The Washington coach bemoans his team's loss to the Bucs, disputing the winning score and other calls.
By Associated Press
Published November 15, 2005
ASHBURN, Va. - Mike Alstott's winning 1-yard plunge has been replayed more than an episode of Bonanza on TV Land, and the multiple viewings haven't changed Phillip Daniels' mind.
"My thought's still the same," the Redskins defensive end said Monday. "He didn't get in. I saw his elbow hit before the line. That's all I had to see."
Ladell Betts also has seen replays of his 94-yard kickoff return. Understandably, he is less definitive when asked if he thought he stepped out of bounds somewhere near the 45-yard line. "From my viewpoint, where I was watching it, it could go either way," he said.
Replays seemed to indicate that neither play should have counted, but both did because the evidence wasn't irrefutable. Only a tiny camera mounted to the bottom of Betts' shoe might have been able to show whether his heel was on the line, and the pile of bodies surrounding Alstott made it difficult to tell absolutely, positively whether the ball had crossed the plane when his elbow planted itself inches short of the goal line.
Unless you ask coach Joe Gibbs. Gibbs was a video detective Monday, analyzing the borderline calls in Sunday's 36-35 loss to the Bucs. He said he has a "very clear film shot" of Alstott coming 6 inches short on the two-point conversion that gave the Bucs the win with 58 seconds left. He also said Betts' "cleats were down but his heel was up" and not touching the sideline on the second-quarter touchdown.
Gibbs also disputed the penalty that moved the ball from the 2 to the 1 for Alstott's conversion. The Redskins blocked the extra point that would have tied the score but were called offside, giving the Bucs the extra yard and the incentive to go for the win.
"What the center (Dave Moore) did was pick the ball up a little bit, and we felt like we kind of got off right when he picked it up," Gibbs said. "We probably looked at it 30 times in there. We felt like we got off right on the money."
And one of the interceptions that Mark Brunell threw? How about pass interference?
"They grab the shirt and wound up with an interception out of it," Gibbs said.
All of which made Gibbs less than happy the day after another close game that dented the playoff his 5-4 team's playoff hopes. It has lost four of six after a 3-0 start. The Hall of Fame coach is never shy when it comes to questioning officials' calls, especially in a stretch in which eight of 13 games have been decided by three points or fewer.
"You'd like to say, "Well, we don't want it to come down to that.' But to be quite truthful, up here it can come down to that," he said. "Hopefully it won't happen to us again. Or ... maybe next time it'll be us that gets the call."
"We can't put it in the referee's hands to make calls," Daniels said. "It shouldn't have come down to that situation. We need to play better on defense."
Go to www.redskins.com for more from Gibbs' news conference on Monday.
