Posted on 02/06/2006 8:53:10 AM PST by highlander_UW
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.
"You know, that's what happens when the world is against you," one Seahawk said after the 21-10 loss at Ford/Heinz Field. "No one wanted us to win. They wanted Jerome Bettis to win and go out a hero, and they got it."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"I don't think he scored," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said.
It was that kind of evening for the Seahawks, who represent a town where residents know all too well that when it rains, it pours. If having what seemed like 90 percent of the 68,200 in attendance waving Terrible Towels wasn't enough to make Seattle feel as though it was playing on the road, the officials called it as though the Seahawks actually were.
Pittsburgh capitalized on its opportunities. And guys like Bill Cowher, Ward, Dan Rooney and The Bus are all very deserving of a championship -- and it's nice to see them win one -- but it would have been better had it not happened like this. It's like the Seahawks said: Not taking anything away from the Steelers, but keep it real.
"We had a touchdown taken away from us, the first one we scored," said Hasselbeck, who was measured in his words but clear in his frustration, "and then we had the ball at the 1-yard line, they called a penalty on us. That was unfortunate."
"I thought they were offside [on the play Locklear was called for holding]," center Robbie Tobeck said. "I thought we had a free play on because they had two guys come across. You know, that's the game. In a game, there's situations you have to overcome, and all night long we didn't do a good job of overcoming those things, and that's something we've done all year."
In the offseason, 31 teams will be back at the drawing board, evaluating what they need to do to knock off the Steelers in the fall. After the postseason they just had, Mike Pereira and the NFL's crew of officials would be wise to take a long, hard look at themselves. It's a real shame when, on the game's biggest stage, the major players aren't players at all. We saw too much of the third team in Super Bowl XL and not enough Seahawks and Steelers.
Michael Smith is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
This entire game looked like something out of the pre-season. Pittsburgh didn't get a stinking first down for 19 minutes in a Super Bowl, then ends up winning by 11 points.
That game last night proved to me that the NFL is becoming like the NHL and the NBA: the regular season doesn't matter. The Steelers are 7-5 in November, sneak in as the sixth seed, then win the Super Bowl?
I still think that if Tony Dungee's son doesn't commit suicide, the Colts are the Super Bowl champs today.
"The whiners only remember the calls that went against them. In addition to those above, there was also a missed -- and blatant -- block in the back on the INT return."
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Well said. Thank you. I know how some of these Seattle fans and others feel. Some calls seem very arbitrary. I've seen it for 50+ years. But, Seattle simply was not that good last night. They had "alligator arms" all night long, and their receivers never "created space" for themselves on the sidelines. In short, they lost to a Steeler team that looked flat for about an entire half.
Seattle will be back again if they're good. They certainly play almost no one in the regular season.
Well, a great number of those losses can be attributed to Ben's injury. With a healthy QB, their only losses were to NE and Cincy (I don't count the Indy game, as Ben was quite rusty and really shouldn't have played that one).
P.S. It also proves that the #6 team in the AFC is still better than the #1 team in the NFC. ;)
5-of-17 on third downs doesn't even begin to approach "good."
IMHO it was a lousy game, which had too many bad calls, but the Steelers won. So, they get the kudos.
It just seems to me the Steelers played much better ball in all the play-off games up to the Superbowl.
When exactly did the Steelers get their first, first down?
Gee, you must have been watching the same game I was watching. Yes, Seahawks QB was not knocked down by contact, he slipped and was touched WHILE HE WAS UP, NOT AFTER HE WAS DOWN! That was a fumble recovery that was denied the Steelers by the officials.
On the fumbled pass by the Seahawks receiver that was ruled not a fumble, IT WAS A FUMBLE! The Steelers would have recovered if the OFFICIALS hadn't blown the whistle to stop the play.
But all the whiners say all the officiating went against the poor, unfortunate Seahawks, who would have won the game without the bad calls. Huh?
I think that the Superbowl committee of the football league has to approve that sort of thing. It was just so blatant and offensive. They made a joke of the Superbowl. What a shame. They robbed the fans of the enjoyment of the game and all respect for the winning team. It was like watching WWF.
not stopping the other 2 touchdowns. TE not catching 4 balls. WR not getting feet in bounds at goal line. not making 2 field goals......... blah blah, blah
how many of those where 3rd and ridiculously longs because the refs threw their terrible towels on the field like it was going out of style the play before.
Yes, really shocking the seahawks couldn't covert all those 3rd and 24 to go downs after bogus after bogus holding calls against them.
The holding penalty against Jerramy Stevens that called back a play that got the Seahawks down to the 1 yard line has to go down as one of the worst calls in the superbowl of all time. The ref is either blind, retarded, or wearing Steeler print underwear. Take your pick.
THAT is a FACT!
The ball looked like it was above the goal line (a TD) when Roethlisberger was a couple of feet above the surface. Then, as you say, he was pushed back before he landed. Even at the point that he landed, the ball was still possibly at the goal line. THAT is the truth of that play!
Officiating can drive you nuts, I know that. I'm still pissed off about:
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http://sportsforum.ws/showthread.html?t=11949
Troy Brown forward lateral?
I have to say, I thought it was legal, but then, I didn't watch it in frame-by-frame ... maybe the Patriots are just a team of destiny...
(snip)
From the Washington Post:
By Thomas Boswell Tuesday, January 29, 2002; Page D01
If you think the New England Patriots got the replay-reversal gift from heaven in their victory over the Raiders 10 days ago, then you only know the half of it.
On Sunday in Pittsburgh, the Patriots got an equally important replay-related break -- one few have noticed until this column.
The Patriots' game-winning touchdown came on an illegal forward lateral by Troy Brown. The blocked-field goal return for a touchdown should have been called back but it stayed on the scoreboard. And the Pats, the Replay Team of Destiny, are in the Super Bowl. One week, they win on a Snow Job, 16-13. Now, they steal one from the Steelers, 24-17.
As an added twist of perverse fate, the Steelers had already used both of their allotted "challenges" successfully and could not have disputed the ruling on the field if they desired.
If you want one more piece of evidence that the NFL's replay system -- and perhaps use of replay itself -- is a disaster, there you have it. A team can only keep the zebras from giving them the shaft twice in one game. Beyond that, you're just out of luck. And, like the Steelers, perhaps out of the Super Bowl.
Of course not. I noticed a few bad calls. The first being early on when a long pass to Jerramy Stevens was caught and then subsequently fumbled after he was hit. They whistled it incomplete but that was an obviously ridiculous call and both Al Michaels and John Madden didn't say a word. The majority of the questionable calls though, worked in the Steelers' favor.
One of the things I have learned through years of watching sports though is that if you have fans of one team who are the only ones not complaining, it may not be just whining on behalf of the opposing team. You have fans of 32 teams watching the Super Bowl. If fans of 31 teams are complaining of bad officiating in a game between just two teams, odds are that the officating was bad and the majority of those calls favored one of those two teams.
I also found it interesting that the refs picked up the flag on the apparent helmet to helmet contact on a pass play against the Seahawks defense (Bouleware, I think, but it was over-ruled by another official) but they didn't pick up the flag on the "low block" call against Hasselbeck for making the tackle on the interception.
Bottom line is that the Steelers won this year's Super Bowl because they made more plays then the Seahawks. But I think both teams used up their 'A' game just getting to the Super Bowl. Glaring mistakes on the offiating crew just compounded the frustration of football fans who wanted to see a good game between the two best teams in their respective conferences.
Read post 108 and then tell me how all the bad calls went against the Seahawks. Taking two fumble recoveries from a team is major damage.
But you still won't get it, no doubt of that. You just can't stand that the Steelers won, can you?
LOL. Maybe not!
That is a great article by Boswell.
LOL!!!!!
How sad. Boo-hoo.
I remember the play but I doubt it would have been overturned. It was too damn close.
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