I disagree..
>>REPEAT-OFFENDER REF RIPS OFF BILLS
by STEVE SERBY
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NASHVILLE -- In a corner of a heartbroken and devastated Buffalo locker
room filled with dreams shattered by a referee, Bill coach Wade Phillips
huddled with classy owner Ralph Wilson. And on my way out of that
heartbroken and devastated locker room, I could hear the coach tell the
owner: "He screwed up a lot of games last year."
The man in question is Phil Luckett, who couldn't get a coin toss right
on Thanksgiving once and couldn't tell that Vinny Testaverde had not
crossed the goal line against the Seahawks during the Jets' drive to the
AFC Championship Game.
The issue in question again today is instant replay, which was
implemented to get the calls right, and there is no one in Buffalo today
who thought Luckett and his zebra friends got The Controversy of the
Millennium right, and me and a majority of the national media happen to
agree with them.
Frank Wycheck either threw an illegal forward pass left to Kevin Dyson
or he did not on the incredible kickoff return that gave the Titans a
miracle 22-16 victory in a memorable wild-card playoff game. Dyson
either won the game with a wild 75-yard kickoff return in the last
desperate 16 seconds or he did not. The Bills were either Buffaloed or
they were not.
I think they were.
Instant replay was brought back to get the calls right.
I don't think instant replay got this one right.
But let's face it, could anyone possibly have expected the zebras, with
66,786 screaming Tennesseans waiting for the final review, to reverse
the call on the field? Of course not. Inconclusive sometimes is in the
eye of the beholder, and sometimes the beholder is scared to death of
alienating an entire state.
Wilson thought he had seen everything in his 40 years.
"I don't know that I've ever seen any team lose like that, not just the
Bills," Wilson said.
Said Buffalo's Henry Jones: "It didn't really occur to me until after
the game was over, and then it dawned on me -- wait a minute, this is
the referee that did the Seattle-Jets game last year. I really hope that
they didn't screw this one up. I feel bad for our team, for guys that
poured their hearts out out there, our owner, our fans in Buffalo, our
coaches ... it's a bad deal if they got it wrong."
Bruce Smith spoke softly and briefly. He has seen bad endings before,
especially wide right from Scott Norwood in Super Bowl XXV. He knows
what emptiness feels like.
"Worst I've seen in 15 years," Smith said.
Phillips had tried hard to bite his tongue at his postgame news
conference. "I don't want to comment on it," Phillips said. "That's what
replay's for. That's why we put it in."
A few minutes later, Phillips said: "It's a shame it had to end this
way." Someone asked whether it was easier for him to swallow that the
play was reviewed. "That's what it's for, to get it right," Phillips
said.
One Bill official called Luckett "gutless."
GM John Butler said, "What a chicken[bleep] call. The rule doesn't
work."
The Bills were robbed on a couple of occasions last year and haven't
forgotten. They feel persecuted.
"Everyone's bound by this political correct stuff, and everyone's bound
by what the referees do and the commissioner, but we know deep down,
everybody knows, the Bills are supposed to play next week," Marcellus
Wiley said. "We're supposed to be running for Atlanta this year, and now
we're running home? Why? Why we running home? Someone kicked us out for
no reason."
Wiley and the Bills were livid that the zebras did not review what
appeared to be a first-half catch by Peerless Price -- it was ruled a
juggle and may have sabotaged a field goal -- but stopped the game to
review a Steve McNair scramble out of bounds that left him inches short
of a first down. The Titans, following a 5:20 delay, were awarded the
first down and Al Del Greco's 40-yard field goal gave them a 12-0 lead
at the half.
"Come on, review one play, review the other play," Wiley said. "Don't
review one, you pick it because you hear the crowd going, you see the
signs up, you're scared to walk away from the monitor and say something
that you know is right. ... Review one, review both. Unusual, it was so
unusual today."
Rob Johnson, panic-stricken behind an injury-ravaged offensive line (six
sacks) and harassed by Lawrence Taylor-esque Jevon Kearse, had made
Phillips' decision to start him over Doug Flutie look like a bonehead
one in the first half. But then Johnson (10-of-22, 131 yards) threw a
37-yard strike to Eric Moulds, albeit underthrown and slightly behind
him, to set up the touchdown that gave the Bills a 15-13 lead. "I
thought he played great," Wilson said.
And then, with the game on the line, with his right shoe ripped off him,
Johnson drove the Bills from his 39 into position for Steve Christie to
boot what everyone thought was the game-winning 41-yard field goal with
20 ticks left. "I hope, just for the refs' sake, that it was legit,"
Johnson said.
One-shoe Johnson rolled right and found Price for nine yards to set up
Christie. With no timeouts and fearing disaster, Phillips, even after a
Titan timeout, opted to kick the field goal on first down. It cost him.
"I missed some opportunities early in the game and I definitely wanted
to redeem myself on that drive," Johnson said.
It was 0-0 early in the second quarter only because Eddie George could
not run early on the Bills and McNair couldn't pass on them. But with
Johnson pinned at his 8, and under siege by the deafening mob, he
fumbled a premature snap by Jerry Ostroski, and looked like a Bowery Bum
stumbling on his bcakpedal. Kearse, who looked like he had been shot out
of a cannon, buried Johnson, who fumbled out of the end zone for a
safety. Soon it was 9-0 after Derrick Mason returned the free kick 42
yards.
Then came the surreal: Bills jumping in jubilation when Christie put
them up 16-15, then slumping in shellshocked despair seconds later.
"You're riding really high, and now you're riding really low and you're
packing your bags," Christie said.
Wilson had changed his vote from anti-instant replay to pro-instant
replay. He won't rap the system.
"I just glanced up at the TV on the replay, and it looked like it was a
little forward, but I'm not gonna question that," Wilson said.
If he's not, he's the only one in Buffalo who isn't. <<
nypost.com
this is that ref's 3rd screw up in two years???? |
