Here's the difference between the 2 franchises. It the Pats had been in a similar situation, half the Pats booth staff would have been calling down to Bill to say, "it's possible this is coming back, Bill"; and the other half would be saying, "Bill, this is DEFINITELY coming back".
Why? Because I would bet the house that all the "catch rule" permutations have been gone over in detail early an often, both with the coaches, and to a lesser degree with the players. So in that 3 minute and 20 second wait, Bill, Brady, and Josh would have been working on what plays they still wanted to run. (btw- with 28 seconds they had PLENTY of time for 2 more shots into the endzone, and still kick the FL) Dante would have been talking to the OL about what to expect, and Boyer would have had a few words to the receivers. By the end of the 3 minutes Bill or Josh would have had the entire offense together to reiterate what needed to be done.
I don't know WTF the Steeler's booth was doing. But I'm guessing they DIDN'T have a clear understanding on what the full catch word was, and I bet when the ref used the term "surviving the ground" it was probably the first time any had heard the term.
Now Tomlin WAS correct. He knew enough to want his coordinator to have 2 plays ready for his team after the ruling. But to my mind it was a complete failure by the OC NOT to have his team getting ready for a negative result of the review. It doesn't look like he spoke personally with Ben or any of the offense. The rest of the team just milled around waiting the preferred call that never came.
Clearly Tomlin is a good coach, who manages his team well. But unlike Bill he clearly hasn't mastered the ENTIRE game. If he really wants to take a leap into being a great coach, he will look at this clip and realize that in the off season he needs to make some changes, and not necessarily in coaching personnel. If I were him, I'd immediately designate at least one person on his staff to become the "rules guru". A guy who COULD have told him early that "no question this was coming back". i I would create a structure that whenever there is a review, players are required to get to their coaches and prepare for a negative result during that break.
Tomlin and his staff had a nice game plan for this game. It took the Pats 2 plays before they began to stop that sweep that they likely hadn't seen before), but that was about 60 yds later. His defensive game plan was a big improvement as well...for a while. It was, IMHO, Tomlin's best game plan for the Pats in a LONG time.....until the last 26 seconds of the game. And in the end it wasn't a bad decision he made that did him in, it was the structures he had set up that broke down. HE know what was the right thing to do, but he failed to be able to communicate his message to his team. That wouldn't have happened to the Pats.
