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?
snip
Every single questionable, marginal or outright bad call went against the Seahawks....
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.foxsports.com ...
"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?"
Errr.... the other one scores more points??
I agree the officiating sucked. There were a couple of real boners, but Pittsburgh still won decisively. The 2nd half wasn't even close.
You don't get points for outgaining your opponent, time of possession, and turnovers. Seattle couldn't put the ball in the endzone or kick a long field goal or move the ball in the red zone. That's how you win the statistics and lose the game.
i agree, Super Fraud XL
You don't win on stats, you win on points, but the officiating in the playoffs and in the SuperBowl should be the best.
I have only seen worse officiating in the ACC.
Sure they did and could and the refs kept taking it away from them. Offensive interference, and Holding.
I didn't have a "horse" in this race, but I told my husband the officiating was reminding me of the scoring of a boxing match...more than a little suspect.
Let us not forget that the Seattle receivers appeared to be wearing boxing gloves and blind folds for much of the game.
Read through the article - I think bad calls made the difference here.
It's a lot like basketball where the refs blow their whistles for every little touch of air that looks like some incidental contact may have occured. There should be rules that forbid the refs from making calls that are the result of incidental contact of a play and let them play!
No doubt...the worst officiated game I have ever watched. Not even instant replay was allowed to overturn bad calls....yeah, Rothlisberger really put that ball in the end zone all right, Not!
You can't say even if the calls didn't go against Seattle, that Seattle would have won the game. Pittsburgh most likely would have done things differently, and perhaps still would have found a way to win the game. But we'll never know. But yes, the NFL botched this big time. Years from now, all that will be remembered about XL, is not Parker's TD run, but the bad officiating.
"Read through the article - I think bad calls made the difference here."
A 14 point swing of difference ... but let's not be picky.
That's the one call I think they actually did get right. The ball ever so briefly crossed the plane. At least there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the call. However, the offensive interference and "phantom" holding calls were atrocious, and you can't review those calls. And the timing of those calls couldn't have been worse.
The MVP award should go to the Refs.
The Refs determined the end result.
In so many ways, the Refs were terrible.
Exactly. Bottom line, the Steelers ended up with more points, and that's the only stat that matters - not yards, QB rating or anything else. I think the offensive pass interference call that cancelled out the Seattle TD was erroneous, but replays seemed to vindicate the refs on the other questionable ones. The game wasn't decided on a penalty or two - the Steelers outplayed the Hawks when it mattered.
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