Ben Roethlisberger’s complaint is falling on deaf ears.
The New England Patriots used a defensive line shift to key an important goal-line stand in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s 28-21 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The play drew the ire of Roethlisberger, who suggested New England broke an “unwritten rule,” but Patriots head coach Bill Belichick explained during a conference call Sunday there was no wrongdoing nor any intent to break the rules.
“We’re not trying to simulate anything,” Belichick said. “We’re allowed to move on the defensive side of the ball and we’re allowed to move together.”
The play occurred when Pittsburgh had the ball at New England’s 1-yard line. Both sides of the Patriots’ defensive line moved toward the center of the line in unison, at which point the Steelers jumped for a crushing false start that set them back 5 yards.
Belichick was asked Sunday whether defensive captain Jerod Mayo — who, according to the coach, called for the line to “move” — must do anything in particular to prevent the officials from thinking the Patriots were attempting to illegally simulate the snap count. The coach offered a rather simplistic response.
“We don’t have to move one at a time. If we move, then we make a call and we move,” Belichick said. “We’re not trying to simulate anything. We’re just trying to move the defense. That’s perfectly legal.
“Defenses have done that for, I don’t know, probably 75 years.”
Interestingly enough, a similar defensive line shift failed the Patriots in the third quarter when Steelers fullback Will Johnson scored from 1 yard out. Clearly, there’s some risk involved when using such an aggressive shift along the D-line.
“The ball is on the 1-yard line, sometimes you try to be aggressive and make a play,” Belichick said. “If you try to stop everything for as little as they need, a lot of times you stop nothing.
“If you try to be aggressive and you try to stop one particular thing or a certain type of play or a run to one side or the other, and you hit it right, you might be able to make a play.”
Belichick’s explanation probably does little to ease Roethlisberger’s pain. Then again, that wasn’t the only complaint the Steelers had coming out of Thursday’s season opener at Gillette Stadium.
Thumbnail photo via Stew Milne/USA TODAY Sports Images
