WILBON:One Touchdown, Double Vision

[TK]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49987-2003Nov16.html

One Touchdown, Double Vision

By Michael Wilbon

Monday, November 17, 2003; Page D01

CHARLOTTE

For a minute or so the Washington Redskins had hope. The fact that the replay officials were looking at the tape meant somebody had doubt about the touchdown. "When they review it," linebacker Jessie Armstead would say later, "it means there's doubt in somebody's head. So, you just stand there and hope. You're thinking, 'At least we've got a chance now.' "

There were a couple of options. The men in the booth could decide that Stephen Davis was down by contact before he stretched the ball to the goal line and it was knocked loose by Matt Bowen, meaning the Panthers would have the ball inside the one, on third and inches. Or the replay officials could decide that there was insufficient visual evidence to overrule the officials on the field, and let the call -- touchdown Panthers -- stand. They couldn't give the Redskins the ball back, because the play had been whistled dead.

Not surprisingly, the team with magic sprinkled all over its season got the favorable ruling and the team that seems to struggle through every game was left with another agonizing loss, probably the most agonizing in what has become an agonizing season.

The only thing clear about Carolina's game-winning touchdown is that there was nothing clear about it. Every pair of eyes seemed to see something different. Looking at the same field of play, and having access to the same replay upstairs in the press box, my colleague, Tom Boswell, thought Davis indeed broke the plane of the goal line with possession and that, plain and simple, he scored a touchdown; I thought Davis was down short of the goal line and that the Panthers should have third and goal.

It wasn't a terrible call, it wasn't a blown call and it wasn't an obvious call. It was about as difficult as a call gets in the NFL. Did Davis break the plane with the ball? Was he down or was he lying on somebody else's body? Did he fumble? Or was there was no fumble because he was already down? About all you can say is that the officials on the field did the best they could. They made a judgment. The call was completely subjective, like whether a pitch caught the corner or was two inches off the plate. As Redskins Coach Steve Spurrier said quite accurately, "When it's that close . . . what they call on the field usually sticks."

Still, inside the Redskins' locker room there was Fred Smoot, anguish understandably still all over his face. "Why couldn't they just let the players decide the game?" he said, almost pleading. "Why wasn't it just down at the half-yard line . . . and let us play third and one? I never been to officiating school, but I know the man's knee was down and the ball hadn't crossed the goal line."

Armstead said it never should have come to that. "Any time you have a team down at the end of the game needing a touchdown to win," he said, "you're supposed to close it out."

But Armstead also knows there's more to it than that. He's followed Carolina's season. He's aware the Panthers got to 7-2 by going 5-0 in games decided by three points or fewer, that they'd won all three overtime games they played this season, that a rare blocked point-after-touchdown kick beat the defending champion Buccaneers in September. Armstead, remember, played for Carolina Coach John Fox when Fox was the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. "He plays smash-mouth football, he wants to keep it close to the end, he wants his team not to make any mistakes," Armstead said. "That's the kind of football he preached when we were there in New York."

And that's what the Panthers have done with great efficiency and almost surreal results week after week. Fox has Jake Delhomme thinking he's Joe Montana, leading his team from behind in successive weeks to improbable wins. The thing you have to be reminding yourself if you're facing the Panthers, with Davis running and that defensive line dominating is, "Make Delhomme beat you." And he did. And folks with rooting interest in the Redskins will be unable to shake that fourth-and-one toss to Davis that kept the final Carolina drive alive. The Redskins will watch the film and assess blame, probably to a linebacker for getting caught in traffic, lost in a tangle of bodies, leaving Davis uncovered for a 25-yard screen pass. In the NFL, wherever there's credit there's also blame. Even so, it was a fabulously conceived play because it's not like Davis is Marshall Faulk, a constant threat out of the backfield. Last week, Spurrier drew up a play that won the game in the final two minutes; this week, the offensive coaches on Fox's staff drew up the magic.

The anguish of this loss rides back on the plane with a team, carries into Monday at the very least. Rock Cartwright, who fumbled away a touchdown in the first quarter, blamed himself for the loss, stood in the middle of the locker room and took responsibility like a man, just as Davis had to do on a couple of occasions during his Redskins career. And even with that Cartwright fumble, the Redskins -- despite all their melodrama in October and early November -- had 5-5 within their grasp, and that would have been good enough to challenge for the NFC East title or at least a wild-card spot given that the Saints, Eagles and Cowboys all have to play in Washington before it's all over.

But 4-6 puts them further back now, almost in need of a miracle. "We gotta win out," Smoot said. "It's not just backs-against-the-wall, we have to win out. There are no more excuses, no more instant replay . . . we have to get it to the point that the refs can't get involved."

But that's easier said than done when the Dolphins (on deck) and the Saints (in the hole) are desperate and smelling the playoffs. The Redskins seemed to play with passion and purpose Sunday, even when they didn't play well, and simply lost by one play to a team at home that has been both better and luckier in the clutch all season than they are.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

[ummagumma]

And more power to Carolina, the 2003 version of the 2001 Bears...

[Potato Sack]

Or was there was no fumble because he was already down?

It's called proof reading, dumb@ss!

[Hitman56]

You could just see Davis thinking: "See, I could catch out of the backfield and be a big part of your offense, Spurrier."