Steelers’ failure to communicate wasn’t limited to the sideline in Patriots’ victory
COMMENTARY
When Rob Gronkowski scored the first of his three touchdowns Thursday night against a Steelers defense that seemed, to borrow a phrase, generally aware of his whereabouts, NBC color analyst Cris Collinsworth was quick to provide an explanation of what went wrong.
“[The Steelers had] issues with communication on the back end,’’ said Collinsworth, in reference to confusion in the defensive backfield regarding who should be where. “[They were] worried about communication on the back end.’’
While it was thrilling and entertaining and familiar and even cathartic to watch Tom Brady, Gronk and the rest of the 2015 Patriots take apart the Steelers in the defending champion’s 28-21 victory Thursday night, the victory comes with an annoyance attached that might end up lingering.
This also happens to be in regard to Steelers communication issues, and if we’re really unfortunate, it may even end up with a –gate suffix.
During the first half, NBC play-by-play announcer Al Michaels noted that the Steelers were having problems with their headsets on the sideline. Rather than hearing communication among fellow coaches, they were for some reason receiving a Patriots radio broadcast, presumably Bob Socci and Scott Zolak’s call on flagship station 98.5 the Sports Hub.
In one sense this is hilarious. Can’t you just imagine the look on Steelers coach Mike Tomlin’s face as hears the broadcast for that first moment, then mutters with understandable bewilderment, “Unicorns? … Show ponies? … What the … Dammit, did Roethlisberger change all of the names of the plays to his favorite animals again?’’
But in another sense it’s all so exasperating. Because of the Patriots’ reputation for gamesmanship – others might use a harsher description – there will be a loud presumption that they were up to no good. There’s no escaping suspicion, even on an otherwise banner evening.
Never mind that the NFL, and not the home team, oversees the electronic communication and radio frequencies. The league even provided a statement after the game with a perfectly reasonable explanation of what happened from Michael Signora, the NFL’s vice president of football communications:
“In the first quarter of tonight’s game, the Pittsburgh coaches experienced interference in their headsets caused by a stadium power infrastructure issue, which was exacerbated by the inclement weather. The coaches’ communications equipment, including the headsets, is provided by the NFL for both clubs use on game day. Once the power issue was addressed, the equipment functioned properly with no additional issues.’’
It’s a more than plausible explanation. Now let me ask you this: Is anyone outside of New England going to buy it? No way. The perception is too ingrained, and the perception is this — if something goes wrong for a Patriots opponent, well, it must be dastardly ol’ Bill Belichick up to his Auerbachian tricks again. He found a way to jam them! Why, he probably hit the “scan’’ and “seek’’ buttons on their radios when they weren’t looking! No, wait! He made that Ernie Adams guy do it! He’s mysterious, you know! Mysterious! A man of mystery even!
The reasons for the perception are as obvious as the divot on Brady’s chin. Conspiracy theories are irresistible to many of us, and the idea that the Patriots would jam the frequencies fits just within the realm of believability. Beyond that, they remain under constant suspicion because Deflategate remains fresh, and the vast majority of people talking about that either have a limited grasp on the facts or selectively decide what they will believe based on what they want to believe. They’d like nothing more than to have another scandal to apply to the franchise, and facts are not required in advance of a juicy accusation.
The Patriots’ image certainly was not aided by some fresh if hardly scandalous anecdotes in lengthy reported features that dropped Tuesday on ESPN.com and Sports Illustrated’s website regarding Spygate and Deflategate.
The ESPN story, which spent considerably more words citing opponents’ particular paranoia about the Patriots’ tactics than it did revealing any specific devious deeds, even had a tidbit on a very specific fear — that the Patriots had a way of disrupting an opponent’s communication at opportune times:
At Gillette Stadium, the scrambling and jamming of the opponents’ coach-to-quarterback radio line — “small s—’’ that many teams do, according to a former Pats assistant coach — occurred so often that one team asked a league official to sit in the coaches’ box during the game and wait for it to happen. Sure enough, on a key third down, the headset went out.
If this turns into a full-blown controversy, however, it won’t be because of what was written in those articles this week. It will be because of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin’s thinly veiled comments after the game, which went like this:
Reporter: “The radio went out? Communications?’’
Tomlin: “That’s always the case.’’
Reporter: “Here?’’
Tomlin: “Yes.’’
Reporter: “You’re saying that every time you play here you have radio…’’
Tomlin: “I said what I said.’’
Perhaps that was Tomlin’s frustration in the aftermath of defeat coming to the surface. Perhaps had the Steelers won, he’d have laughed off the matter rather than refusing to elaborate on his vague suggestion that losing communication was a common occurrence in Gillette. Perhaps he would have acknowledged that it wasn’t a lack of communication that doomed them, but a lack of common sense. The importance of accounting for Gronkowski’s whereabouts on every play isn’t exactly something that should have to be reiterated from coach to coach over a headset.
I hope I’m wrong, but I fear that RadioGate is here, and it will stick around for at least a few days since there’s so much time to kill – 10 days – before the Patriots’ next game. Never mind that Patriots coach Bill Belichick said the Patriots had issues with their communication as well. He’s too successful and too clever and has spent too much time under suspicion to ever again earn the benefit of the doubt.
The statement from the NFL is swell, but it won’t do much good. By saying what he said, Tomlin pretty much assured us of another sure-to-be exaggerated controversy regarding the Patriots. I suppose he could count that as a moral victory. But the Patriots won the game, and it came with a familiar subplot — another opponent was frustrated not only by defeat, but also by how the defeat went down.
So it goes. The Patriots may have to cocoon themselves from the next round of bleated nonsense. They’ve gotten pretty good at that.
The irony that will emerge from all of this is that Tomlin’s Steelers will not find it so easy to escape the noise.
The Pittsburgh coaches may not have had familiar voices in their ears during the first half. But rest assured, they will depart Foxborough with the Patriots residing in their heads yet again.
PHOTOS: Patriots vs. Steelers
[bdc-gallery id=”119143″]
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com