Cowhard Admits to Boner on Challenge

Per the Post-Gazette on Bilbo Cowhard�s press Tues. conference:�

��� Cowher said he made a mistake when he challenged a third-quarter play in the game against New England in which safety Chris Hope was charged with a facemask penalty after a 2-yard reception by David Patten.

�� Cowher thought the penalty would be overturned because Patten did not catch the ball. The officials ruled Cowher correct, but the penalty stood.

��� "It was poor thinking on my part. �I realized it after I already made the challenge that the penalty would still be enforced. It's my first one I got right this year. It was really a poor use of a challenge right there.�

�� "We gained a yard and I only had one left and we might have used it for that [later] touchdown pass, but I didn't want to lose that. I would have rather used one there, as opposed to us using it to gain a yard. It was a poor decision on my part."

As faithful readers here will recall, here is my grade for Little Billy from Sunday�s tilt vs. NE:

�1 negative note on Cowhard -- the man challenged a short completion to Patten in the 3Q, which he won, but all it did was earn the Stiller defense 1 (one) yard of real estate.� (The masking penalty on Hope stood regardless of the catch.)� Really, a dimbulbed challenge that had no upside, and as such, shouldn't have been frittered away.� A-.�

I received a plethora of email regarding my comments on this asinine challenge.� In 5-plus years of running Stillers.com, I have received this much negative email only once -- during the 2 days preceding the Jan. 2002 AFC title game, in which I�d adroitly written, in complete detail, why the Pats would beat the Stillers.��

I knew full well why Billy threw the red flag and called for the challenge -- he thought the masking penalty on Hope would be nullified if the challenge were won.� Obviously, this wasn�t the case, and as a result, Billy�s foolhardy challenge gained him a whopping 1-yard of real estate while costing him a scarce challenge.�

Many fans tossed me this cock & bull about, �Cowher called for the challenge in order to rest and regroup his defense.��� In addition to the fact that this supposed rest also allowed the Pats� offense to gather with their coaching staff and regroup and get rest & water, Billy Cowher assertively put an end to this blather with his firm quote of, �It was a poor decision on my part."� When it comes to myopic, head-in-the-sand management, no one does it better than Billy Cowher.

Here at Stillers.com, we adroitly call it as we see it -- and we see it quite well, thus setting the standard for analysis on the Pittsburgh Stillers ��which is why one of our mottos is: �Stillers.com -- that�s Stillers with an �i��an eye for analysis��

(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- the only nationally read coverage on the Pittsburgh Stillers that has accurately predicted the how's and the why's of the past 3 Stiller playoff losses�.)