Posted on 02/06/2006 6:50:28 AM PST by RedBloodedAmerican
This is the space where I get to crow about the frightening precision of my Super Bowl prediction.
Where I get to remind everyone that I guaranteed the Steelers would win the title after they beat the Colts. That they were the only championship-caliber team among the final four. That they would dismantle the Broncos in Denver and waylay whomever the NFC sent at them.
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I've never felt so empty being right. I feel dirty. I wish I'd been wrong. The Steelers did not deserve to win this game. They were not the better team. O'Connor was right. Seattle was the better team.
So, Paul Tagliabue, how does a team lose when it outgains an opponent by 57 yards, controls time of possession and wins the turnover battle?
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Every single questionable, marginal or outright bad call went against the Seahawks....
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.foxsports.com ...
The line of the plane is not the side closest to the end zone – it is the side closest to the playing field.
Officiating in college hoops has always been suspect. Back in the '80's, the University of Memphis, (then Memphis State University), had one of the best college centers in Keith Lee. they also had another game breaker in Bobby Parks. In the NCAA tournament, in Lee's senior year, the Memphis State tigers played the LSU Tigers. Memphis State was maintaining slight control of the game in the first half. In the second half that all changed. I am not lying when I say this, but EVERY trip down court for Memphis State was met with a foul. Lee had one foul on him in the first half. The refs sent him to the bench early in the second half. He had fouled out. The refs then went after Parks. Park was saddled with four for most of the second half end eventually fouled out. All the while LSU gathered much needed steam and beat MSU.
So, to me, officiating has always been suspect. Hoops, football, whatever. And the he!! of it is is that there's no real way on the horizon to change it.
Not sure which post your referencing.
"maybe you should lay off the vision distorting illicit medications...eh?"
NEVER!
BTW I was watching the game on my 30" widescreen high def TV, not some 19" Magnetbox made in 1996. I can't watch da foosball without high def anymore. It's amazing.
There was a game between the Giants and Cowboys about 10-15 years ago in which the officials mistakenly awarded the Giants a safety on a kickoff that had been fumbled into the end zone and downed by the Dallas kick returner. The on-field officials got the call wrong, and yet it was upheld after review in the officials' box. The entire crew of replay officials from that game was fired before the following weekend.
"The Steeler defender was also clutching Jackson as well."
Now you are just being delusional.
Wasn't he a quarterback back in college?
The guy who called the interception by the Steelers in the Colt's game was a high school principal. There was a story about it, because his house was vandalized after the game. They weren't sure if it was students or Steelers fans.
That's a good point, but we will never know now.
Boy, you musta had Super High-Def TV at your place. Everyone at our place watching on High-Def all agreed that the QBs arm all but obscured the view of the ball, and we ALL also agreed that his elbow was over, but the ball was in his gut, about 6-12 inches BEHIND the elbow.
To be fair, though, the concensus was that whatever they called on the field would ultimately stand, because there seemed no replay angle that was definitive one way or the other.
Note that last sentence: The contact by the defense player must be the cause of the runner going down. Hasslebeck was already going down before the incidental contact and was no longer in contact with the defnder when he hit the ground. Unless this is an outdated version of the rule, he was not down by contact when he hit the ground and subsequently fumbled. The original call of a fumble recovered by Pittsburgh should have stood.
There was a game between the Giants and Cowboys about 10-15 years ago in which the officials mistakenly awarded the Giants a safety on a kickoff that had been fumbled into the end zone and downed by the Dallas kick returner. The on-field officials got the call wrong, and yet it was upheld after review in the officials' box. The entire crew of replay officials from that game was fired before the following weekend.
That's good, and they *should* have been fired. However, it has the effect of replacing them with even *less* experienced officials.
I know where the line of the plane is - as someone just pointed out to you - I think that was his elbow and shirt you saw, not the ball. That being said, I agree it was not conclusive during the replay and therefore the call stands.
One point also, the game was very sloppy. Neither side played well, and sloppy games are tougher to officiate. I just thought the officiating was even worse than the game play.
Of course, that contact was not the cause - but didn't someone above point out the "bad" call ended up worse for Seattle?
I have 2 calls that I see that didn't make much sense. Only one of them really changed an outcome of the game.
The 1st call that didn't make any sense but didn't really change anything was the "illegal block" on the QB of the Seahawks. HE WAS PLAYING FRIKIN DEFENSE!! He wasn't blocking anyone.
The 2nd call was the TD scored by the Pittsburgh QB. They couldn't reverse it. There was nothing there to reverse it on. However, had they called him down at the 1 inch line, I don't think they would have reversed that either.
The Offensive PI in the endzone was textbook.
The holding call on Seattle when they got down to the 1 was outright wrong, however, I think they got the number wrong. There WAS holding in the middle of the line. If the number was correct, it's wrong, but if it wasn't, then there's a chance it was right on the money.
So I guess that's 3 calls. So sue me. It doesn't really matter, the game sucked, the entertainment sucked, and there weren't NEARLY enough cheerleader shots.
I think that "1/16 of the ball" was his elbow and shirt - the problem on replay was you could NOT see where the ball was - therefore, the call stands.
Two different situations. The one I'm referring to was a play where Pittsbugh was (correctly) ruled to have recovered a Hasslebeck fumble, and then the play was (incorrectly) overturned on replay because of a bad "down by contact" call.
The other case was where a receiver caught and then fumbled a ball that was ruled incomplete (no chance for review). While some may say that because the ball eventually went out of bounds, this actually went against Seattle, the only reason the ball was let go out of bounds was that players pulled up when they heard the whistle.
That's what I thought : )
Actually, the non-holding holding penalty on the pass to the 2 yard line was worse. The "blocking below the waist" intercepion tackle was part of the blown holding call's aftermath, and Pittsburgh was only up 4 at that point.
The calls - all of the 5 big ones - changed the complexion of the game. The Roethlesberger (sp?) TD wasn't overturned because there wasn't enough evidence on tape, IMO. The line judge's reactions were not considered (he was running in to spot the ball, then signalled TD after big Ben moved it).
The end zone interference call was ticky-tack, and counter to most of the rest of the game's methodology. Inconsistent.
The holding penalty (that wasn't) speaks for itself. Instead of 1st and goal on the 2, it's second (I think) and 20.
The Hasselback tackling below the waist penalty was beyond ridiculous, and certainly made the game-clinching TD easier (although there is nothing but conjecture regarding the Steelers' ability to head down the field at that point). But - because of the previous phantom holding call - that pass should never have been thrown.
The Hasselback fumble was handled correctly, IMO. The ruling on the field was overturned because of incontrovertible evidence.
Lastly, I am a Jets fan. I have been since Richard Todd was their quarterback. I wish the big game this year had been super, though. I hate to see the stripes affect the outcome of a game so heavily - and with such HUGE swings of momentum - as we did yesterday.
In this big game, everyone loses.
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