Superbowl

ditto.

Burger King could have spent some money on janitors for stores in Upper Canada. might have got me to consider going back in those septic hell-holes.

1. That commercial was rubbish. …”Wild On’s,”Brook Burke, as the sesame seed bun? Amazing. How about the way in which the sandwich was made? They tossed the lettuce, tomatoes, onions etc… Odd.

2. The D. Pepsi commercial was droll, too. I’m most alarmed with the phrase, “Brown and Bubbly.” Who thought it wise to conjure thoughts of effervescent shat, in the consumer’s mind?

3. The lore of the NFL seemed to demand a Steelers’ victory. The officiating was fishy. Bettis’ fumble, that was recovered by Harris who was on his way to a TD, before being felled by Roethlisberger’s TACKLE will make great fodder for the NFL machine’s chest thumping. It will go down in history as something akin to the immaculate reception or the CATCH.

Seattle contributed to their own woes with the oddball plays at the end of the first half. They were flagged a lot for holding, too.

We here in the cold damp northwest corner were not all that impressed with the officiating. I haven’t watched a pro football game in years but if this “challenge” business is as useless as it appears, why bother?

I elected not to watch the World’s Oldest Rock and Roll Band. I found it too jarring to have them performing at the fortieth of these orgies, keeping in mind they were already big stars at the first one.

I don’t know what you’re talking about. This was most unique SuperBowl ever. Anyone who says otherwise is a communist.

If I were a real football fan — or more importntly a Seahawks fan, I would definitely demand an NFL investigation into the biased officiating and possible referee buying, but since I’m only a diletantte and fightng for the rights of sports star millionaires seems like the WRONG way to spend my time, I’ll hope to forget the whole thing (including commercials) by tomorrow.

You mean you weren’t watching the 6 Nations Kieran?

http://tinyurl.com/apsw8

Go Steelers!!

Whiners.

Was there some sort of sexual inneundo in all of the girl/condiments piling on top of the bun? Or was it just so weird it was pointless?

Burger King Fries are lousy anyway.

The two calls are reflections of the standard of review. I would not have made either call as the field official, but the replay evidence wasn’t clear enough to reverse. Had the on-the-field calls gone the other way, they would have been sustained on review as well.

You haters are getting me down. Kieran, those are just the wrong calls to pick on; if you pick on anything it should be the hold on the Seahawks’ pass to the one yard line, and the 15-yard penalty on Hasselback’s tackle on the INT return (some say that there’s a goofy rule justifying this, though). On the Seahawks’ touchdown, the receiver had his arm extended right in the defender’s chest, reversing the defender’s momentum. Perhaps that’s a judgment call, but it’s defensible. On Roethlisberger’s touchdown, the nose of the football looked to me like it crossed the goal line before Roethlisberger was pushed back; regardless, it’s wrong to cite this as a clearly wrong call.

I think that the officiating was unfortunate, and it’s bad that all the controversial calls went the Steelers’ way (well, except for the Jerramy Stevens fumble that was blown dead as an incompletion). But complaining about the Roethlisberger touchdown and the Jackson push-off is highly debatable.

that’s actually the way the rule is written (incidental contact plus knee down = the player is down).

Also something about the turf not causing a fumble.

I honestly can’t take the NFL seriously anymore; I probably should have stopped doing so long ago.

I’m not at all a Lacan fan, but TV commercials are so weird that maybe only occult Lacanian principles can explain them. “Objet petit a”, “the Name of the Father”, “the Real Thing”, whatever it is, the vast majority of football-watching normal people are completely nuts. And the vast majority of wrong-thinking people are right.

Pittsburgh has self-esteem issues, and affirmative-action-officiating is justifiable. Two or three more rings and they may actually finally be OK.

You can find mistakes in the game, made by the losing team, and ascribe an outcome to those mistakes rather than to other possible causes. In truth there were many causes for the outcome, arising from many different plays.

One set of those causes were obviously wrong calls. You can certainly look at a limited number of plays and say, “no the losing team beat themselves on those plays.” But it is also true that without the obviously wrong calls, the outcome would have been reversed. What caused the outcome? All of those things. Nevertheless, when some of the causes were illegitimate, we generally say, the outcome is tainted.

I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that every once in a while a championship game is fixed.

I think there’s a fourteen point swing due entirely to two blown calls. Then there were a lot of other blown calls. You disagree about some of those calls but not others.

You are right, I’ve got no evidence for a fix. Watching the game, it just struck me how easy it would be to change an outcome with a few questionable calls.

There were a lot of fishy calls, and that makes the game less satisfying. But so what, there are other things in life to enjoy. I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade.

mac, you are illustrating my point in 26. Sure, Seattle had 77 plays. It performed poorly on a set of those plays. It performed well on the rest of them. Of the plays Seattle played well on, a certain number of them were reversed. The basis for the reversals was questionable at the very least.

You can certainly say: Seattle screwed up some of those plays. That’s why they lost. You should continue to say that if you are an NFL fan and you want to remain one.

But no team is so much better than another that the other set of calls — the reversals — can’t sway the outcome.

On the Roethlisberger touchdown, true, you can’t see the ball, because it is behind Roethlisberger’s elbow, which itself doesn’t break the plane. I don’t know, run the clip back yourself and if you are satisfied with it, fine. This isn’t the most important stuff in the world, and I suppose I should spend my time thinking about other things.

> It performed poorly on a set of those plays.
> It performed well on the rest of them.

Seattle also experienced total brain fade in the last 30 seconds of the 1st half, then again in the last 2 minutes of the 2nd half. To me that is an indication that they were not in a good position to battle to the end of a tough contest anyway.

Cranky

Text,

In any given endeavor there will be a small number of coin flips, which if everything else is even, will determine the outcome.

Everything else is not always even or even close to it.

No amount of coin flips would have generated a Denver outcome for a Denver San Fran Super Bowl.

Seattle was NOT better than Pittsburgh. A different series of coin flips might have resulted in a different outcome. And Steeler fans would be upset.

But even if every coin flip had gone Seattle’s way. Changing nothing but those flips. Seattle would have won by what? +7 -4 +4 for a total of a 15 point swing? 4 points?

All the flips went Pittsburgh’s way and they won by 11.

At best Seattle was as good as Pittsburgh at worst Pittsburgh was as bad as Seattle.

So even if a few coin flips decided Seattle has no complaint. They had 74 chances to make the coin flips not matter. They responded with more holds, more dropped passes, and an int.

Weiner: that call plus the first touchdown pass makes 11, assuming the Steelers kick the field goal. That’s two suspicious calls. It’s by no means the only two.

Mac: I would look at the stat sheets before declaring that the winning team outplayed the losing team, minus the calls.

I’m not Seattle or a Seattle fan, so my whining should not reflect poorly upon them. I’m just saying, there is cause to question this outcome.

What I’m trying to say is, I’m offended by the criticism of the Steelers.

Text: do you think that the Steelers couldn’t have run the ball in from 4th and an inch? Or that a fifty-yard field goal in a dome is automatically unmakeable?

Seattle’s secondary got burned badly three times (the 75 yard run, the Randle-El->Ward touchdown, and the long pass to Ward off of the Roethlisberger scramble). Their punter sucked, and their tight end dropped a lot of passes and couldn’t stay in bounds on a couple more.

The penalties didn’t help them any, that’s for sure, but it’s not as if they were playing an excellent game and got robbed.

(oh, and it’s easy to rack up good statistics throwing lots of 5-10 yard passes between the 20s. that’s just not a good way to win a football game.)

After reading your last post, I’d like to strike my first paragraph from the record as argumentative. But I’ll stand by my statement that if one wants to bitch about the officials stealing the game, one’s play should at least qualify as “okay”, if not “good”.

Text,

I thought that went without saying? True the Seahawks were + 1 in TOs and had 57 more yards but the Steelers had 6.1 ypp and Seattle only had 5.1 and the Steelers had 7 ypp to Seattle’s 5.

Pretty even. But the big thing is the big plays, which is reflected in the ypp. That is what matters in the NFL. The 83 and 43 yard TD. Take those away and the Steelers had nothing. :).

But those are exactly what matter in the NFL. Going up and down the field at 3 – 7 yards a pop is just too tough. Sooner or later a mistake costs you. Which is exactly what happened to Seattle. The 4 plays that really mattered where Alexander and Jackson’s drops and the two plays by the Steelers. That was a 24 point swing. That was the game.

At best Seattle was as good as Pittsburgh.

I’m baffled by the “phantom hold” discussion. I mean, Haggans is on his way to a sack unobstructed, then, suddenly, isn’t. But somehow all these people think… what? He got bored? He forgot to sack the QB? The O-lineman said something interesting, so he stopped to ask him to repeat it? No, the O-lineman, who was beat, grabbed him from behind. I’m sorry if that doesn’t get called enough in the NFL (and I actually think it doesn’t – I’d like to see more sacks & flushed QBs), but it’s still holding.

Likewise the endzone pass interference – I’m not sure what part of straight-arming the CB 6″ backwards is supposed to be incidental, but I know I would’ve been angry (as a Steeler fan) at a non-call.

Look, the definition of a bad call is one that is embarrassing to the team that benefits – no one in Indy wanted to talk about the Polamalu intercept. But if the call had gone the other way, and the other team would have been just as mad, then it’s simply a judgment call – a coin toss. And just as people are wrong about how many heads in a row is unlikely, they’re apparently wrong about how many marginal calls can go one way in a football game without being suspicious.

Finally, note that most of these so-called bad calls were in the second half, when PIT was clearly outplaying SEA. If it had been bad calls holding back SEA in the 1st half, when they were outplaying the Steelers, that would be something. But instead you had a team that, when they were up, couldn’t get it done and, when they were down, also couldn’t get it done, possibly with some bad breaks. My heart breaks.

I liked the Mastercard “MacGyver” ad.

And yeah, interleague play is an impious abomination, like the DH rule and instant replay.

I guess this’ll be buried beneath a pile of football-related comments, but I think that Burger King’s allowed to spend as many millions as it wants, as long as it produces a Subservient Chicken every once in a while.

Dude, that prize is MINE!

Anyone who is still reading and who cares about the football angle should (1) probably seek help (2) read this commentary by a college official who is familiar with the NFL rules.

I was at the game- drove from Rhode Island with my 12 year old son. We are Steeler fans. Here is where I differ from the “typical” fanatical fan- I preach to my son to NEVER EVER blame officials (or anyone else) for something that is judgement call that does not go your way. It is over as soon as it happens- deal with it, and succeed dispite it. We watched the Steelers lose to the Titans in the playoffs a few years ago when a final field goal was replayed several times (because of penalties) until the Steelers ended up losing the game on the kick. My son cried, and I offered the same advice that that happens and the best thing to do not get yourself into a predicament where a 50/50 chance could cause you to fail.

Same thing this year against the Colts- a non call on an obvious pass interference early. A non-call on a defensive encroachment that would have given the Steelers a first down on a 4th and inches, the Polamau non-interception. My son was visibly upset, and I was holding my anger- difficult to follow my own advice, searching for justice and an effort worthy of overcoming the “bad luck”. The Steelers won over huge odds in addition to a hostile crowd and unlucky calls. Champions do that. Another lesson for my son. I also was always careful to tell him when I truly believe that a call was correct versus suspect or a 50/50 judgement call.

Finally, the Super Bowl- calls that were close did seem to go our way while we were at the game, but we were not close enough to see. Obviously we were elated by the result, but as we drove back, the talk shows were full of nothing but conspiracy theories, official-bashing, and cracks about the entertainment (weight and/or age). It was disappointing not to hear about th triumph of our team, the struggles against all odds, congratulations for an incredible journey and result. I wanted to watch my Tivo version of the game myself- could it be that blatent? Were the refs on the take?

I was able to watch without emotion (since the event was already decided), and logged a balanced view of what I saw for every play and what impact the officials had. I also noted the announcers take on the calls at the time. Here are my findings:

1. The announcers were NOT outraged by the offensive pass interference call on the reversed Seahawk touchdown. The tone was more that it was a penalty, and he probably did not need to push off to get open. In fact, the announcer implied that the coach would be upset with the player, not the official.

2. No one is talking about the offensive pass interference called against the Steelers in the second quarter. The penalty was against the tight end that was no where near the play, which resulted in a nice gain to inside the 20 yard line. Replays were NOT shown and I would like to go on record that this could be considered as much a “phantom” penalty as any others the Seahawks care to blame. The play was called back, the Steelers were sacked on the next play in an obvious pass situation (thanks officials!). And here is where a Champion makes the play instead of complaining about a call. After that, on a 3rd and 28, Ben threw a long pass complete to Hines Ward inside the 5.

3. From there, we move to the short run plays and the disputed TD run by Big Ben. Sorry, but the tip of the ball broke the plane of the goalline during his first lunge. Don’t care what the refs did, how they did it, etc. Just because the ball was only over the line by an inch or doesn’t mean it ain’t a TD. But so what- call it short. We go for it on 4th down and make it. After all, we did it against the refs/Colts on the famous “non call” above. We were 100% on such attempts this year.

4. Flash forward to a few other plays that are not talked about- after a Seahawk caught a ball deep in Steeler territory, he tucked it in and made a move with the ball. He was then nailed by a defender, clearly fumbled the ball, but the refs called it incomplete. No excuses- this was the wrong call. Oh well, we overcame that call as well.

5. Late in the game, Seahawk QB fumbled while running free in the middle of the field. Pittsburgh ball. If a player is tackled, the ground can’t cause a fumble. However, he was not tackled, he simply fell down. In theory he could get up and keep running. But no, the refs reversed that call because a Steelers hand brushed his jersey- he didn’t tackle him, had no influence on the fall or fumble, but by a tiny technicality the refs applied this rule. Why don’t they just let them play?

6. After an incomplete pass early in the game, Hines Ward got nailed in the head by a helmet to helmet contact and the refs threw the flag. The replay clearly showed the helmets colliding, yet the refs picked up the flag and said that what I clearly saw happen did not happen.

7. On Hines Ward’s reverse, as he went out of bounds, he was clearly nailed in the head again by a defender with his helmet (who left the game with an injury). No flag! DO they want the players to get hurt?

8. Big Ben was on an outside run and was hit out of bounds and clearly dragged for 5 yards by the defender after he went out. For a league that wants to protect their quarterbacks, this was a very curious non-call. Clearly the Seahawks caught a break.

9. As for the “phantom hold” that John Madden referenced that reversed a pass play inside the 5 for Seattle- They only showed one angle of this play, and I admit that at first glance the offensive player seemed to be behind the defender in the shot, with the defender having a clear shot to the QB. After further review, without my conspiracy glasses on, I realized that the camera angle obscured the lineman’s arm and hand that was wrapped up and under the arm of the defender in a last ditch effort to prevent him from getting to the QB. Notice the way his shoulder is held back, his momentum is stalled, and I realize that the official probably had a clear cut view of this and called the hold as he should. That split second was what the QB needed to complete the pass and the hold bought it for him. Sorry- illegal. We can’t let a breach of the rules affect the game, especially when the play resulted in a long gain. That would not have been fair. Most telling- the lead official, who has admitted failures/mistakes in past games (Polomau interception for example), did not feel this was the wrong call. I can’t wait until they find the “lost” camera angle that shows this mre clearly and everyone can stop talking about the conspiracy.

10. The block/tackle by the Seahawk QB after his inteception throw- This penalty was called as per the rule, which I don’t like. I know this because I did not like it when they called it against the Steelers in an almost identical situation this year. Bottom line- the call was correct, but they probably should review this rule.

11. I will offer a counterpoint on a similar play going against the Steelers. After Big Ben’s interception, he ran after the play to make a tackle. He was clearly and viciously blocked in the back- a clear clipping penalty. There was no flag and this gave the Seahawks excellent field position and allowed them to score a touchdown.

There are more, but hopefully you will get my point. A lesson I continue to give to my 12 year old son- get over it- you can always blame things on everyone else if you look hard enough for excuses. I know it doesn’t quite make for as a good of a conspiracy theory of you look for calls against the Steelers, but I never felt compelled to this before now.

Holmgram, Announcers, Writers, Seahawks fans- blame the Seahawks, credit the Steelers, get over it, and grow up. What are you, like 12 years old??

Slow down the picture, and draw a line where the goal line was. I imagine you’d end up with an image like this, showing the ball crossing the plane:

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/2375/beninforthetd1tp.jpg