Originally Posted by
LukeDaniel
Some people on the game thread from Sunday were bashing on Pitta over that "dropped pass" on 3rd and long in the first quarter. That was in no way, shape, or form a drop. Just because it hits your hands, doesn't mean you SHOULD catch it. You could stretch your arms to their farthest point and the ball hits you in the fingertips....just because it hits your fingertips doesn't mean it's a drop. Pitta COULD have caught it, but it would have been a well-above-average-borderline-great catch. I don't believe it was calculated as a drop, nor should it have been. However, he did have what I would consider a drop on the following drive, when he dropped an easy one along the sidelines. It was only going to be a 3 or 4 yard gain on 3rd and 17 (or something like that), so it wasn't a big deal.
FYI, Lee Evans play in the end zone in Foxboro last year was not a drop either because the Pats defender contacted the football, which instantly removes it from the category of a drop. Houshmandzadeh's drop in Pittsburgh in the playoffs in Jan 2011 was a drop because it hit him in a "catch zone" with no duress. Fingertips are not a catch zone as I understand the scoring to be.
Also, I think this notion that the Raven receivers aren't clutch with respect to drops is utter hogwash. We beat the Patriots and the Chargers this year on the backs of some great catches by Torrey Smith. We likely tie the Chargers if not for an incredible catch late in OT in San Diego. How much different would our season look if that was a tie versus a win? Pitta is money on almost anything thrown his way and Boldin has made some incredible catches late in games as well (last year in the regular season games vs. HOU and ARZ come to mind).
I'd encourage those complaining about the Raven WRs being chokers to give me a handful of examples of Raven drops late in games that led to losses this year. I just don't see it.