SEATTLE -- Oh, come on. The fake field goal was fine.
Yeah, I know, it's going to be all the buzz following the Steelers' 39-30 buzzkill of a loss to the Seahawks Sunday at CenturyLink Field, and I can see why. The only thing that comes off worse than asking a backup quarterback to throw to a starting left tackle on fourth down is when that pass gets picked, boomerangs back for big yardage and leads to a touchdown.
It's a lightning rod, low-hanging fruit for Bill from Blawnox, the first-time caller.
But it was bold, which is almost always good in football, and it was rationally conceived: Landry Jones has shown himself to be an adequate NFL quarterback this fall, and Alejandro Villanueva, who was to be Jones' failsafe only if Heath Miller was covered -- "They were all over Heath," Jones said -- was a tight end all through college. The coaches and players practiced the sequence for weeks and were confident they had it.
The throw carries a couple feet higher, and Mike Tomlin's brilliant, right?
I'm fine with that, and I'm fine, too, with Tomlin's very Tomlin-esque explanation: "We aren't going to live in our fears. We're going to live in our hopes."
Roll the eyes, but that stuff resonates with the Steelers' players. It's part of their personality, possibly the root of their resiliency.
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