Pretty much agree with you. My Hawks had a few opportunities to win, and should have caught the ball a couple of times. The time management toward the end of the 1st half was bad. I still don't know what was running through their heads, and I'm not even sure what the Steelers were thinking calling a timeout and saving the Hawks butt a few seconds on that clock either.
But before starting this game I stated I wanted a GOOD CLEAN TIGHT game regardless of outcome. We didn't get that. Oh, we hade a semi tight game most ways through but good? Clean? Nope.
We had some terrible calls, numerous questionable penalties and that one TD the Steelers, uh-uh, did not get.
Far as I'm concerned the Steelers won it because they played slightly less bad then we did toward the end, because we had our opportunities despite bad ref calls. It's part of football unfortunately. You have to battle through even bad calls from time to time, and they didn't do it. I'm not going to be the sort that denies the victories to the Steelers just because of bad calls. But I'm giving the Steelers only a 3 point victory. I just don't acknowledge that one TD.
Congrats to the Steelers. Bad game on both sides but you guys managed to battle through that and win. So the victory is deserved on that basis.
I expect my Hawks to use this as motivation to put a beating on everyone next year and get back to the SB and win though.
absolutely correct
Re: the Seahawks not making maximum use of the seven seconds left at the end of the first half: I'm no football expert, but the coach's action mystified me, it struck me as something you'd see in a high school game, totally yahoo. But at the same time, as a Steeler fan, I said, Whew! Thank goodness Stupid messed himself out of some points, so much the better for us Steelers!