Steelers win--with an asterisk

[Thomas Rogers]

JohnnyO, I respect that you feel that the ball crossed; you must have seen something or something in a way that I couldn't. For me, it was too close to call. I just couldn't tell given the angle of the closeup if while in the air the plane was crossed. It was close, it may have even approached it, if not nearly touched it, that I can grant you. But I can't with certainty say it was crossed.



I also can't say with certainty that it WASN'T CROSSED. It was SO CLOSE, IMHO.



TJR

 

[Bill V]

TJR--One thing I'll definitely agree with you on--there's not enough to change from the original call.



And the original call was that it wasn't a touchdown.



I know I'm not the only one who saw the sideline official running in with one hand in the air, marking the ball down short of the goal line, and then when Roethlisberger advanced the ball forward well after he was on the ground, changed his call to a touchdown.

 

[Mark Grumpy]

Bill V,

that's exactly what I saw. Wasn't until he got there that he changed his mind. Musta been seing Stars.



grump

 

[TomT]

I really didn't care who won but I do think the officiating was terrible. Chicken-sh*t calls have no place in the superbowl. I will say that the Seahawks definitely need to work on their 2 minute offense. They looked lost during the last 2 minutes of the half and the game.



I really watched it just to see the commercials which were really crappy this year. I can't believe companies forked up 2.5 million for some of those ads. The only ones I liked was the "magic refrigerator" and the FedEx caveman commercial.



All-in-all the SB was BORING. Not one damn wardrobe malfunction.

 

[Johnny O]

In my honest opinon, it looked this way to me: The ball broke the plane of the goal line, although not into the end zone. As Ben Roth. fell, the ball came back off the goal line, then once he was on the ground he reached it over the goal line. But all that matters is the original crossing over the goal line. Regardless, they'd have come out with 3 if not 7 anyway.

Any kick over 45 yards by anybody is 90% luck.

The offensive pass interference penalty on the Seattle TD was legit. Official didn't even motion touchdown, he threw the flag right away. That got called on the Steelers once too. Couple of obvious non-calls on defensive pass interferance on the Seahawks too that they got away with.

When you get flagged for holding it generally means you're getting beat by your man.

It basically played out the way I thought it would, a shaky Steeler O with the D strong enough to get the win.

None of the commercials really impressed me.

OTOH, we got to see:

Super Bowl record run from scrimmage.

Super Bowl record interception return.

First pass completion by a wide receiver in a Super Bowl.

Youngest QB to win a Super Bowl.

 

[Travis Munday]

JohnnyO-

Your hand doesn't count as the ball. Any part of your body can cross the plane, but as long as the ball stays in the field of play, there is no TD. From one angle, you can clearly see the relationship of the ball to Ben's hand, then with the goal line cam, you can see that even his hand doesn't break the plane, much less the ball.



Offensive pass interference? Are you kidding me? "Pushing off", of what? The D's hand? The D's hand that was pushing out towards the WR? The WR was leaning towards one way, the D the other, the D was beat, there was no push off, there was no 'interference', don't forget that pass interference is defined as interfering with a player for a CATCHABLE ball. The D had no chance of catching that ball, it was delivered where only the WR could get it.



Holding, as it is called and usually defined (at least for O-line against the D-line) is "the hands to the outside of the body". Watch that 'holding' call again. Not once did the O lineman's hands get close to the outside of the body. He wasn't beat, he was up on his man and did a textbook job of stufffing him.



Or how about the "block below the waist" call on the Seahawks QB after the interception? What? Block? On the ball carrier? Someone got ahold of the bad stuff before the game.



Listen to not only the commentators, but just about everyone else who spoke at the game, there were many, many bad calls that almost all went against Seattle. There were a few no calls both ways that could've changed things, but its the calls that were called, that shouldn't have been that will have this game stick out in a lot of people's minds for a while to come.

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Put whatever you want to put around it, in the end it doesn't really matter, at least not to us Pittsburgh fans, as it didn't matter in te past to other teams fans.



<b>***</b>STEELERS, XL SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS***</b>





PS.

I laughed at the FedEx caveman ad... funny

 

[Johnny O]

The WR pushed the DB in the chest as the ball was coming. I thought Madden explained that one pretty well. Offensive pass interference is a pretty rare call but you can't do that.

 

[Shawn Hennessy]

Not to take anything away from the Steelers...they captialized on the poor officiating and gained the edge. Any good team would do the same.



But this thing is taking on a life of its own.



The anti-Seahawk writer, <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bayless/060205" target="_blank">Skip Bayless</a> saw it.



<a href="http://forums.espn.go.com/espn/thread?forumID=821&start=0&threadID=3134345&sortBy=null" target="_blank">This messsage board</a> with almost 1000 respondents (fans of other NFL teams) are disgusted with the officiating.



<a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs05/columns/story?columnist=smith_michael&id=2320683" target="_blank">Michael Smith</a> saw the boys in stripes change the game too.



There is something amiss.

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Pittsburgh really didn't do much -- a handful of huge plays clustered around misfires and six punts. But Seattle uncharacteristically imploded, the league's No. 1 scoring offense stalled by awful penalties, two missed field-goal attempts and one killer interception.

Still, for the Steelers and their fans it is a 21-10 masterpiece of pure heaven, confirmation of why they, the lowest seed, could be favorites before kickoff.

 

[Shawn Hennessy]

After further review, here is the detailed list of grievances.



Call’s that everyone can agree were horrendous:



1 Hasslebeck’s “low block” penalty during his tackling of the ball carrier was one of the absolute worst calls in the NFL this year.



2 Holding call against Locklear on Stevens catch at the 1 yard line. 1st, it wasn’t clear there was a hold at all. 2nd, and more importantly, Locklear was out of position when the defender was indisputably offsides. (confirmed by freeze frame slow mo.) Same defender was indisputably offsides again on the very next play, a Hasslebeck sack. (7 point swing, as Seattle would have had first and goal from the 1.)



3 "Push off" by Jackson wiping out a touchdown. (Especially in light of Hines Ward pushing off on several 2nd half plays.) (4 point swing)



note - those 11 points from 2 and 3 were the difference in the final score.



4 "No call" on the egregious Heath Miller hold against Bryce Fisher during Willie Parker TD run. Didn’t anyone wonder why Parker was untouched?



5. “No call” on Rothlisberger calling for a time out 2 seconds after the play clock expired, on a 3rd and six play. This extended the drive, giving the Steelers another three downs to kill the clock.



6 Spot of the ball after Mack Strong clearly gained a first down with the initial spot. Another ref moves it back about 6 inches. Seattle misses the first down by about 1 inch.



Calls that could have gone either way:



7 Running TD by Rothlisberger. Ref wasn’t sure, and made a delayed TD call after Rothlisberger gave him a pleading look.



8. No call on the hold against Bryce Fisher during the Randle El touchdown throw.



9. Etric Pruitt was called for holding on the Warrick long punt return. Madden was wrong, the foul wasn’t called at the line of scrimmage. The foul was called much later in the play when there was incidental contact. Replays couldn’t find the penalty.



Calls I need Perrrra to explain:



10 DJ's 2nd TD. (In an Atlanta game earlier this year, we learned that if the pylon was broken by a receiver in the air, the goal line extends beyond it. Vick used that rule twice in that game. Jackson should have had a (2nd) TD.) Jackson had 1 foot in, and kicked the pylon with his second foot. The ball was held in towards the end zone.



11. "No call" on the horse collar tackle against Alexander. Doesn’t this count?



Finally, here is a quote copied from the ESPN message boards that does the best job I’ve seen in summing this abortion up:

These are fans of every NFL team that didn't play tonight who are ashamed to be a fan of a league that allows such a mockery of a game to take place on the biggest stage. This is a serious issue the league has to look at long and hard because officiating has been a major issue in the league throughout this season. It has only been compounded when the championship game is determined by poor officiating that turn the momentum of the game. With the out-poring of anger, it's clear that this is a major issue. If you're not a Steelers fan, there are major concerns about the legitimacy of the game. Some of us have felt more fulfilled watching professional wrestling than the game that took place tonight.

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Whatever...





[Broken External Image]:

 

[Travis Munday]

Only a Steeler's fan could think that game was fair.



Any real fan wouldn't want a victory like this.



The only good officiating was when they overturned the fumble by the Seahawk's QB. Not only was he down by contact, the ground caused the fumble. That play should've been whistled dead as soon as he went down, not take 5 mins to sort it out and take all the wind and steam out of the drive.

 

[Bill V]

Fer--



Tiger nails it. As much as I want Cowher, the Bus, Big Ben, and the entire city of Pittsburgh to have this championship, it rings hollow, because the officiating, not the play on the field, gave it to them. Many people don't view it as being legit--just like many people don't view the Patriots first Super Bowl win to be legit, as they didn't even deserve to be there, being the recipients of the blown "tuck rule" call. A picture of Bettis holding a trophy is now nearly as meaningless as if I were to make a decent replica of the Lombardi trophy and post a picture of me holding it.

 

[Johnny O]

1. Good teams often overcome poor officiating (see Steelers vs. Colts) We know all about it from the other side too ya know.

2. The officials didn't block for Willie Parker to run 75 yards.

3. The officials didn't fool the whole Seahawk team on the El to Ward TD pass.

4. The officials didn't make Jerramy Bigmouth drop three key catchable balls. Me thinks ol' Jerramy heard footsteps. Wide open in the end zone and he can hang on to it. Numsayin'?

5. The officials didn't kick 50 yard field goals wide left and wide right with distance to spare.

6a. The officials missed a blatant clipping call on Seattle's interception return.

6b. The officials missed a heltmet to helmet hit on Hines Ward, out of bounds no less.

7. The Seahawks shot themselves in the foot several times.

8. I didn't think it was possible for any NFL coach to have worse clock management skill than Bill Cowher, but Mike Holmgren does.

9. Several times Hasslebeck threw the ball out of bounds while in the pocket and not near any receivers, no grounding calls.

10. Stillers were 7-5 and 6th seed only because of a bad 3 game streak when key people were hurt. Talent-wise it is not a 6th seed team once everyone is healthy. Seahawks on the other hand played in a weak division, when they beat AFC teams the AFC team was either lousy, injured, or the coach's son had killed himself 3 days before. When they played a good AFC team, Jacksonville, the Seahawks got beat. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

11. Officiating was bad, but I can come up with examples on Seattle's side all day too.

12. On this day, Pittsburgh was the better team. We won, get over it.

 

[Shawn Hennessy]

 

[Mark Grumpy]

That pic makes me think of one thing;



A bus can haul a lot of money - especially on it's final trip.



grump

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Look, I don't want to argue with you guys, and all of you have valid points. It might be a smudged victory, but I'll keep it.

Thanks, keep on trac'n!

 

[Travis Munday]

This "land of the blind" must be where the NFL found those officials.



One blown call can be overcome (see Steelers vs Colts). But multiple blown calls? Hard earned points taken off the board? Points never up when they should've been?



BTW, The Hines Ward helmet-to-helmet play was in bounds, and the rule is written to prevent malicious use of the helmet, not regular use of it (then there would be a flag on EVERY play). Specifically, the rules are as follows:



"13. A tackler using his helmet to butt, spear, or ram an opponent.



14. Any player who uses the top of his helmet unnecessarily. "



Did that happen? No, it didn't. The tackler, who was inbounds at initial contact by the way, didn't lead with his helmet, and didn't use it against the rules of the game.



The Seahawks played a far from perfect game, but they did play better then the Steelers. With a lot of hurt players and starters on the bench, one might add.



EDIT-

Furthermore, this is the rule for intentioal grounding:

" 2. Intentional grounding will be called when a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage due to pressure from the defense, throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of completion."



As written, the two passes outof bounds were not illegal. No reciveres were open, but the QB wasn't under pressure; so, it is legal to throw the ball out of bounds.

 

[Bill V]

JohnnyO--Your response is very typical of someone who is the beneficiary of unfair treatment. But if you were to back away from the situation, and try to view it with a bit of objectivity, you'd realize just how ridiculous many (not all) of your claims are.



You claim that good teams overcome bad officiating, and cite the Steelers victory over the Colts as an example. And that's true--if the difference between the teams is so great that even the bad officiating can't blow the game, as was the case in that Indy/Pitt game. I'm willing to bet that if the Colts player who had recovered the Bettis fumble had cut right instead of left, and scored the winning touchdown, you WOULDN'T be saying that it's OK, as good teams overcome that. In fact, I still hear Steeler fans from time to time complain about the Thanksgiving Day game where the official botched the coin toss, claiming that the call was tails when it actually was heads.



But in a closely played/matched game, as yesterday's game was, no team can be expected to overcome bad officiating. The links in DiveTrac's post above cover the situation pretty well.



On this day, Pittsburgh may have been the better team. Or Seattle may have been. We'll never know.