Let me first say that I'm not a Seahawks fan. I'm a Cowboys fan so I have no love for Seattle or any other NFC team. But this was the worst officiated game I can remember in a SB. This was arguably worse than the Patriots/Raiders game when the refs sodomized the Raiders in the closing minutes so that the Patriots could 'come back' and win. Seattle had one TD taken away (even the ESPN guys unaminously agreed that wasn't a penalty), they had a phantom holding call after a catch on the PITT 1 yrd line. And even on the one INT that Hassleack threw, they tacked on 15 yards when the SEA QB had the audacity to try to tackle the runner. I was half-expecting the MVP trophy to go to the back judge. If the PITT fans can come up with any plays where they think they were hosed, I'd like to know. But I can see at least 6 plays which the SEA fans could point to which where either drive killers or took points off the board.
This was really a shame because Seattle pretty much did what they wanted to do to Pittsburgh tonight and this should have been a 3 point game the entire time. Seattle made some just unbelievable unforced errors on top of it all like missing two field goals and throwing TD passes a yard out of bounds which could have made this game so lopsided that even a ref on the take couldn't have changed the outcome. If I were the Seahawks owner, I would be asking for the league office to publicly explain how exactly these calls where made. The league apologize to PITT for the blown INT in the Indy game (because PITT ultimately won and it was a no harm/bad call situation).p> It is very suspicious that everybody in the English speaking world (who doesn't live in Seattle) was backing the Steelers. And even with that the line was only 4 1/2 points. It just seemed that despite the Seahawks being clearly able to handle things on offense and defense and yet they still had the game called as though they were accidently successful. Roethlisberger had one big pass and it was a broken play. His big plays came on scrambles when the SEA secondary had him stymied (but props to him for his rushing). Hines (whom I like a lot) made the one big play in the passing game by bailing out that 3rd & 28. And the one single running play which actually worked was designed as a 3 yard dive which miraculously went for 78 yards.
If I'm a Pittsburgh fan, I'm thanking God and Pete Tagliabue right now. But Pittsburgh is a classy franchise and has some great people (other than Joey Porter who is talented but a neanderthal) and this couldn't have fallen into the laps of a better group of people. Enjoy.
Good thing I am completely neutral in this game..I don't hate or love either team..but the seahawks were so screwed in this game..yes..big ben did score his TD..but the penalties against the seahawks on their "first" td and the first and goal were so bogus..oh well..take what you can get..
I agree with you about the refs. I would say there were more than just one or two questionable to lousy calls that went against Seattle.
But you brought up Joey Porter. I have to think that his trash-talking did get into Jeramy Stevens' head. Stevens dropped 3 balls and missed another one that, I think, hit him in the back. And when he did catch that TD pass, he was extremely careful to not drop it and probably would have if he'd been hit.
I disagree with some of Holmgren's decisions, especially late in both the first and second half. Those long field goal tries weren't worth it to me. And punting on 4th and 8 when they should have gone for the first down was a bad call.
Yeah, the refs made it an uphill climb for the Seahawks, but I can't say that Seattle played a great game either.
I guess you didn't watch any of Pittsburgh's playoff games then. Even the NFL made an offical statement saying it was a bad call concerning Troy's interception. But then again, the Steelers played so good that they could overcome any bad calls. Did Seattle do that tonight?