, so the Steelers are total control of the games.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: And um here's where the game kind of kind of starts to turn a little bit.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: The the Colts have a fourth and two at their own 36, and they're down 18 points with 34 seconds to go in the third quarter.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: So we're I've jumped ahead.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: We aren't quite into the fourth quarter yet.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: Tony Dungey being kind of conservative sends the punt team out.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean how many possessions were they down?
33:32
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: So, well, I mean, it's not a horrible call to go for because maybe you aren't going to get the ball three more times.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: But you're on 36 if you don't make it there.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's pretty much the ball game.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: Because well, I mean, even if they get a field goal, what does that make it 24 points or something?
33:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I guess I guess it's still three scores either way.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it w it wouldn't have been Yeah, I I I can see why Peyton did what he did because Well, yeah, it's it's what happens is just to review, is um so it was a fourth and two, it wasn't a long like i i it's fourth and five and less.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm I've changed like I think as football's changed so much.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: I think almost fourth and five and less, and if you're between the forties, you should almost go for it every time now.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: Unless you're off I mean unless you have like absolutely terrible offense.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean so that's what Peyton Manning does.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: He literally waves the punt team off and says, No, Tony Dungey, I'm running a play.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: Which I think in hindsight, like maybe Tony Dungey hadn't completely and things hadn't completely changed to where they are now.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: Like Belichick ended up doing this years later.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Like he went for it and everybody criticized him, but I thought it was the right decision by Belichick.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: I was in the minority on that.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, and Belichick was tied when he did that.
34:46
SPEAKER_01: I mean, was he?
34:47
SPEAKER_01: Or I thought they were up or Oh, it it was a it was a w it was a regular season game, yeah.
34:52
SPEAKER_01: It was a very close game.
34:53
SPEAKER_01: This was this was he wasn't trailing by 18 points.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: And here the closer were trailing by 18 points.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but uh Manning Manning makes it pays it off.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: He he uh completes a pass to Brandon Stokely, who I totally forgot about.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: He was a guy, he was like a solid, like good player.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: It was like that classic, like I don't know how to describe little slot receiver guys that are like they're like a dime a dozen.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: You can name like 20 of them.
35:19
SPEAKER_01: But he played forever.
35:20
SPEAKER_01: He played for that Ravens.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: I think he played for Denver.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: He played for Denver, he yeah.
35:25
SPEAKER_01: He later he played for Denver.
35:27
SPEAKER_01: He caught that passing.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: I think Gus Johnson like has like a brain aneurysm over, yeah.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
35:31
SPEAKER_01: And he played on the 2000 Ravens Super Bowl team.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: Like he he had a long career playing on a lot of actually pretty good teams.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: And that was a big play.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: It totally changed the momentum in the game.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, so a couple plays later, Manning completes a pass to tight end Dallas Clark, who was really good.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: Like, I think I mentioned him earlier.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: And he runs for 40 yards because Paul Malu, like, he kind of cut to the sideline, and if he would have kept a pass, it would have been a big play.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: But Paul Molo kind of misses the tackle and runs for the, you know, and maybe that's why you know Bart Scott doesn't think he's a Hall of Famer.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, because he missed one tackle in a game.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: Bart Scott never missed a tackle ever in his career.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: But anywho, uh so the the uh the Colts are right back in it, right?
36:17
SPEAKER_00: And it's uh the score is now 21 to 10.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that they're right back in it, but they're definitely, you know, we're we're getting it the game is tightening up.
36:24
SPEAKER_01: Well, remember when we talked about we did our episode about the 2009 Penguins and game seven against the Red Wings, and we were up 2-0 in the third period, and you knew that Detroit was gonna at least get one goal at some point.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: So it's like, can we just hold off really as long as we can?
36:39
SPEAKER_01: And so like this game, I felt the same way.
36:41
SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, it's not gonna end 21-3.
36:44
SPEAKER_01: But can we like just make them like slowly drive down the field right and use up a bunch of clock, and then they get a 40-yard touchdown pass?
36:52
SPEAKER_01: Like that was the worst case scenario.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because it was a quick score, too.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: And it was like only one or two plays after that fourth down.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: Right.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: So uh so now uh the like I said, we're gonna run the ball.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: So Marty, Marty Schartenheimer has snuck onto the sidelines and is now calling plays for us.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh he is you know he's told, get uh give me the headset and uh Ken Wizenhunt.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm calling plays.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: So so uh they're running the ball, and uh Bettis comes up just short on a third and four, and it's literally fourth and inches at midfield.
37:27
SPEAKER_00: But this goes back to what I just said.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Like if you're in between the 40s and it's like fourth and less than five, I'm I think you gotta go for it here.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: And that and and so Bill, you know, snatches the headset off of Marty and says, nope, we're going for it.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Because definitely Marty Schadenheimer would have punted.
37:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: Because he did that in a game against like I remember we were watching, I think, uh a game when he coached the Chargers against Belichick, and he said, Well, there goes the rest of the game.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're just gonna run off the clock.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: We talked about how Cower was a disciple of Schottenheimer.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he he was an assistant coach for Schottenheimer, he was a very similar coach.
38:02
SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, you're right.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: It's like the little like Marty on one shoulder, and then like, I don't know, you know, Rob Rivera on the other shoulder.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: Like some somebody who's a little bit.
38:12
SPEAKER_01: Go for it.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: You'll never call up the colour.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: What are you, Darth?
38:16
SPEAKER_00: Sit on your defense, don't let the rookie quarterback make a mistake.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who the other like little.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we need like a devil and an angel, yeah.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Who would be the devil to be the angel?
38:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, Marty would definitely be the punt guy.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know.
38:36
SPEAKER_01: Some sort of Mike Martz.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Mike Martz or uh Rex Ryan, maybe somebody that like somebody just like the hell would I just go.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: So in that now, once again, with the officiating, it gets really strange here.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is one of the weirdest plays.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: I think I've ever seen even I can't even remember another play like in another game.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: No.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: Besides like Bob McAwee, like describing there's there's gas in the stands, everybody run, like in a Washington Redskins game years ago.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: But like which is like the equivalent of yelling fire, you know.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: Way to be calm.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: But but Pete Morelli decides that uh he's gonna like really confuse everybody.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: So there's this fourth down, and the Colts jump and they make contact with the Steelers line, which and it's kind of one of those ones where maybe somebody flinched, maybe somebody didn't.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: And I get the feeling the refs didn't want to decide the play.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: They're like, this is a big play, we don't want to be involved in it unless it's something so blatantly obvious that we have to throw the flag.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: I get the feeling that's what Pete Morelli was thinking is I want it decided on the field by the players, unless, you know, and it was so I I don't know if there was a flinch, I don't remember.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a later one where there is a flinch, but But did they blow the whistle?
39:56
SPEAKER_00: They blew the whistle, they blew the whistle and everybody stands up and like I remember the coaches came on the field, like not all the way to the midfield, but like on the field a little bit, and like everybody's arguing, and it and then all of a sudden they're like, nope, nobody made nobody made contact, nobody flinched, we're just gonna have a do-over.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: And I think that was the the logic behind it was like we're not gonna decide this, even though later they decided they were gonna decide it, but we'll get into that later.
40:24
SPEAKER_01: It was just so odd.
40:26
SPEAKER_01: You you have to make a call there.
40:27
SPEAKER_01: Like I don't know what the right call was.
40:29
SPEAKER_01: Like you were saying, you know.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: I I think there's a later one where Fannica does flinch, but I don't think anybody flinched.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: But if they jump across and touch, that's it.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: That's the that's on the defense.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: Right.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: It's because you got I think you can still jump across and jump back real quick at that time as long as the offense doesn't move.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: Right, but when you make contact.
40:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:48
SPEAKER_01: So if you make contact, but a guy flinched to make you make contact, then it's a false start.
40:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:52
SPEAKER_01: So you have like if you blow the whistle there, you have to call it.
40:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you it ha it's a call.
40:58
SPEAKER_01: So either you get it right or you get it wrong, but make a call.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: And they were just like, uh we didn't run we weren't really looking.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: In a replay, it did look like Alan Fanica flinched on that one.
41:08
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, but but then make the call.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: Fourth and five, which I would have still uh well, I think he would have pun it.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: He would have punted.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:19
SPEAKER_01: But but but but make the call.
41:20
SPEAKER_01: Like it was either one or the other, and they're just like, well, you know, I mean, what were they doing?
41:24
SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah.
41:26
SPEAKER_01: We were oh sorry, I was I was checking my phone, I didn't I wasn't watching.
41:29
SPEAKER_01: Let's just do it over.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: So so apparently we've d devolved into backyard football at this point, which Ben loves, so you know, he's all in.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh the rest of us maybe not so much.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh so the Steelers run the quarterback sneak, which is a great play because like going five like nowadays they would have like my dad would have been apoplectic because they would have run that stupid little shotgun play, which my dad hated even all the way back then when West Virginia used to run it, and we used to go to pick.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: And like, why are you like literally spotting the defense five yards?
42:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, it makes sense.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: And like when you have inches or like a yard, you know.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: And I would say, that's their offense, that's Rich Rod's offense.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: But you know, Kansas City would do the same thing, but anywho, uh they they don't get it.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: Ben doesn't get it at first, but they're like Bettis like just plows into Ben's back and they kind of have like, you know, the bush push, and they just whee! Everybody just kind of goes forward and gets like literally one yard.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Steelers pass on first down, which was you know pretty smart.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: Um it's the first their fifth pass of the half and their first pass in 11 plays, so definitely uh whichever shoulder Marty is on, he's winning the argument right now.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: So uh on third and one, like I said, the Colts defense, man, I say what you will.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I Joey Porter called him soft.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: They were not soft.
42:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so they were up to the task.
42:56
SPEAKER_01: They just, like you said, they they kind of got caught early.
42:59
SPEAKER_01: And after those first two touchdowns, the rest of the game, because that that's the same.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: I guess Dwight Freeney, Gary Brackett, like they uh I forget there wasn't like was Simon?
43:08
SPEAKER_00: I think Corey Simon might have been like they had a really like their defensive line was big and fast.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: Right.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: And Bob Sanders on their own.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:16
SPEAKER_01: I mean he was probably the best.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: He was like their Troy Paul moment.
43:20
SPEAKER_01: Right, exactly.
43:21
SPEAKER_01: And and like if you take away those first two touchdowns, that third touchdown was a 30-yard drive because the Colts had to punt from the the one half yard line.
43:29
SPEAKER_01: So really they hadn't they hadn't given up much after those first two touchdowns.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: So um Bettis uh runs the ball, gets the gets the fourth down.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: Now uh yeah, they they they get to another fourth and one, and this time they're like at like I think the Colts 39 or they're on the other side of the fifty.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: And they run Bettis on a fourth down, and he barely gets the first down.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: Like the first one on the QB sneak, they get it by like probably like a full yard.
43:59
SPEAKER_00: This one The fourth down was much closer.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: And I think it might have been still at midfield.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: Like it was literally by the nose of the football.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: Like it wasn't quite index card time, but it was pretty close.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: And the Colts just start absolutely like they figured out like the Steelers aren't going to throw the ball.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: So they're just not only you have a good Colts defense, now it'd be good Colts defense with like nine people at the line of scrimmage or in the box is, you know, the the jargon.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: So the Steelers run the ball three more times.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: They get stuffed on the third and five.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: So it's fourth and long, and um they have to punt.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: So now, you know.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: So Chris Kardaki punts the ball in the end zone, um, and the Colts get the ball back with 6-0 three to play.
44:46
SPEAKER_00: Um the Steelers, they were very conservative, like we said.
44:49
SPEAKER_00: They they aren't really throwing the ball.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: Um they get the clock down to six minutes, and uh they really didn't trust Ben quite yet.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: But but that drive was still even even conservative.
45:01
SPEAKER_01: They because they had two fourth downs that they converted.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: So they like they took about like five minutes, four or five.
45:06
SPEAKER_00: I should have written that down.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: I think they took about four or five minutes to the first time.
45:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think they made up for the quick Dallas Clark touchdown because what we said was like you wanted for the Colts to score that first touchdown, you wanted them to take like five minutes to do it.
45:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
45:19
SPEAKER_01: And since they did it right away, the offense kind of made up for that by running all this fourth down.
45:25
SPEAKER_01: So that helped.
45:26
SPEAKER_01: And then, yeah, six minutes left.
45:28
SPEAKER_01: Colts still need two scores, and you're thinking, like, hey, we got a chance.
45:32
SPEAKER_00: The defense is gonna have to make a play, but we're in good shape.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
45:36
SPEAKER_00: So here comes the end of the game, the last six minutes, probably one of the most insane six minutes.
45:42
SPEAKER_00: Get out your heart medicine.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm starting to sweat just thinking about talking about that.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is this is like the uh Steelers equivalent of game seven up two to nothing here.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: So so alright, we're all buckled in and uh we're ready to go.
45:57
SPEAKER_00: Um so it's probably the second craziest ending of a game.
46:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously McIntyre reception is you know, it's gonna be hard to ever top that one, but this I would say this is a close second.
46:10
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh on the next drive, Troy Palomalo makes a great interception.
46:15
SPEAKER_00: Like he baits, like if you watch the replay, he does bait Peyton Manning and he throws a pass across the middle, middle, but Paul, like any other safety besides like maybe Bob Sanders, you know, would not have made that play.
46:27
SPEAKER_00: So you can't really fault Peyton Manning, but he he catches the ball and he rolls on the ground, and as he's getting up, his knee knocks the ball out of his own hand.
46:38
SPEAKER_00: But he fell on the ground and rolled around and stood up with the ball.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't moving around, it wasn't like he was fumbling it.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: He stood up on his on two feet with the ball.
46:50
SPEAKER_00: So I don't, you know.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: So he drops the ball and he falls on it.
46:56
SPEAKER_00: And so Tony Denji has nothing to lose.
46:58
SPEAKER_00: And this is they they they should go to the hockey rule on this.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: Like you should get a penalty if you just challenge frivolously.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: I like the like hockey went to that, like because they were doing just like because I'm I'm thinking after that.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, anytime there's a close play on any fourth down or anything, just throw your flight.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: If you have a challenge left on the side, just throw it.
47:16
SPEAKER_01: Because who knows what the Well their sea I mean, even even if they would have had the penalty, their season was over.
47:20
SPEAKER_01: So he would have challenged that I think no matter what, because their season was over if that play doesn't get overturned.
47:26
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: So uh they challenge, and uh for some reason Bill Levy gets a call that, you know, CBS really wants to make a bunch of money off of ads the last couple minutes of this game, and you know, just watching the Steelers like win comfortably isn't gonna be good for ad revenue or you know any anything else.
47:48
SPEAKER_00: And we really want Tony Dungey to win because you know, we really like Tony Dungey and Peyton Manning, and nobody likes the Steelers anyway.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: Boo, Ben Rothelsberger.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: So well, this is before everybody hated Ben.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: So but uh so they overturned the call, and it's a ridiculous call.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: I I figure what he said he he uh that I the ball never moves.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: He said like he he rolled over with the ball.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: I it was a ridiculous explanation.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: He dropped the ball after the catch.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: It was the equivalent of the Jesse James.
48:23
SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna say the the Calvin Johnson, like the the um catch yeah.
48:29
SPEAKER_01: The NFL for a long time had a real problem like clarifying what a catch was.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: Well this all goes back, nobody remembers it.
48:37
SPEAKER_00: There was a Wayne Corbett catch that started all this silliness.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: And like I remember he caught it and like tapped his feet, and as soon as he tapped his feet, he like dropped the ball.
48:49
SPEAKER_00: And it was like, and they called it a catch, and the Jets ended up winning because of that.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: And that started all the silliness that you're like, oh, we gotta change the rule.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, I've said this before, like I think way back when like the NFL now has gone to overreaction mode on everything.
49:06
SPEAKER_00: Like they'll just change like a longstanding rule just because, well, the Jet I don't even know who the other team, the Jets are.
49:12
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Jets really benefited or somebody Yeah, that's that's why you know everything happens the way it happens.
49:18
SPEAKER_01: No, they do that all the time.
49:18
SPEAKER_01: They did that with the past interference challenge, even though that only lasted a year, but they that was a reaction to something.
49:24
SPEAKER_01: The changing the overtime rules, that was a reaction to something like the the helmet um hitting with the helmet.
49:31
SPEAKER_01: Like it's all it's all reactive.
49:33
SPEAKER_01: The NFL's never proactive, they're always reactive.
49:35
SPEAKER_01: And that's funny.
49:36
SPEAKER_01: I I did not realize and I did not remember that that was the origin of the ridiculous catch.
49:42
SPEAKER_00: It took a it took them years to finally change it, but I think that's what kind of started the ball rolling towards well, we need a better defension.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: And then they totally reversed it back to what it always was was two feet control and a football move.
49:54
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: And you you can define well, what's a football move?
49:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, this is life.
49:59
SPEAKER_00: This isn't like this isn't fantasy football, people, you know.
50:03
SPEAKER_01: Like if you just if you just look at that replay, Troy caught the ball.
50:07
SPEAKER_01: He had it in his arms, he's getting it.
50:08
SPEAKER_00: And we're biased by but I think even if you got like somebody who didn't have any dog in this fight, I think, and just show and like covered up the logos and stuff and just said, What is this?
50:19
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they would say, Well, that looks like a catch.
50:21
SPEAKER_01: Same same with Calvin Johnson a couple years later, same with Des Bryant in the playoff game.
50:25
SPEAKER_01: Like all those all those rollings in and that finally, finally years later led them to to redefine that all that stuff was ridiculous.
50:34
SPEAKER_01: Like you had to catch the ball, hold on to it, take a lap around the field.
50:37
SPEAKER_00: Hand it to the official to make sure the official didn't drop it.
50:40
SPEAKER_00: Right.
50:40
SPEAKER_00: But then the official had to give it to the ball heads linesman, and he couldn't drop it either.
50:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was it was absurd.
50:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, i and I that's why like I'm a big fan of like I I maybe we should do a whole podcast on like things that you know rule things that should be done in sports, you know.
50:58
SPEAKER_00: Like it, I have a bunch of these, but one of them is is the NFL needs to make like a change to the way they make rules.
51:05
SPEAKER_00: You're only allowed to change the rules, like it's like almost like passing an amendment to the Constitution.
51:12
SPEAKER_00: It's a five year, you can only do change like ten rules every five years, and it has to be voted on by not just the owners, the referees, and the players' union.
51:22
SPEAKER_00: Make it like, you know, and the writers.
51:24
SPEAKER_00: I put even writers, like 30-30-30 and a 10% writer.
51:28
SPEAKER_00: And there you go.
51:28
SPEAKER_00: Change whatever rule you want.
51:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, every year the the Belichick wants to make everything a challenge, everything reviewable by instant replay.
51:37
SPEAKER_00: He just does that because I think it's negotiating negotiation tactic for him, because he wants to push, he obviously has something he wants reviewable.
51:46
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, and if you know Mike Vrabel wants to sit there and take, you know, false start penalties to run out the clock, great.
51:53
SPEAKER_00: We'll change that in four years.
51:55
SPEAKER_00: Get away with it now, Mike, for four years, because in four years they're going to change that.
51:59
SPEAKER_00: And if it's really a problem, after four years, you will change it.
52:03
SPEAKER_00: Not overacting because Brett Favre didn't get to touch the ball in overtime.
52:08
SPEAKER_01: Or the Saints got jobed by a pass interference call.
52:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
52:11
SPEAKER_01: Now you're stopping the game with all these pass interference challenges.
52:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I agree.
52:15
SPEAKER_01: I like that idea.
52:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and you could still change the rules.
52:18
SPEAKER_00: It's just that way you're not changing it just for every little thing.
52:22
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, um so that's enough complaining about that.
52:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh the league you actually admitted it was a mistake, but uh good couching, good coaching by Bill Cower.
52:33
SPEAKER_00: I always thought this was great.
52:34
SPEAKER_00: Like he he just was saying to the defense, he said, I can't control this, we can't worry about it, just play.
52:40
SPEAKER_00: That's the what we can do is we can go out there and make plays.
52:44
SPEAKER_00: And you know, if they overturn it, so be it.
52:47
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about it.
52:48
SPEAKER_00: And that was that was the right attitude for you know, Bill Cower really like you know, like we said, like he definitely moved away from the conservative Marty.
52:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, he definitely made a lot of you know strides to be his own kind of person.
53:03
SPEAKER_00: So the Colts, you know, to their credit, a lot of other teams like have gotten breaks like this and not taken advantages, but the Colts are a good team and they do.
53:11
SPEAKER_00: They score on a um TD run by running back Edrin James.
53:16
SPEAKER_00: I think that you know the team was just kind of stunned by that overturn.
53:19
SPEAKER_00: But the Colts are a good team, too.
53:21
SPEAKER_00: And the the play the play uh of the drive is a perfect throw by Manning and a sweet catch by Reggie Wayne between two Steeler defenders.
53:29
SPEAKER_00: Reggie Wayne ends up having a great second half.
53:32
SPEAKER_00: Like that was another that was a great catch down the sidelines.
53:35
SPEAKER_00: I think they were like there was one of those like you know, two deep zones where there's a guy in front of him, a guy behind him, and Manning just put it in perfect, and there was literally like, you know, what one little foot for him to work on the sidelines.
53:48
SPEAKER_00: It was just a tremendous catch.
53:49
SPEAKER_00: And you, if you thought that catch was good, when they go for two, Wayne makes another unbelievable, like indefensible like catch.
53:58
SPEAKER_00: Like he throws one to the back of the end zone, and Manning or Wayne drags his feet, and it's just it's another, it's two unbelievable plays.
54:06
SPEAKER_01: I always remember that two-point conversion.
54:08
SPEAKER_01: There's like these two big inflatable, like Yeah, yeah, and like he's like partying with them.
54:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like these like these two like mascot guys like in the corner of the end zone, like bobbing up and down.
54:17
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I just remember that image.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: I think it was because it was right on that side, yeah.
54:22
SPEAKER_01: It was right in that corner, and I think I just remember that being burning in my head because that's the moment where you're like, oh no.
54:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so now the score is 21 to 18, and now the fans are now in full-on panic mode.
54:34
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
54:34
SPEAKER_00: Panic has set in.
54:35
SPEAKER_00: There is desperation in the halls of whatever Pittsburgh, the bars of Pittsburgh.
54:41
SPEAKER_00: People are really nervous in homes, and yeah.
54:45
SPEAKER_00: So everybody's on the edge of his seat.
54:47
SPEAKER_00: So the Steelers.
54:48
SPEAKER_00: So what do they do to respond to this?
54:50
SPEAKER_00: Let's get even more conservative on offense.
54:53
SPEAKER_00: Yay! So they're really sitting on their defense now.
54:58
SPEAKER_00: And um Ben makes a throw on, they actually do they do the classic run-run pass offense of play calling, which is just awesome.
55:09
SPEAKER_00: And Nick Harper makes a great play.
55:11
SPEAKER_00: He bikes up the pass on third down.
55:13
SPEAKER_00: It was to uh Heinz Ward.
55:14
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a bad pass by Ben, it was just a better play by Nick Harper.
55:17
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't a bad play by Heinz Ward.
55:19
SPEAKER_00: If Heinz Ward could have got his hands on the ball, he catches it because that's what Heinz Ward does.
55:25
SPEAKER_00: But give like the Colts were a really good team that year.
55:30
SPEAKER_00: So all the Colts need is a field goal to tie or a touchdown to win.
55:34
SPEAKER_00: So the Steelers decided, uh, Bill Dick Lebeau decides that he's tired of playing conservative, eat the clock defense.
55:41
SPEAKER_00: He's like, well, we're we're down.
55:43
SPEAKER_00: If we're gonna go out, we're gonna go out guns blazing.
55:46
SPEAKER_00: So we're blitzing, boys.
55:48
SPEAKER_00: So here they come.
55:50
SPEAKER_00: So Joey Porter, after talking crap the whole week before, decides to back it up and uh gets himself makes himself legendary after that.
55:58
SPEAKER_00: He gets a big sack on second down, and then uh that forces a fourth and sixteen.
56:07
SPEAKER_00: And it's just him and uh Ferrier making absolutely like they just they put pressure on Pate Manning.
56:13
SPEAKER_00: I said, if you can disrupt Pate Manning's rhythm, he's not as effective, and they sack him, and that's that that's fourth and sixteen, that's the ball game.
56:22
SPEAKER_00: There was like what two minutes left.
56:24
SPEAKER_00: Um Bill Wilgram and Tunch Oaken um declare the game over.
56:28
SPEAKER_00: I remember Tunch taking, yeah, get make your reservations, we're going to Denver, because Denver had won.
56:34
SPEAKER_00: Um the because of now here's where the inner the no-call interception comes back to bite you, not just in the Colts scoring and being back in the game, this is where it really, I think, really is that everybody forgets about this, is if the Steelers would have gotten the ball there and let's say not done anything, the Colts would have to use all their timeouts.
56:54
SPEAKER_00: But because they didn't and they scored, they had three timeouts.
56:57
SPEAKER_00: So if they will even if it would have played off just like this, the Steelers had to like you know clean up some garbage time, like they could have just kneel, kneel, kneel, not nothing.
57:08
SPEAKER_00: But because of that, because of the no interception call and the the Steelers throwing throwing on third down, the Colts still have all their timeouts, so the Steelers have to run the ball.
57:19
SPEAKER_01: And they're at the two-yard line, and yeah, you're right.
57:22
SPEAKER_01: If if the time was on their side, you you you you couldn't kick a field goal there, because if you kick a field goal, you're only up by six.
57:28
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna be able to do that.
57:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, plus it was first down.
57:30
SPEAKER_00: You aren't going to kick up you want to get make the at very least use up your timeouts.
57:35
SPEAKER_00: Get rid of those timeouts.
57:36
SPEAKER_00: Right.
57:37
SPEAKER_01: But like you said, if if they could have now like they couldn't just kneel because the Colts would have taken three timeouts, there still would have been two minutes left, and then it would have been a six-point game with the Colts getting the ball back.
57:47
SPEAKER_01: You couldn't do that.
57:48
SPEAKER_00: You had to just, like you said, run the ball, run the clock, and then even if you didn't score, you know, if you get it under two minutes, I mean you probably I mean you don't even well, you still want to kick the field goal because a touchdown's harder to than a it's easy to defend against a touchdown.
58:02
SPEAKER_01: Well and honestly, that might be a situation now where you might see some teams just let me Well, they tried it in Minnesota.
58:08
SPEAKER_00: Mike Zimmer tried that earlier.
58:10
SPEAKER_01: Let the guy run into the end zone.
58:11
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh no, no.
58:12
SPEAKER_00: He tried to run to put the ball away.
58:14
SPEAKER_00: Right.
58:15
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that was the Falcons that tried to now you can get the biggest thing.
58:18
SPEAKER_01: Well, Nick Chubb, Nick Chubb did that.
58:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the other he ran out of bounds.
58:22
SPEAKER_01: Because the Colts probably probably would have had a better chance to let them score quickly and then try to march down the field with their timeouts, get a touchdown and an onside kick.
58:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, keep the game going.
58:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
58:32
SPEAKER_00: It's getting football's getting too basketball for me.
58:35
SPEAKER_00: This is this is getting ridiculous.
58:37
SPEAKER_01: But but I mean, for sure, with the Steers on the two, you see why why the announcers said it was over, because the Steers have the ball at the two-yard line.
58:45
SPEAKER_01: They're up by three.
58:46
SPEAKER_01: And even the Colts like the game was over.
58:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you watch the um the uh NFL films little whatever they put together of that, like the Colts announcers like, well, they got Bettis and they're gonna be the ball to Bettis, and he doesn't really fumble much.
59:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't think Bettis had fumbled a lot that year, maybe once.
59:04
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, Jerome Bettis the last couple years has become like this short yardage specialist.
59:10
SPEAKER_00: He had already scored earlier that game.
59:13
SPEAKER_00: The Colts broadcasters are paying praying for a fumble.
59:17
SPEAKER_00: Bettis had not fumbled that season.
59:19
SPEAKER_00: So Bettis decided they call on Bettis, which is yo, it is concerned.
59:25
SPEAKER_00: Now you want to be conservative.
59:26
SPEAKER_00: You're into like, you know, I call it just just fall down mode.
59:30
SPEAKER_00: Just literally, whatever you do, just fall forward.
59:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it doesn't even matter.
59:34
SPEAKER_00: Like, just hold on to the ball and fall forward.
59:36
SPEAKER_00: That's all we're trying to do here.
59:38
SPEAKER_01: You know, even the even the Rex Ryan on coward quarter is like, no, just run the ball.
59:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
59:42
SPEAKER_01: Don't do anything dumb here.
59:43
SPEAKER_00: You don't even have to hand it off.
59:44
SPEAKER_00: If you got like a quarterback you think can sneak the ball, you know, just yeah, if I had Lamar J, that's what I, you know, or one of these running quarters, that's what I would do.
59:51
SPEAKER_00: I just fall forward, dude.
59:53
SPEAKER_00: Both hands on the ball, and if you get a yard, great.
59:57
SPEAKER_00: So unfortunately, Joe Bettis runs into the line and he decides like instead of just meeting Gary Brackett head on, he like turns, and Gary Brackett, to his credit, makes a great play.
1:00:09
SPEAKER_00: He hits the ball right with his helmet, and Bettis, like the ball pumps out, and the ball, like I never it just like all happens in slow motion, like because your brain slows things down when traumatic things happen.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_00: And so the ball's bouncing around, and Nick Harper comes up and scoops up the ball, and he has one chance, like Jeff Harding, who saw it happen, misses the play, misses a tackle, and they're in like goal line, and Nick Harper's like a fast defensive back.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_00: So Nick Harper is like literally on his way to becoming super like Indianapolis Colts legend.
1:00:46
SPEAKER_00: If he just stays to the top of the screen, to the right.
1:00:51
SPEAKER_00: If he literally just picks the Bo Jackson play from Tech Mobile, the Colts win this game.
1:00:57
SPEAKER_00: But for some reason, like Ben to his credit, runs backwards, just figures, you know, and that's the other thing.
1:01:03
SPEAKER_00: We kind of get we're at their two-yard line.
1:01:06
SPEAKER_00: So Ben had some room to work.
1:01:08
SPEAKER_00: He's just trying to like keep Nick, slow Nick Harper down until hopefully somebody can help him make the tackle.
1:01:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, all Nick Harper has to do, like I said, is cut to the right.
1:01:17
SPEAKER_00: For some reason, he cuts to the middle of the field.
1:01:19
SPEAKER_00: I guess he thought he was going to make a move on Ben.
1:01:21
SPEAKER_00: And Ben literally at the last minute reaches out and grabs him by his shoe.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_00: I am not making this up.
1:01:28
SPEAKER_00: Grabs him by his shoe and pulls him down.
1:01:30
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, Ben is now a legend, you know, for attack.
1:01:36
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most craziest things.
1:01:38
SPEAKER_00: So um Tunjioken says, cancel the reservations at Denver.
1:01:43
SPEAKER_00: We got a game to finish.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_00: Dick Enberg drops an umai that is probably still reverberating somewhere in the stratosphere.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh on a personal note, um, yes, uh this game, that that that play, um, I was watching with with my parents, and I I swore.
1:02:01
SPEAKER_00: Like, my mother is like a very conservative person, and I've only ever sworn from a mother twice.
1:02:07
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the times.
1:02:08
SPEAKER_00: And I called Jerome Bettis every name in the book that I could think of, and it was not flattering.
1:02:18
SPEAKER_00: But you know what, he deserved.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't know.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_00: No, I mean it happened.
1:02:22
SPEAKER_01: It was so shocking.
1:02:24
SPEAKER_00: It was just I I I I'm sure I was not the only one that was literally calling Jerome Bettis making fun of his weight and in his, you know, what would you say, ancestral not not I want to say his like mer the marital status of his parents when he was born.
1:02:42
SPEAKER_00: Let's say without saying.
1:02:47
SPEAKER_01: Let's say that.
1:02:49
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I was yelling.
1:02:50
SPEAKER_01: I think I was the sort of I remember being on the floor, and I think I was sort of like in a fetal position with my head like buried into the ground.
1:02:57
SPEAKER_01: I just I just I could not believe I just couldn't believe that happened.
1:03:02
SPEAKER_00: I remember my dad yelling, he's like, knock that off.
1:03:05
SPEAKER_00: I was just so angry at because it's like, dude, what was it?
1:03:09
SPEAKER_00: You played the most conservative game on offense the whole second half.
1:03:14
SPEAKER_01: Well, and and Vettis, like, you know, this was going to be probably his last season, and this might be how his career ends.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_01: And like he's he's money.
1:03:22
SPEAKER_01: Like that that was like we talked about in our last episode about Jose Lean making the error.
1:03:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this was equivalent to that.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_01: That was equivalent to that.
1:03:29
SPEAKER_01: Like the the guy that was like the best defensive second baseman and made the error at the worst possible time.
1:03:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:03:35
SPEAKER_01: That was this.
1:03:36
SPEAKER_00: So uh so the Colts actually get the ball around the midfield.
1:03:41
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know I didn't note that, but they drive to the Steelers 30-yard line, and so they're in field goal range.
1:03:48
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, Peyton Manning's kind of smart here.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_00: He starts to take shots at the end zone because there's still a lot of like as you get closer to the end zone, it's easier to defend.
1:03:57
SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of smart on Peyton Manning's part.
1:04:00
SPEAKER_00: Like he starts taking shots at the end zone, and Brian McFadden's up to the task.
1:04:05
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you would look at the play before the field goal, like McFadden almost picks that off.
1:04:10
SPEAKER_00: Like it was a horrible pass by Manning.
1:04:13
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know if he thought like Wayne was gonna run like one of those plays where he stops the what they call the back shoulder play, and like Wayne was like running a go or something, but like, yeah, like McFadden almost got an interception on that play.
1:04:27
SPEAKER_00: So uh and I remember too, like, because he dove into like a big pile of confetti because somebody threw like confetti on the field.
1:04:33
SPEAKER_00: I guess I guess they thought Nick Harper was really gonna score on that play, the Colts fan.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't I thought he was too.
1:04:39
SPEAKER_00: So so um enter uh fourth and two, the Colts decide they're gonna, you know, you gotta at least kick the field goal, get it to overtime.
1:04:48
SPEAKER_00: It's a 46-yard field goal.
1:04:50
SPEAKER_00: Enter Mike Vanderjack.
1:04:52
SPEAKER_00: Mike Van Der Jack at that time was the most accurate field goal kicker in NFL history.
1:04:57
SPEAKER_00: At that point, he had not missed a kick the whole season.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_00: He was also 87% for his career.
1:05:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh Mike Vanderjack had won two Grey Cups in the CFL.
1:05:06
SPEAKER_00: He'd also graduated from a fine university in Morgantown WVU.
1:05:11
SPEAKER_00: He spent two years there as a punter and finally a place kicker.
1:05:15
SPEAKER_00: Um after a playoff loss, like I guess a couple years earlier, I think it was one of the ones of the Patriots, um, he said that uh he had some critical things to say about Dungeon and Manning.
1:05:25
SPEAKER_00: I think he called them soft too.
1:05:27
SPEAKER_00: Like that they couldn't, you know, they didn't have the guts to win a Super Bowl or something like that.
1:05:33
SPEAKER_00: So uh Manning responded by calling me an idiot kicker, saying, Oh yeah, you go up to Canada, get all liquored up, and say a bunch of stupid stuff.
1:05:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, idiot kicker.
1:05:41
SPEAKER_01: That's what I just everybody called him that after that, because Peyton Manning.
1:05:45
SPEAKER_01: It was during the Pro Bowl.
1:05:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:05:46
SPEAKER_01: Like they were interviewing Manning on the sideline.
1:05:48
SPEAKER_01: They're like, What do you think about what your kicker said?
1:05:50
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Who cares what the idiot kicker says?
1:05:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:05:53
SPEAKER_00: So so uh yeah, um Cower calls a timeout to freeze Vanderjack, and he like I remember.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_00: This too, like he pointed at like Cower and laughed at him.
1:06:02
SPEAKER_00: Like I've never seen like a kicker talk as much trash as Vanderjack did.
1:06:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he he is from yeah, we did go to WVU.
1:06:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he did.
1:06:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he definitely behaved a lot like that.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he thought Joey was Jerry Porter too.
1:06:16
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a WVU thing.
1:06:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
1:06:19
SPEAKER_00: But uh so uh Vanderjack's lining up.
1:06:23
SPEAKER_00: It's like a short thing.
1:06:24
SPEAKER_00: You think this game's going to overtime.
1:06:25
SPEAKER_00: This is in a dome.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_00: Like this is like such a such a gimme feeling.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_00: So an automatic, easy thing.
1:06:31
SPEAKER_00: And especially with this guy, too.
1:06:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he never misses.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_00: So Vanderjack kicks the field and he he misses it badly, wide right.
1:06:39
SPEAKER_00: Shank a pot of us.
1:06:41
SPEAKER_01: And it was really wide right.
1:06:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it wasn't even close.
1:06:44
SPEAKER_00: Like as soon as he kicked it, it was like that's not going in.
1:06:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh Tunchoken's uh remake those reservations, we're heading to Denver.
1:06:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh I remember on a personal note, remember yelling running down like the hallway of my parents' house, yelling, I'd rather be lucky than good.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_00: Uh because we were definitely fortunate on that one.
1:07:04
SPEAKER_00: Jerome Bettis, I remember like like he missed it.
1:07:07
SPEAKER_00: That was like everybody like they had like they made like a montage of everybody, say like first Coward, then Bettis, then like even Tony, like Tony Dungey and Peyton Manning, like a like a what would you call like a sarcastic or wry, like he missed it.
1:07:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Peyton was just like he missed it.
1:07:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
1:07:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:07:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:07:25
SPEAKER_01: And and I and I like the the nobody would ever remember this, but he missed it with like eight seconds left.
1:07:31
SPEAKER_01: So the Steelers still had to do a kneel down.
1:07:34
SPEAKER_01: And I remember being nervous for the kneel down because so many shocking things had happened already.
1:07:41
SPEAKER_01: I was like, and I remember all the people I were supposed to recelabrating.
1:07:43
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, wait, they still have to run a plate.
1:07:44
SPEAKER_01: They still have to run a plate.
1:07:47
SPEAKER_01: Lord only knows what will happen here.
1:07:49
SPEAKER_01: Just wait.
1:07:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh I guess uh lucky than good.
1:07:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh Mike Vanderjack, uh the aftermath.
1:07:56
SPEAKER_00: Mike Vanderjack got cut by the Colts that in that offseason.
1:08:00
SPEAKER_00: And the Colts signed a guy named uh Adam Benateri to replace him.
1:08:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh don't feel too bad for Tony Dungey and Pate Manning.
1:08:07
SPEAKER_00: They would win a Super Bowl the next year.
1:08:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jerome Bennis got saved from infamy by Big Ben.
1:08:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh he really would have been Ernest Biner.
1:08:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what would have yeah.
1:08:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he would have got, like you said, Jose Lean.
1:08:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he definitely, yeah.
1:08:23
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of things that would have went differently.
1:08:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh Ben Rothelsberger's tackle is dubbed the Immaculate Redemption or the tackle.
1:08:32
SPEAKER_00: I just remember calling it amazing.
1:08:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:08:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I I just remember like because I had to drive home obviously after this, you know.
1:08:40
SPEAKER_00: Um Pittsburgh went nuts.
1:08:42
SPEAKER_00: Like I don't I think everybody like with was like you was like just caught like okay, they're kind of sticking their toe in the water on the Steelers on this.
1:08:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm not sure.
1:08:49
SPEAKER_00: I think this team's good.
1:08:50
SPEAKER_00: They went 15-1 last year and they didn't lose anybody.
1:08:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, like, well what can we, you know, uh should we believe or not?
1:08:59
SPEAKER_00: Pittsburgh went all in after this game.
1:09:02
SPEAKER_00: I remember driving like down Brookline Boulevard and everybody was out of the bars, on the streets, like going insane like stealer crazy.
1:09:11
SPEAKER_00: It was it was just no, I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like it in Pittsburgh.
1:09:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh it really came, I think it was that us against the world mentality that uh just from being the underdog that whole week and oh no, you can't do it, the cults are too good, you'll never do any, you know, blah blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
1:09:33
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people were wrong, but hey, good fruit.
1:09:37
SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
1:09:38
SPEAKER_00: Um A fan actually did have a heart attack after the baddest fumble, but fortunately for him, I think there was I don't know if there were fire like volunteer firemen in the bar with him, or but yeah, they were able to revive him and bring him back to life.
1:09:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was one of the bars on the south side.
1:09:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:09:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was the famous story.
1:09:56
SPEAKER_01: And then they like interviewed him in his hospital bed.
1:09:58
SPEAKER_01: He was like, Jerome literally broke my heart.
1:10:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, because like yeah, I have the story, like, yeah, talking about a heart stocking game.
1:10:05
SPEAKER_00: It was Terry O'Neill, and uh O'Neil, O'Neal said he said Bettis is his hero.
1:10:10
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't upset the Steelers might lose.
1:10:12
SPEAKER_00: I was upset because I didn't want to see him end his career like that, which is a very nice thing to say.
1:10:17
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want him.
1:10:18
SPEAKER_00: He's obviously a big Jerome Bettison Steelers fan.
1:10:20
SPEAKER_00: He didn't and I can understand that.
1:10:22
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want to see his own.
1:10:23
SPEAKER_01: And for all the people that think we take um sports too seriously in Pittsburgh, we absolutely do.
1:10:28
SPEAKER_01: This guy was living proof.
1:10:30
SPEAKER_01: And you can kind of laugh about it afterwards because he was okay.
1:10:33
SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean, fortunately.
1:10:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:10:36
SPEAKER_00: So I mean, you know, I guess Jerome Bettis should come with a disclaimer.
1:10:39
SPEAKER_00: Can can cause heart rat.
1:10:43
SPEAKER_00: But uh I mean and and like we're gonna cover the rest of the season and the Super Bowl and everything else in later podcasts, but um boy, the that was an unbelievable game.
1:10:53
SPEAKER_00: Legendary, I mean I can't think of too many other playoff games that rank up there with this.
1:10:59
SPEAKER_00: Like as far as wins go, at least.
1:11:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean I mean you got 1960 World Series, the Immaculate Receptions, Super Bowl 43.
1:11:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean this is probably right up there with those games.
1:11:11
SPEAKER_00: So an unbelievable game.
1:11:13
SPEAKER_00: Um it was a lot of fun to relive it, even though, you know, oh man, it had everything.
1:11:18
SPEAKER_00: It it really did, you know.
1:11:20
SPEAKER_00: CBS got their money's worth, so Pete Morelli should be happy.
1:11:25
SPEAKER_00: No, it wasn't Pete was Pete Morelli.
1:11:27
SPEAKER_01: So so like I I I think the the bat like the the twists and turns of that last six minutes.
1:11:33
SPEAKER_01: Like I I can't think of anything to compare that to in s in any kind of other sporting event.
1:11:39
SPEAKER_01: Like you like you said, Super Bowl 43, that definitely had its twists and turns at the end too.
1:11:43
SPEAKER_00: Well the 60 World Series, which was before time with the guy getting hit in the throat by a ground ball.
1:11:48
SPEAKER_00: That's a good that's probably a call.
1:11:50
SPEAKER_00: Like in that game, they blew like the Pirates tagged, I think, Mantel at first, but they blew the call.
1:11:56
SPEAKER_00: And I mean they couldn't rewind Bing Crosby's like, you know, they can, hey Bing, can we borrow you?
1:12:01
SPEAKER_00: You know No, there was none of that.
1:12:02
SPEAKER_00: So Yeah, no, you're right.
1:12:03
SPEAKER_01: That that one had a that one had a ton of back and forth as well.
1:12:07
SPEAKER_01: Uh so that's probably the closest comparison.
1:12:09
SPEAKER_01: But this one just like the shocking like when they set like first They were up 21 to 3 in the fourth quarter and it came down to a missed field goal.
1:12:19
SPEAKER_01: Well, and like the interceptor, like Troy intercepts that that's game.
1:12:23
SPEAKER_01: Game's over.
1:12:23
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
1:12:24
SPEAKER_01: Now the Col now the Colts score and we're and they're clearly have all the momentum.
1:12:28
SPEAKER_01: Oh no, but then we sack Manning.
1:12:30
SPEAKER_01: Okay, game's over.
1:12:32
SPEAKER_01: Then Bettis fumbles, and it's uh I I I just yeah.
1:12:35
SPEAKER_01: The the the just the I never want to live through something like that.
1:12:39
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that I would live through something.
1:12:41
SPEAKER_01: Like I was a lot younger then.
1:12:42
SPEAKER_01: Like it literally was so just emotionally draining, but yeah, we came out on top, so that was good.
1:12:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:12:50
SPEAKER_00: Um Lisa, tune in for telling the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say at a later date.
1:12:55
SPEAKER_00: Um Thanks for tuning in.
1:12:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm Steve Ward.
1:12:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can catch us on uh all your uh favorite uh podcasting places like uh iTunes, Spotify.
1:13:04
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:13:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for tuning in, and uh, we'll catch you guys next time.