The ClayTaurus
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- Sep 19, 2005
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Ok.dmp said:You obviously aren't a Football fan. With this statement above, you've betrayed yourself a bit. Nothing you wrote is accurate.
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Ok.dmp said:You obviously aren't a Football fan. With this statement above, you've betrayed yourself a bit. Nothing you wrote is accurate.
dmp said:ONE guy drops passes and you say "If Seattle Receivers could..."
Seattle played poorly for 5-8? minutes, while the Steelers played poorly for 40 minutes and all of a sudden Hasselbeck is over-rated?
Just doesn't make sense.
The ClayTaurus said:Seattles receivers were careless. They stepped out of bounds when they should have toe dragged. They dropped passes. They pushed off on a touchdown, or at least weren't smart enough to make sure it didn't look that way. It's not just a one time thing; those receivers have a history.
And it's not "all of a sudden" Hasselbeck is overrated, it's been that way for awhile. Is he good? Yeah, and I wouldn't mind having him play for the Lions (other than that he's a COMPLETE TOOL, but that's besides the point)
And why did Seattle go away from running Alexander? What about that clock management? What about missing field goals in a dome? What about the fact that the Steelers had a shitty ref'd game against the Colts and still won? What about what about what about?
The refs had some bad calls; you and all you Seattle to Cali west coasters are entirely all-too eager to yell EAST COAST BIAS every time a team loses.
you being a lion guy....all your opinions are nul and void
True enough. I haven't seen real professional football in years. I thought moving to the Baltimore area would help. It didn't. I guess I've been reduced to a quivering pile of incoherence. Oh well. GO JOEY HARRINGTON, YOU PIANO PLAYING FAIRY!manu1959 said:you being a lion guy....all your opinions are nul and void
dmp said:It's not the loss...the loss is besides the point. The point is 'how the Stripes GAVE the Steelers the game.
jimnyc said:Did they give them Ike Taylor's INT? What about the costly sack to Casey Hampton while driving on the first series of the game? Did they propel Willie Parker 75 yards for his TD? And what about Antwaan Randel El's beautiful pass to MVP Hines Ward? What about Big Ben's scrambling for 2 very needed 1st downs?
Did they help Hasselbeck inexplicably waste time on the clock over confusion? Did they somehow force Stevens to drop at least 3 passes? Did they help keep Alexander fairly in check for most of the game? Did they prevent your receivers from keeping both feet in bounds when catching the ball?
I believe the worst call of the game was the penalty on Hasselbeck after his INT, which had no bearing on the outcome of the game. Was Hope interfered on the TD pass by Seattle? You betcha! It might not have been as blatant as many other calls we are accustomed to seeing but he pushed off of him nontheless, which is a penalty in the NFL. The holding call gets called 50% of the time, this time the Seattle player was caught, even though it was in fact a "cheesy" holding call.
These calls are non-existent in comparison to the calls Pittsburgh had against them in the Indy game - and they overcame and won. Seattle played very well but Pittsburgh made the big plays, and more importantly was the timing of these big plays.
But to take away from the Steelers accomplishments is dishonest and biased.
P.S. You're still my favorite admin.
jimnyc said:Did they give them Ike Taylor's INT? What about the costly sack to Casey Hampton while driving on the first series of the game? Did they propel Willie Parker 75 yards for his TD? And what about Antwaan Randel El's beautiful pass to MVP Hines Ward? What about Big Ben's scrambling for 2 very needed 1st downs?
Did they help Hasselbeck inexplicably waste time on the clock over confusion? Did they somehow force Stevens to drop at least 3 passes? Did they help keep Alexander fairly in check for most of the game? Did they prevent your receivers from keeping both feet in bounds when catching the ball?
I believe the worst call of the game was the penalty on Hasselbeck after his INT, which had no bearing on the outcome of the game. Was Hope interfered on the TD pass by Seattle? You betcha! It might not have been as blatant as many other calls we are accustomed to seeing but he pushed off of him nontheless, which is a penalty in the NFL. The holding call gets called 50% of the time, this time the Seattle player was caught, even though it was in fact a "cheesy" holding call.
These calls are non-existent in comparison to the calls Pittsburgh had against them in the Indy game - and they overcame and won. Seattle played very well but Pittsburgh made the big plays, and more importantly was the timing of these big plays.
But to take away from the Steelers accomplishments is dishonest and biased.
P.S. You're still my favorite admin.
dmp said:Read what I copied from ESPN - Do you dissagree?
Excellent point, Gunny!GunnyL said:Pittsburgh had the better team. They beat the top 3 teams in the NFL to get to the Superbowl, and they were on a roll.
Champions overcome bad calls.
Wanna blame something? How about Hasselack's piss-poor clock management with 2 minutes left needing two scores?
GotZoom said:There is no question that Seattle did not play as well as they normally do.
jimnyc said:I believe Matt Hasselbeck said it best:
"The Steelers played well enough to win tonight, and we didn't. They should get credit."
Now, I do believe calls that are 'light' or 'too close to call' should probably be left alone in the SB but that doesn't change the facts. However lightly the receiver pushed off doesn't change that he still pushed off. I admit the Hasselbeck 15 yarder was bogus.
Here's a short clip of the Roethlisberger TD, which I believe clearly shows the ball going just past the white line, and that's all it needs to.
http://www.youtube.com/w/Steelers-TouchDown-#1?v=vqzw3lvmJmk&search=Steelers touchdown
dmp said:There's a HUGE question saying seattle did not play well. Seattle, as a team played well enough to win - NOT well enough to overcome some of the worst chicken-shit calls by incompetent referees however.
dmp said:Do you agree or dissagree with the ESPN piece?
DETROIT -- Three weeks ago, after the Steelers held on to upset Indianapolis, Joey Porter was unhappy about the overturning of Troy Polamalu's fourth-quarter interception that could have sealed the win much earlier. Believing that deep down the league preferred Peyton Manning and the Colts to win, Porter publicly criticized the game officials, asking them not to "take the game from us."
Well, the Steelers can call it even now, as the officials who performed well enough throughout the season to earn the privilege of working Super Bowl XL performed Sunday as though they were trying to make it up to the Steelers by giving them the game -- not just any game, but the biggest game. And, yes, this time the other guys, the Seahawks, cried conspiracy, only not quite as loudly as Porter.
I just don't see a conspiracy, nor a plausible explanation as to why there would be one.
Seattle had its share of goats: in particular, tight end Jerramy Stevens, who dropped four balls, and kicker Josh Brown, who missed two field-goal attempts. Almost to a man, the Seahawks pointed the blame finger at themselves for converting only one of three red zone attempts (when they had been the best in the league in that area, scoring a touchdown on 71.7 percent of their trips inside the 20-yard line); for allowing Ben Roethlisberger to improvise and complete a 37-yard pass to game MVP Hines Ward to the 1; for giving up a 75-yard touchdown run to Willie Parker; and for getting beaten by a trick play on Antwaan Randle El's pass to fellow receiver Ward for a touchdown, a first in Super Bowl history. If you read between the lines, though, they pretty much spelled out in bold letters that they had plenty of help in handing Pittsburgh its fifth Lombardi Trophy.
I highlighted this portion because I think this better explains the outcome than the conspiracy issue.
Namely, the boys in black and white.
"Those things are out of our control," Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said of the three major penalties that helped change the game completely. Not saying the outcome of the game would have been any different, but for sure it would have been a different game. "That's the way [the officials] called them," Hasselbeck continued. "The Steelers played well enough to win tonight, and we didn't. They should get credit. It's disappointing, it's hard, but what are you going to do?"
Here's what referee Bill Leavy's crew did, point blank: It robbed Seattle. The Seahawks could have played better, sure. They could have done more to overcome the poor officiating. We understand that those things happen and all, but even with all the points Seattle left on the field, there's a good chance the Seahawks would have scored more than the Steelers if the officials had let the players play.
The Polamalu call was a robbery, and even the NFL admitted as much. These were judgement calls in the bowl and maybe when they are that close they shouldn't be called but that doesn't mean they didn't happen.
In the biggest game of the year, the biggest game in sports, even, the officials were just a little too visible. In that regard, the Super Bowl provided a fitting conclusion to a postseason packed with pitiful performances by the game's third team. There were incorrect down-by-contact rulings in both NFC wild-card games; a touchdown that could have gone either way and should have gone the other way -- in favor of Tampa Bay -- in the Bucs' loss to the Redskins; the Patriots got no love in Denver in being hit with a bogus pass interference penalty and not catching a break on Champ Bailey's fumble at the goal line that looked as though it could have been a touchback; and, of course, the Polamalu play.
Still, what happened to the Seahawks wasn't the same as, say, New England going into Denver and playing badly (five turnovers) on top of the bad calls. Seattle gained almost 400 yards and turned it over just once.
You see, you can spend weeks -- and we did; two, in fact -- analyzing and dissecting matchups and giving each team the edge in certain areas and trying to figure out how the game is going to play out, but the two things you can't account for are turnovers and officials. The latter were the X-factor Sunday. Edge: Steelers.
It actually was a fairly clean game from a penalty standpoint, without a whole lot of yellow on the field -- 10 accepted penalties between the teams. Seven were against the Seahawks, though, a team that tied with Indianapolis for the second-fewest penalties (94) in the regular season. But those calls against the Seahawks stuck out like the Space Needle on the Seattle skyline.
Consider: The Seahawks lost 161 yards to penalties when you combine the penalty yards (70) and the plays the flags wiped out (91). By halftime alone, when it trailed 7-3, Seattle had had 73 hard-earned yards and a touchdown eliminated.
Hasselbeck hit Darrell Jackson with an apparent 16-yard scoring pass in the first quarter, but the play came back when Jackson was called for offensive pass interference. It was a touch foul. Jackson extended his arm, yes, but both players were fighting for position, and he didn't create any separation by doing so. It was like a referee calling a hand-check in a key moment of Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Mild seperation was created and replay of the video shows that Hope went slightly on his back heels when the arm was extended. The funny thing is that I believe it would have been a TD without any pushoff at all as the WR had better positioning but the extension of his arm drew the flag.
The Seahawks had to settle for three instead of seven.
Still, that was early, and that one didn't change the game as much as did a holding call against Sean Locklear early in the fourth quarter with Pittsburgh leading 14-10. That one wiped out an 18-yard catch by Stevens that would have taken the ball to the 1. Locklear supposedly held Clark Haggans, so instead of first-and-goal at the 1 and the chance to complete a 98-yard touchdown drive and take a three-point lead, Seattle faced first-and-20 at the 29.
I honestly haven't seen replays of this one yet and don't recall from the game. Unless I have something to the contrary I will assume you are correct.
Three plays later, Ike Taylor picked off a Hasselbeck pass, and Hasselbeck went low to make the tackle on Taylor's return and was called for a 15-yard personal foul for a low block. The Steelers set up shop at their 44. That one right there made no sense.
Agreed, shitty call.
Pittsburgh likes to run its trick plays in the middle of the field. Boom! Four plays later, from Seattle's 43, Randle El took a reverse and threw a sweet strike on the run to Ward. It was 21-10, and that was all she wrote. Everyone knows how important it is to play Pittsburgh with a lead or with the score tied. The Steelers don't lose when they're up by 11.
Eleven just so happens to be the total points taken away by bogus calls. Some penalties meant points; others meant field position. A holding call in the second quarter negated Peter Warrick's 34-yard punt return that would have started Seattle in Pittsburgh territory.
By contrast, the Steelers might have gotten a break on Roethlisberger's 1-yard touchdown plunge on third-and-goal in the second quarter. Leavy reviewed the play under the booth's orders, since it occurred inside the two-minute mark, and while still photos of an airborne Roethlisberger showed that the ball might have broken the plane of the goal line, he landed short of it and reached the ball over. It was close. Head linesman Mark Hittner didn't seem so sure of it, hesitating before signaling touchdown.
See video clip in my prior post for my thoughts...
-Cp said:I can't believe just how unobjective a lot of folks here at USMB are being about this issue....
Take off the friggin Stealers' helmet for a bit so you can see what every other objective person saw in that game - the Hawks we're robbed 14 points by bad officials...
dmp said:Great avatar