Why Tomlin challenged and didn't challenge plays

[harpo]

Ed Bouchette explains why Mike Tomlin challenged and didn't challenge those respective plays in his chat session:

steelerfaninNM: Ed, what do the coaches see differently in the booth than we do at home. MT challenges an obvious down by contact play on a punt return and then fails to challenge an obvious Mendy touchdown run on that fateful 1st and goal series in which Mendy was tackled on top of the defender and roll over with the ball clearly crossing the goalline, what gives?

Ed Bouchette: I figured this is what happened and after further checking today, I found out it is true. The television in the visiting coaches booth in New Orleans was tuned to the scoreboard view of the game, which is controlled by the home team. The home team will never show a replay if a successful challenge would hurt the home team. Thus, they did not show the replay on the video screen at the game and so the Steelers coaches never saw what we all saw -- the NBC network telecast that clearly showed Rashard Mendenhall had scored. Tomlin had no idea because he did not see it clearly and no one from the Steelers ever saw a replay. He should have called me in the press box because I saw it.

More:

Ed Bouchette Chat Transcript 11.02.2010

[BlitzburghRockCity]

Every NFL doest he same thing, they make sure the scoreboards never show a replay when it's a visiting teams questionable play. With only 1 timeout left at his disposal and no clear indication from his coaches or Mendenhall he felt like it was not a good challenge to issue. It's hard to blame him in that respect but man it's a good chance that Mendy TD would have been good.

[greennick]

Shouldn't every team get the NBC/CBS/ESPN/etc stream? Not the scoreboard stream?? That should be a rule of the NFL, otherwise it just adds further to the home team advantage.

[harpo]

Every NFL doest he same thing, they make sure the scoreboards never show a replay when it's a visiting teams questionable play. With only 1 timeout left at his disposal and no clear indication from his coaches or Mendenhall he felt like it was not a good challenge to issue. It's hard to blame him in that respect but man it's a good chance that Mendy TD would have been good.

I totally agree. That's why I said in an earlier thread that the coaches in the booth are the ones who really make the call as to whether or not the play should be challenged. The head coach can only go on what they (the coaches in the booth) sees, or doesn't see.

[lloydfan4life]

wow.... what a piece of news... I was always under the impression that the coaches in the booth had access to video of replays rather quickly. This sheds a whole new light on plays that get red flagged by a team and plays that don't.

I don't think it's real fair that both teams don't have equal access to the same video feed during the game, if this really is the case.

[Clevelandsux]

Tomlin burned way too many of out timeouts too early. And his challenge I questioned too.

[Iron City South]

So knowing this, is it against any league rules for the visiting team to bring their own TV and cable hook-up so that they can see what every other viewer in America sees?

Something smells fishy here .... I'm not sure if I'm buying into this.

[harpo]

Ed Bouchette is a solid source of information and has been for a loooong time. So until I hear otherwise, i'm believing him.

[LatrobePA]

Hmmm here all along I thought he was grooming his perfectly shaved beard and not paying attention...My bad!! lol

[harpo]

Tomlin burned way too many of out timeouts too early. And his challenge I questioned too.

If my memory serves me correctly, Tomlin was only responsible for the timeout they lost on the challenge. Ben burned one of those timeouts on a drive because he didn't like what he saw from the Saints defense.

We all questioned that first challenge, but now....knowing what we know, thanks to Ed Bouchette, if his coaches don't have the same view as we do at home, how much can you really blame him?