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To: discostu

I'll give you that....but no team does everything right, such as making every 50+ yard FG. However, the Seahawks easily did do enough to win if their legitimate gains & scores were allowed to stand.

OTOH, the Stealers' level of play that day wasn't nearly good enough to win on their own without help. Which was why things degenerated into the sorry state of gimmie football we all witnessed. But maybe the Stealers could have won without the refs help. We will never know now.

Yeah, The Bus went out on top, albeit driving on a stolen license.


306 posted on 02/08/2006 9:48:26 AM PST by citizen (Yo W! Read my lips: No Amnistia by any name! And the White House has a fence around it!)
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To: citizen

But it's not a matter of doing everything right, it's a matter of just how close to everything Seattle did wrong. On their 1st three possessions they got into Steelers territory and near FG range, on two of them they were sacked out of FG range. Having three possessions getting close and only getting points on one is bad. Then late in the half they had those two consecutive TD passes caught out of bounds, that's 7 more points they left on the field, I won't hit them for the missed FG on that possession since they wouldn't have kicked it at all if either pass is caught inbounds. Then you've got the final possession with the horrid clock management.

Really what it boils down to for Seattle is 3rd downs. In the regular season Seattle tied with Pittsburgh for the 2rd fewest 3rd downs in the league at 12 a game, and tied for 13th in the league in conversion percentage at 29.6%. In the SB Seattle was 5 for 17 on 3rd downs. They convert a few more of these 3rd down and they get those FGs. No they easily did NOT do enough to win if their "legitimate" gains and scores stand. None of the no points drives I outlined above had ANY flags thrown against Seattle in the final set of down, they failed on those drives entirely on their own. And those drives gave them the potential for more points than their margin of defeat. They lost the game because they failed to finish drives.

The Steelers level of play was so-so. The big difference maker is on the drives when they had an opportunity to score they finished, and finished with TDs. Seattle couldn't stop the big plays, and couldn't score when Pitt put themselves on the ropes for he first 20 minutes. The Steelers got to the SB by scoring early, Seattle had a chance to do to Pitt what Pitt did to Indy and Denver, but they couldn't manage to get the final 10 yards on those drives to get the points. They lost.

Will do know the Steelers won without the refs "help". A most of the calls Seattle fans are complaining about were 100% correct, B Seattle failed to score on numerous drives where they had the opportunity and the refs threw no flags and made no remotely questionable spots. That's how the Steelers won, because Seattle lost.


307 posted on 02/08/2006 10:02:46 AM PST by discostu (a time when families gather together, don't talk, and watch football... good times)
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