Mitzkrieg

I went over to the ESPN message boards to see what people thought of the Super Bowl. Boy, am I the only one that does NOT think the SB was rigged? LOL, sure there were some bad calls, but on both sides. A couple of the dropped balls by Seattle receivers were definitely fumbles and the refs ruled them incomplete. And I really thought that the offensive pass interference call against Seattle wasn't that bad. It was close to being ticky tack, but for sure he pushed off. You could see the defenders feet move back because of it. And just becuase people thought it was ticky tack, does that mean it shouldn't be called? Ref was just doing his job.

Also, I need clarification on the ball crossing the plane of the endzone rule. Is it a touchdown if the ball just makes it over the front of the painted line to the endzone? Or does it actually have to make past the front line to be called a touchdown? My understanding is that if it gets to the line it's good. I mean, I know for a fact that if the ball makes it over the corner pylon then it's a touchdown. And that pylon sits on the line. So that leads me to believe that just making it to the front of the line means it's good. And, after watching many replays with my DVR, I for sure saw that the ball in Ben R.'s grasp just make it over the front edge of the line.

Anyways, I thought it was a good game. Seattle did a great job defensively in the first half and I thought they had a chance to win it. Pitt just came up with some timely big plays.

And if you're wondering, no I'm not a Pitt fan

Borla

All the ball has to do is make it over the plane of ANY part of the white line. It doesn't have to completely cross it.


I too have seen so many people whine about unfair officiating.....it amazes me, because I've probably watched 35+ games this year and have yet to see ONE where ALL of the calls were correct. Some calls went each way, Pittsburgh was the better team today.

<---Tampa Bay fan, Bears are my second favorite. *shrug*

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heccubusiv

The city of pittsburgh is crazy, i just left the southside and there is about 3 or 4 thousand people in the street screaming. Got to see some boobies and lost my voice. I left before things go too crazy and the police start beating people

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tec-9-7

Bullshit. The Stealers got a gift today. I hope they are thanking whatever Gods they pray to. I hope they make it back next year so that we can bury them into the turf where they deserve to be!

Jimellow

I'm glad Pittsburg won. Cowher is a great coach that has been with the team from the getgo.

Overall, I considered to be a mediocre game, but the playoffs prior to the Bowl tend to be better anyway, and that was also the case this year.

Based on their clock management at the end of the half, and game, the Seahawks were never really in a position to win. The Steelers didn't really dominate either.. Certainly wasn't the most exciting game this season, but I'm of the opinion that most Super Bowls are over hyped and underperformed anyway.

The Colts / Steelers game was easily the best game I've seen this year, and it's because of that game I think the Steelers are deserving of Super Bowl rings.

Neither team played like the best in their conference today.

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Mitzkrieg

yup, it's posts like these that I'm talking about. I know a lot of Seattle fans will be bitter like this, but I just didn't see the game that way. Like I said, there were bad calls both ways, but the ones that I thought were really bad would not have been a complete game changing call.

streak_56

Well.... the Steelers beat my Bengals but I am sure glad the Super Bowl champions is not a west coast team.

Jadedfox

OK, you show me the bad calls the Pitts got against them and I'll show you 3 gamebreaking calls against Seattle. Deal?

Didn't think so.

--jaded

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Mitzkrieg

heh, touchy touchy aren't we? still haven't cooled off after the loss?
I stated in my first post that I was replaying things from my DVR. I've got the whole game recorded. So don't sit there trying to be all cocky with me because I could show you three bad calls against the Steelers(none that were gamebreaking, but still...) If I wanted to bother wasting time trying to upload it to the computer, then convert it to a small enough format to upload clips to some website so that I could link it to this site, I would. But I'm neither a Steeler or Hawk fan. I really don't care enough to spend that much time on it.

I started this thread based on my opinion that people were over reacting to some bad calls. This is stuff that I've seen almost every game I've watched throughout the season. I mean, there were only a total of 7 penalties called against Seattle. That's really not that many at all. People act like they had 20 and that the game was rigged of all things. Gimme a break!

I'd like to know which 3 calls you think were game changing enough to say that Seattle would have definitely won. I just don't see how someone can honestly believe that 3 calls throughout that particular game would have changed the outcome. How many field goals did Seattle miss? (rhetorical question) and the interception that Matt H. threw that could have been more points for Seattle if he hadn't? the four dropped balls by Jeremy Stevens? what about the poor clock management later in the game? What about the three defensive players they lost to injury during the game? Andre Dyson, Marquand Manuel and Rocky Bernard. Those were big losses I think they couldn't overcome with the backups they put in for them. Seattle just didn't capitalize when they could have, and Pittsburgh did on two huge plays with untested Seattle backups in for injured players.

I'm sure two of the calls you think were game changing were the ones that you think should have been called touchdowns but weren't. The offensinve P.I. in the endzone against Seattle with 2:08 left in the first quarter. Well I'm sorry to say, but that was a legit call. Even if people think it was ticky tack, it was still DEFNITELY a push off. You can see the defender hop backwards a bit because of the push off. The ref did his job. One of the other calls people think was bad was when the ball that was ruled caught out of bounds with 54 seconds left in the first half where his foot hit the pylon. Well after watching it several times over myself from my DVR, I can see his foot touch out of bounds before he hits the pylon.

So being a completely unbiased person in this situation seeing as I'm a fan of neither team with nothing invested in either team money wise, I can honestly say that it's fact that those two calls that people think could have given the Hawks an extra 14 points, were called correctly by the refs. And from what I saw, there were no other calls that would have directly affected the score like the two I mentioned. Anything else is "woulda, coulda, shoulda" and ends in speculation.

I'm sorry, case closed, game over. You'll just have to live with the loss. It's not the end of the world bro. Things like this happen. I was actually kinda routing for Seattle, but oh well.

djtestudo

I don't want to say the game was rigged (although I did several times last night ), but I don't remember a bad call going Seattle's way, while I remember several going the Steelers' way:

The phantom offensive pass interference call at the beginning of the game.
The holding call that called back the touchdown (and had Madden and Michaels confused as hell as to how it was called).
The Roethlisberger touchdown (inconclusive, and I know why it was not overturned, but at full speed you have to be completely incompetant to call that a touchdown if you are the line judge).
The "blocking below the waist call on Hasselback after the interception (apparently the guy with the ball counts as a blocker who cannot be tackled now). This was probably the most blatent one, as well as the most important one as it led directly to the trick-play TD which put the game out of reach.

There are four critical calls that affected the game.

Seattle did make more mistakes then Pittsburgh, and the Steelers did capitalize while Seattle didn't, so I think Pittsburgh did deserve to win in that way. However, Seattle did a much better overall job on both sides of the ball that those bad calls were absolutely critical to the outcome of the game.

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Jadedfox

Not at all, I'm a Bears fan. You're entitled to your opinion, of course, I'm just disagreeing with it. But I still say that this was one of the worst Superbowl officiating jobs I have ever seen. If you want examples of gamebreaking calls, see djtestudo's post right above this one. And yes, you may examine the evidence on your recording of the game again if you want.

--jaded

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Borla

I'm guessing that someone somewhere wants to blame the refs for the horrible, HORRIBLE clock management the Seahawks showed at the end of the first half?

I'm pretty sure I saw some guys in pinstripes setting up huge fans in the endzone to blow those missed field goals off course too.

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djtestudo

Because that isn't completely irrelevent to the conversation...

I guess tackling the guy with the ball really DOES count as a low block on a blocker, huh?

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Mitzkrieg

1. Like I said, the PI in the endzone was a legit call. People can argue it till they're blue in the face, but you can see the defender actually hop backwards because of the pushoff. It wasn't just a touch foul like some people think. And even if it was ticky tack like other people say, it doesn't matter. It was a legit call by the ref. You can't prevent a player from having a play on the ball and that's what Jackson did by pushing off.
2. While I agree the holding call was definitely questionable. Regardless, it's "woulda, coulda, shoulda" as to what would have happened if the foul was not called. They could have scored a TD, they could have got a field goal or they could have got nothing. That's like in the Indy/Pitt game when the game was all but over, and Pitt is on the 1 yd. line about to score, and Bettis fumbles the ball. The almost near impossible happened on that play that almost gave Indy the game.
3. Ben R.'s touchdown. I know it was a close call and at full speed it is questionable. But after I have watched it several times, the ref made the right call. The ball in the crook of Ben's grasp just makes it over the front edge of the line. That's why I was asking for clarification on that rule in my first post. I can see it plain as day.
4. The Matt H. interception..... hmmmm, the fact that he threw the interception doesn't have anything to do with it? the penalty after the fact is moot. It could have gone either way after that. I suppose the 13 yds that Pitt had gained on the 3 plays after the interception had nothing to do with it? Maybe if Seattle didn't have those key injuries I mentioned, they might have been able to stop the momentum of Pitt and forced a punt. Even Holmgren admitted later that he was so angry he couldn't concentrate. Seattle lost momentum anyways after that interception. You cannot say that the low blocking penalty would have changed the outcome. If it didn't happen, Pittsburgh might have scored, or they might not have. But it seems like no one wants to give credit to that series. Pittsburgh worked Seattle after that Interception call.

Like I said, anything other than those two calls I mentioned in my previous post is nothing but "coulda, shoulda, woulda". And the only thing you can do is speculate on what MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED. I mean, this is just as silly as Joey Porter claiming that everyone wanted Indy to win their game. All it is, is silly conspiracy theories. There were horrible calls in the Indy/Pitt game and Pitt prevailed. There were horrible calls in this game and Seattle had the chance to at least stay in the game if not win it, if they had been able to do things differently. Sorry for Seattle but they blew it when it counted.

trickyy

if it's any consolation, Gillette has just introduced a shaver with FIVE blades! do you understand what this means?

anyway, the game would have been more interesting without the bad calls. i'm not saying seattle would have surely won, but i would have kept watching beyond the last interception.

DDDDave

Just to throw some gas on the fire......

On BR's run, why did the line judge run in with one hand raised as if to mark the ball down and then all of a sudden decide it was a TD. He was down, he could not have advanced it while he was running in...???

On the endzone PI, why wasn't the DB called for illegal contact. Any contact more than 5 yards past the line of scrimmage is a penalty. The DB pushed the reciever as much as the reciever pushed the DB...???

Injuries to defensive players? The guy who intercepted the pass and ran it back for the longest return in SB history was one of those 'inexperienced' backups. You're either an NFL player or you're not.

The Hasselback penalty was a tough call. He did take out a blocker at the knees in his attempt to tackle the ball carrier. No hits below the waist on returns...period.

Holmgren should have went for the touchdown immediately after the long INT return. Don't let the Pittsburgh D catch their breath. Instead he ran it twice and then there was a penalty.

Miss two fieldgoals, give up a 75 yard run from scrimmage, not being prepared for a gadget play from the middle of the field, your TE dropping at least three catchable balls, that's how you lose.


BTW, it is amazing how everyone's opinion is swayed by the announcers. Watch the game listening to the radio some time, you won't 'see' it the same way.

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Borla

I would argue it's not, with all the conspirists jibber jabbering like the refs were out to fix the game.




I completely agree that THAT call was completely blown. Otherwise I pretty much agree with Mitzkrieg.

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saut

Looks like a pretty clear push-off to me.

crewsor

Just a comment on the officiating. Ben R. was on National tv last night laughing about how he didn't think he scored. And the contact in the end zone that nullified the Seattle touchdown wouldn't be called 99 out of 100 times.

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saut

But guess what -- it was called. If that's not a push-off, then please show me what the hell a push off is. Does he have to propel the DB 50 feet backwards through a wall Incredible Hulk style?

djtestudo

Saut, you may want to re-edit that clip to show five seconds instead of two, and you will see CLEAR contact before they get to the end zone.

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Borla

Do you mean this holding call when he clearly had his arm hooked under Haggan's arm and his hand grabbing his facemask?







If you see where Ben's right hand is in this pic.....and know it's grabbing the football......sure looks to me that it's BARELY over the beginning of the white line.



Come on guys......there has NEVER been a perfectly officiated NFL game. If you watched football every Sunday, you saw horrible calls every week. The best teams overcame them and won anyway. The end.

Go to the Seahawks web page and watch the video "IF only" both players and their offensive coordinator say they lost because they didn't have ANY big plays and they couldn't stop the Steelers 3 big plays. They aren't crying about the refs. Pay special attention to what Haskell says about penalties.

http://www.seahawks.com/default.aspx

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AquaFox

250,000 people in the streets today for a steelers parade


http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_038164501.html


nothing but a sea of black and gold

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Sion

So, NFL fans worldwide, aside from those who count themselves a part of the vast Steeler Nation, are outraged at the apparent bias shown by the referees in the Super Bowl? Pardon me for saying so, but... big fucking fat hairy deal. I could not possibly care less. Why? I'm glad you asked.

First of all, let's deal with the penalties.

1. The offensive pass interference that nullified a touchdown. Let's face facts here folks, Darrel Jackson DID push off. Was it enough to gain a competitive advantage on that play? I don't know, nor do I care. What I DO know is that he did it right IN FRONT of an official. Regardless of how slight the push was, when you do it 2 yards away from a ref, he's going to call it EVERY FUCKING TIME. Deal with it. Oh, and for the record, the ref did NOT hesitate. He reached for his flag immediately. The flag, however, slipped from his grasp and he had to grab for it a second time before finally being able to throw it.

2. The holding call on Sean Locklear was legitimate. By the very definition of the rule, what he did was holding. Always was, always will be. Do they always call it? No. Should they? Absolutely.

3. The low-block on penalty on Hasselbeck was, at best, iffy, and at worst, a wrong call. So what. The extra 15 yards the Steelers got because of that were inconsequential. Without it, Randle El's touchdown pass to Hines Ward would have been good for 58 yards instead of 43. He was THAT wide open. There, does that make Seattle's fans (all 15 of them) feel better?


But, just for the sake of argument, let's say that all three of these penalties (and the 4 others) were blatantly and obviously wrong. Do I, as a Steeler fan, give half of a shit? Nope. Not because I favor a win all costs, cheat if necessary philosophy, but rather because as far as I'm concerned, this was payback. Payback for all the shitty calls that have gone against the Steelers over the years, from the Thanksgiving Day coin-toss fiasco in Detroit to the overturning of Troy Polamalu's interception of Manning just 3 weeks ago. From the phantom 12 men on the field call (leading to the subsequent stuffing of the picture in the refs pocket by Bill Cowher) to the missed interference against Antwaan Randle El in that same Indy game just a few weekends back. I'm sure someone can tell me the exact figure, but personally, I've lost track of how many official "letters of apology" that we've received from the league over the years. So, to all you Seattle fans out there who feel cheated, I have just this to say: "Welcome to my world."

----------

Now, about Ben Roethlisberger's touchdown. Ok, I'll grant you that I may be a bit biased, being a Steeler fan and all, but it looked to me like the ball broke the plane of the goal. And that's all it has to do. But, and this is critical, the call on the field was a touchdown. In order for the replay official to overturn the play, there has to be CONCLUSIVE visual evidence that the ball didn't break the plane. Sorry, folks, but NOT ONE of the replay angles showed CONCLUSIVE evidence that the ball was kept out of the endzone. Therefore, the play stands as called, and rightly so. Conversely, it works the same the other way. If the line-judge had ruled Ben down at the 3 inch line, replay would not have overturned that call either.

Oh, and for those who question the line-judge's hesitation to signal a td, remember that he had to verify that Big Ben retained possession of the ball. Once he did, the signal went up immediately.

----------

Let's move on now to the whole, ridiculous conspiracy theory. I have to wonder how many of the fans and/or media who are espousing this bullshit called Joey Porter a fucking lunatic moron for his comments following the game in Indianapolis. My guess is somewhere between 98 and 100%. But aside from that, let's consider this: that weekend featured some of the absolute worst officiating I've ever seen in my 30+ years of watching the NFL, not just in the Steeler game, but the 3 others as well. And the bad calls in those games were so much more obvious than any of the disputed calls in the Super Bowl. By a factor of 1000. For a frame of reference, consider the Super Bowl calls a Matchbox car and those in the Divisional games a Hummer, military style.

Now, as a result of that weekend, attention was focused on the officiating for this Super Bowl like never before in the history of the game. And yet, Seattle's fans and their apologists in the media would have you believe that, despite this atomic microscope level of scrutiny on the officiating, the league (or Dan Rooney, take your pick) exercised some kind of influence on the refs who worked the Super Bowl. Come on people, how stupid would that be? As stupid as pushing off to make a TD catch just 2 yards directly in front of an official? As stupid as screwing the pooch on time management at the end of BOTH halves of the Super Bowl?

And that brings me to my next point, the Seahawks themselves. Despite all the calls by the officials that went against Seattle, they STILL had a chance to do what the Steelers did against the Colts: overcome and win the game anyway. Consider, the Hasslebeck penatly was the LAST one called in that game. After the Steelers scored few plays later, the Seahawks got the ball back with 8:48 remaining on the clock. Nearly 9 freakin' minutes! Sorry to have to burst your bubble, 'Hawks fans, but if you can't get closer to a score that the Pittsburgh 23 on two possessions and with better than 8 minutes on the clock, then maybe you just don't deserve win the big game. If Hasselbeck really was even half as good as you say, then why couldn't get at least a touchdown to close the gap to 3-5 points (depending on the outcome of the inevitable 2 point conversion)?

As I said, Seattle, despite the officials, still had every chance in the world to get it done and failed miserably. And they've got no one but themselves to blame for that.

----------

Finally, I'd like to address the "outrage" that's being expressed by "true NFL fans" around the world at the perceived injustice of the officiating on Super Bowl Sunday. I respond with just these three simple words: Go Fuck Yourselves. Where was your outrage over the Indy game? Where was your outrage over any one of dozens of bad calls throughout the year that went against the Steelers? Where was your outrage over the any one of hundreds/thousands of bad calls that have happened over the years to any and every team in the league? Where were the calls for federal investigations, where was the questioning of the leagues integrity, where were the conspiracy theories then? Oh that's right, you only care when it's the Steelers who benefit from a potentially questionable call. Because no team in the history of the game has generated more hatred and jealousy throughout this land than the Steelers. Not the Packers, not the Cowboys, not the 49ers, not even the Patriots.

Why, all of a sudden, are all these "true fans" so outraged? Because, to a man, woman and child, every last one of them knows a Steeler fan or three (or three hundred) who's been walking around with a big stupid grin on his/her face these past couple of days. And more than anything else, more than the officiating, more than Terrell Owens and his tantrums, more than Al Davis' lawsuits and machinations, more than Baltimore's criminal Lewises, more than anything in the entire football world, what these "true fans" hate is seeing the Pittsburgh Steelers back where they belong, as World Champions, because Steeler Nation, the most widespread and devoted fanbase the game has ever seen will NOT let them soon forget it.

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Sion

btw, download and watch this video (from www.steelernation.com member cgesolo) and read his accompanying commentary below.

then try to tell me those calls were wrong.

http://www.ic-dev.com/SBXL-Calls-Divx.avi

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He's the best, of course, of all the worst.
Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz

I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...

jujueye

That's hilarious...because the ball didn't even touch the white line in the quesitonable play.

Sion

sorry, I can't hear you. I have a Lombardi Trophy in my ear.

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He's the best, of course, of all the worst.
Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz

I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...

djtestudo

Took ya long enough.

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Borla

It doesn't have to touch the white line. It just has to break the plane. Had you seen the pick saut posted that is now taken down, you'd have seen it clearly did.

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Sion

http://www.ic-dev.com/SBXL-Calls-Divx.avi

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He's the best, of course, of all the worst.
Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz

I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...

djtestudo

What a shock...the Steelers fans are the ones who DON'T think the Seahawks got screwed...

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yournamehere

Can someone please direct me to the Sports Board? I seem to have taken a wrong turn and ended up in the Bitter Whining Board.

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djtestudo

Hey, if your conscience is OK with having to pay the officials in order for your team to win, then feel free to bitch about our legit complaints.

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Sion

there are only 2 calls in that game that are even close to being less than legitimate.

1. Big Ben's TD: which was so close that regardless of what the call was, it would be considered controversial. as I said in my other post, had he been ruled down at the 1 inch line, replay would not have overturned that call either. regardless, however, that call happened in the first half and a truly championship team overcomes something like that. The Seahawks didn't.

2. The Hasselbeck low-block penalty was probably correct according to the letter of the rule, however the rule should be revisited to eliminate that gray area. In my mind, what he did should not be considered a penalty. In any case, that call didn't give Pittsburgh a TD. Seattle's failure to recognize the trick play did.

all of the other calls were 100% correct. to suggest otherwise shows a gross ignorance of the rules.

let me repeat that:

ALL OF THE OTHER CALLS WERE 100% CORRECT.

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He's the best, of course, of all the worst.
Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz

I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...