TD or no TD, that is the question.
In the Steelers' locker room Sunday night at Heinz Field, players left no doubt what they thought about the review of Jesse James' potential game-winning touchdown catch, which was initially ruled a score and then overturned after referee Tony Corrente and the league office looked at it in a review.
Many Steelers felt they had a game stolen right out from under them.
"That last call was bull (excrement)," JuJu Smith-Schuster said. "He scored. That’s it."
Only it wasn't. And the Steelers lost this game, 27-24, as the Patriots took the upper hand in having home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.
"I’m just (ticked) off how a great game turned into a joke," Stephon Tuitt said. "I never usually feel that way. I usually say it was a great game. Tom Brady came in, threw the touchdown at the end. Our offense had a great drive. JuJu made a great catch and then Jesse James makes a catch and tries to get into the end zone. They said it wasn’t in. We go from there."
James' catch in question came just seconds after Smith-Schuster had put the Steelers (11-3) in position to beat the Patriots (11-3) with an improbable 69-yard catch-and-run on a crossing route with the Steelers trailing by three and 52 seconds remaining.
The rookie, who had been questionable to play because of a hamstring injury, ran away from corner Eric Rowe on a crossing route and caught a short pass from Ben Roethlisberger. He broke up the sideline in front of the Steelers' bench, picked up a downfield block from Le'Veon Bell to get around two defenders, then broke back to the middle of the field before being brought to the ground by safety Duron Harmon at the New England 10.
The Steelers used their final timeout to reset themselves with 34 seconds remaining and it appeared they would have three shots to win the game before setting up for a potential game-tying field goal.
None of that happened.
On first-and-goal, Roethlisberger faked a pass to the right flat and looked back to the middle of the field where James was open at the 1. He fired a pass to James, who caught the ball and went to a knee, reaching for the end zone untouched:
Touchdown, Steelers. The Heinz Field-record crowd of 68,574 erupted and there were hugs all over the field for what the Steelers believed had happened.
But as they lined up for a PAT that would make it a four-point game, Corrente stopped play like the Grinch rolling into Whoville and went to the replay tablet. Replays showed as he reached for the end zone after securing the ball, it moved in James' hands when his elbow hit the ground.
"We were inside of two minutes and in order to have a completed pass, a receiver must survive the ground," Corrente said in a pool report. "In this case, he had control of the football but he was going to the ground. As he hit the ground, the ball began to roll and rotate and the ball hit the ground, and that's the end of it at that point."
Instead of kicking a PAT with 28 seconds remaining that would have forced the Patriots to go the length of the field to score a touchdown with just one timeout, the Steelers lined up for second down.
"It’s the biggest swing I’ve ever had since I’ve been playing football," David DeCastro said.
Still, the Steelers still had a chance to at least tie the game with a field goal and an opportunity to win it if things went right.
They did neither.
Roethlisberger threw a 3-yard completion to Darrius Heyward-Bey on a crossing route and he was tackled in bounds, keeping the clock running. Roethlisberger quickly got his team back to the line of scrimmage with nine seconds remaining.
"It wasn't a fake spike," Roethlisberger said. "I was yelling clock it because it felt like it was the thing to do, clock it and get one more play."
Had he done that, the Steelers would have faced fourth down and would have been forced to send Chris Boswell on for a game-tying field goal attempt.
But Roethlisberger said he heard something else.
"It came from the sideline, 'Don't clock it, don't clock it,' " Roethlisberger said. "At that time, everyone thinks it's a clock (situation) so we didn't have time to get everyone lined up. Eli (Rogers) saw it and ran a quick slant."
The Steelers had scored at the end of a game against Dallas in similar fashion last season. But it was Antonio Brown who was at the receiving end of that play. This time around, Brown wasn't around, having been sent to the hospital to check out a calf injury he had suffered in the second quarter.
Even without Brown out there, the Patriots weren't fooled.
"There was a lot of urgency on the last play," said Rowe. "I see them rushing to the ball. I see nobody on the outside. I need to go on the outside. Then, everybody was in panic mode trying to get lined up, and I see Big Ben fake it and I was like, 'Oh, they are running a play.' I got my eyes on the receiver and noticed he was doing a slant. I didn't really think he was going to throw it because I was right on his hip."
But throw it Roethlisberger did. And Rowe tipped the pass into the air where it was intercepted by Harmon.
"Eli ran the quick slant and I tried to make a play," said Roethlisberger, who otherwise was brilliant in this game, throwing for 281 yards and two touchdowns while directing the Steelers to a 10-for-16 mark on third downs. "I didn't make a good enough throw."
Said Rogers, "That was just a call where he signaled me something and I ran across the field. ... (Rowe) just kind of grabbed me and changed how I was going to catch the ball, I thought it was a flag."
But it wasn't, and Rowe went from being the goat -- and we're not talking about the Greatest of All Time -- to a hero.
And the Steelers were left to ponder what could have, would have, should have been.
"It hurts," DeCastro said. "To have that celebration, hugging Ben, hugging Jesse. If we win that game, you know that’s going to be shown - it will be a heroic thing between him and JuJu. But that’s life. That’s football. I think this team has enough resilience to move on and play some more ball."
Still, if the Steelers now have to travel to Gillette Stadium for the AFC Championship in January, this game will be played over and over and over again. And those two plays will be featured prominently.
The Steelers can use them as motivation or they can wallow in self-pity, having lost not only Brown but also a game in which they had placed a great deal of importance. And they can dwell on the ending.
"At the end of the day, (the call) is what it is," Smith-Schuster said. "We’ve got to live by it. We’ll see them again. We’ve got to keep moving forward."
"Now, we have to go on a four-game winning streak from here," Cameron Heyward said. "I don't look at anything crazy but four games to the Super Bowl. Three (are) guaranteed because we are guaranteed a playoff (game). I'm looking forward to all of it. We can be dejected about this, but I like where we are at."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Patriots, Heinz Field, Dec. 17, 2017. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS