Gene Collier: Overcome by Alge; that's inexplicable

Monday, October 23, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

ATLANTA -- There was little doubt that by its very dimensions and its remarkable density, what played out over three hours and 41 minutes in front of the biggest crowd in Georgia Dome history yesterday was pure football colossus.

Thickened with an almost dizzying narrative that included 10 touchdowns, more than any NFL game this season, the Steelers and Falcons unleashed some wildly successful overtime theatre, even if it was fueled by nonsense and layered by subtexts that were purely inexplicable.
"Crazy game," said Steelers linebacker James Farrior.

"Wild and crazy," said Falcons coach Jim Mora.

That's fine, but I'm sticking with inexplicable.

How can Santonio Holmes, for example, streaking across the carpet toward the touchdown that would atone for the touchdown he had just set up for Atlanta by fumbling another punt, get knocked off his feet in the open field by the desperate swiping hand-tackle from the opposing kicker?

How can the Falcons, by the same token, consistently kick the ball to Holmes when he's standing back there next to Najeh Davenport, who is, let's just say, eminently more containable?

How can Holmes join an end-zone celebration dance by Nate Washington, a dance already joined by Hines Ward to trigger another excessive celebration penalty, less than a month after Bill Cowher said that would never happen again? That didn't come up in the postmortem, saving the coach the embarrassment of having to say, "that will never happen again again."

How can Atlanta defensive end Chauncey Davis, bull-rushing Ben Roethlisberger, leave his feet, collide helmet-to-helmet with the quarterback, knock him cold, and draw no penalty? But Nate Washington "flinching", now that is not going to be tolerated.

"I'm not going to be judgmental," Cowher said of both the Washington penalty and the Davis hit. On the Davis hit specifically, he said, "the league will handle that."

Or fail to do so.

But of the more relevant nonsense that somehow churned out a 41-38 Falcons victory on a day when Roethlisberger and backup Charlie Batch threw five touchdown passes, two issues were little less than confounding.

Michael Vick, averaging 8.7 yards per rush coming into this game, and the league's co-leader in runs of 10 yards or more with 19, ran only five times. Only once in the first half.

"I was very surprised," said Steelers safety Ryan Clark, "but, if you watched TV this week, you saw there was a lot of turmoil down here. I think he just wanted to show that he could stand in there and throw, that he could beat a quality defense that way. And he did a great job."

The turmoil was the result of an interview Vick did in which he allowed that he felt better about himself in the offense of former coach Dan Reeves, but Mora didn't seem to let it bother him, and certainly nothing was bothering him after ancient Morten Andersen ended this chaos with an easy 32-yard field goal seven minutes into overtime.

"It's no surprise I'm a Mike Vick fan and everybody knows that," Mora said. "For all the talk about what Vick can't do, I like to talk about what he can do. And he does things that no other football player in the history of the game at that position had the ability to do. I think that play was another indication of his greatness."

"That play" was the play, a third-and-9 at the Atlanta 45 on what would soon turn out to be the only possession necessary in overtime, thanks to Vick. That Vick completed a 26-yard pass to Alge Crumpler that put the Falcons at the Steelers' 29 and essentially ended this thing is not terribly surprising, but the fact that he escaped the blitzing Troy Polamalu to enable it, that's just frightening.

If you could pick one guy in the league who'd be able to close on Vick on open carpet and plant him on a blitz, No. 43 would likely be that pick.

"That was totally my fault," Polamalu said. "I made a mistake on that play. I just missed the tackle."

"I was actually pass-blocking on that play," Crumpler said, foiling any notion of intelligent design on the most crucial play of a game filled with crucial plays. "Michael leaked out and I leaked out, and he found me."

The Steelers' defense knew all about leakage yesterday, and thus the most inexplicable element of a long afternoon wasn't just that the Steelers allowed 41 points, but that their accomplished secondary got positively scalded by a tight end they rarely double-covered even though Atlanta's wideouts are pedestrian at best.

"We didn't come in looking to double him or anything like that," Clark said. "Vick is just so accurate throwing the ball."

Crumpler had 16 catches in five games before yesterday, when he caught six Vick missiles for 117 yards and three touchdowns of 22, 3 and 31 yards, the longest one at the expense of Ike Taylor. So even after he scored three touchdowns, who got left wide open on third-and-9 in overtime? Mr. Crumpler.

Crazy.

I mean inexplicable.

(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283. )