Here We Go Steelers

[Dom Heffner]

How would you like the Steelers to have won it? What are they going to do go up to the refs and say their officiating is giving the Seahawks a raw deal?

I would have liked the officials to have been a non-factor. All the calls went Pittsburgh's way, so sorry if the win gets questioned.

I was sitting in a room in Tampa Florida where nobody cared about this game, and all they kept talking about was how bad the officiating was. That hold, regardless of when the flag was thrown was a joke. If that's holding, then everybody holds on every play. Even Madden said something, IIRC.


I mean, we read post after post from SteelSD talking about how bad the refs were in the Colts game, and all he can muster up here is that Hasselbeck put himself in that position by throwing a bad pass and a prior holding call made a second, lousy call legitimate.

This is absolutely amazing to me.

[SteelSD]

Originally Posted by Dom Heffner

I mean, we read post after post from SteelSD talking about how bad the refs were in the Colts game, and all he can muster up here is that Hasselbeck put himself in that position by throwing a bad pass and a prior holding call made a second, lousy call legitimate.

That's a complete misrepresentation of what I said and you know it.

Don't do that again.

[macro]

Originally Posted by deltachi8

Feel better yet, Sava?

Im getting akick out of it myself.

savafan is only pointing out that the rest of the nation sees it one way, and Steeler fans see it another. Deny it if you will, but the truth is the truth.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by Betterread

Please be aware of the level that the team you support plays on. Pittsburgh is the NFL champion. They beat no team from another country than the USA, not even in an exhibition. They are not world-class, by definition.
The world champions of football are Brazil, who won the 2002 world cup over Germany. The US competed well in that competition, and were represented by one Ohioan that I can think of - Brian McBride. He was not from Pittsburgh, he played for the Columbus Crew.

I think you're confused...we're talking about FOOTBALL, not soccer.

[SteelSD]

Originally Posted by macro

savafan is only pointing out that the rest of the nation sees it one way, and Steeler fans see it another. Deny it if you will, but the truth is the truth.

Well, considering that sava thinks Hines Ward pushed off on all of the 10 passes thrown his way and is using the espn.com boards to guage the "heartbeat" of America (which is like using the mlb.com Reds board to get an objective read on Adam Dunn), methinks we have a severely different definition of "truth".

But don't fret. Just remember- there's always next year. And I'll be rooting for the Bengals to win every single one of their preseason games.

[macro]

I listened to three different AM stations today in the car, albeit that one was ESPN Radio (others were Louisville and Nashville local broadcasts), and I heard no opinions that differ from those sava cited. It's not just sava, it's not just the ESPN boards, and it's not just Bengals fans. From what I can tell, every subjective source feels the same way. But I guess all those people are just wrong. They all just hate the Steelers.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by macro

I listened to three different AM stations today in the car, albeit that one was ESPN Radio (others were Louisville and Nashville local broadcasts), and I heard no opinions that differ from those sava cited. It's not just sava, it's not just the ESPN boards, and it's not just Bengals fans. From what I can tell, every subjective source feels the same way. But I guess all those people are just wrong. They all just hate the Steelers.

Come on...you know controversy sells papers. This "post-Super Bowl" period is one of the toughest for the national sports media, at least until the conference tournaments start up for college basketball. They're naturally going to take any excuse they can get to milk a few extra drops out of the NFL before the season comes to a close and the endless draft speculation begins.

The officiating in the game was poor -- hell, the officiating in the playoffs in general has been poor -- but officiating/umpiring/judging could always be better in sports. It's going to continue to BE poor until the NFL sets up more stringent paramaters on what constitutes various infractions, especially on the judgment calls such as holding and pass interferene, or puts more officials on the field to ensure that at least one official at all times has a clear view of the play. At least in this go around, there were no suspicious rules pulled seemingly out of the air a la Polamalu's "The INT that is not an INT" a couple weeks back or Brady's infamous tuck rule against Oakland.

In general, whining over officiating is crap. I'm an on-again-off-again member of the official Buccaneers BBS (about as quality as Reds.com), and the whining over there was absolutely unbearable following the playoff loss to Washington and Edell Shephard's dropped pass. Bucs fans can whine all they want about possession rules and catches, but it obscures the real issues, like poor offensive line blocking that led to two INTs on Simms and poor ball control that led to a fumble by Cadillac Williams. The bottom line is, teams determine outcomes of games by making plays. Seattle, even accounting for officiating, didn't make as many plays as Pittsburgh and they lost the Super Bowl because of it. There's nothing "tainted" about Pittsburgh's win -- they finished the game with more points than their opposition. Seattle had chances to score points that it left on the field with poor special teams play, poor clock management, and poor playcalling. Make a play.

The pity in all of this is that it is obscuring what should be a great moment for a great coach and human being in Bill Cowher, and giving a free pass to Mike Holmgren, who was (once again) outcoached in the Big Game. It's beyond moronic that they didn't run Shaun Alexander more than they did, and their clock management, as stated, was horrendous to end the 1st half. Last I checked, the officials didn't tell Hasselbeck to stand at the line for 20 seconds gesturing like he was suffering from some sort of psychosis while having a spare timeout and the clock ticking down.

[traderumor]

The supporters of the offensive PI are wayyyyyyyyyyy overstating the contact. I don't even think that would be a foul in basketball.

[savafan]

Originally Posted by macro

savafan is only pointing out that the rest of the nation sees it one way, and Steeler fans see it another. Deny it if you will, but the truth is the truth.

I'm dumbfounded over this macro. I'm not a Seahawk fan, or a Bengal fan for that matter. I had no vested interest in this game except to see a well played match up. The only people who can't seem to see what went on Sunday are Steeler fans. I'm happy for them that they got to see their team win a championship, but like someone else said, I'm sure even the Steeler players would probably have liked to have had it happen on the field and not by way of the officiating.

[savafan]

Originally Posted by SteelSD

Well, considering that sava thinks Hines Ward pushed off on all of the 10 passes thrown his way and is using the espn.com boards to guage the "heartbeat" of America (which is like using the mlb.com Reds board to get an objective read on Adam Dunn), methinks we have a severely different definition of "truth".

I never once sited the espn.com boards. I did site an article from espn.com, just like I sited articles from msn, slate, etc.

[GAC]

I still say that any team/coach that doesn't realize it's a gadget play when the QB hands off to Randle-El, and allows them to perfectly execute the play for a TD, deserves to lose. I mean - C'mon!

And to say that EVERY call went Pitt's way is simply playing fast and loose with the truth IMO.

I'm no fan of Pittsburgh either.... but I find this thread funny (and sad).

They were 7-5 at one point, and things were looking pretty dim for them. They run off 8 straight wins.. and 3 of them were away games during the post-season against teams that everyone predicted they would get their butts kicked.

Your predictions (or hopes) didnt come true.

Pittsburgh was just as much a victim of bad officiating as the rest (see Indy game) - give it a rest already.

[savafan]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

It's beyond moronic that they didn't run Shaun Alexander more than they did, and their clock management, as stated, was horrendous to end the 1st half. Last I checked, the officials didn't tell Hasselbeck to stand at the line for 20 seconds gesturing like he was suffering from some sort of psychosis while having a spare timeout and the clock ticking down.

Agreed, that was idiotic.

[deltachi8]

Originally Posted by macro

savafan is only pointing out that the rest of the nation sees it one way, and Steeler fans see it another. Deny it if you will, but the truth is the truth.

okey dokey...

::smiles politely::

[NJReds]

I realized this morning that the last three Sports Illustrated issues all featured the Steelers on the front cover:

Jan. 16 (Bettis)
Jan. 23 (Big Ben)
Jan. 30 (Bettis)

And obviously the next issue will feature the Steelers, too. (They can't put Bettis on again, can they?)

I wonder if any team has ever appeared on 4 consecutive issues of SI before? I assume Michael Jordan has pulled off what Bettis did (twice in three weeks.)

[traderumor]

Originally Posted by GAC

I still say that any team/coach that doesn't realize it's a gadget play when the QB hands off to Randle-El, and allows them to perfectly execute the play for a TD, deserves to lose. I mean - C'mon!

And to say that EVERY call went Pitt's way is simply playing fast and loose with the truth IMO.

I'm no fan of Pittsburgh either.... but I find this thread funny (and sad).

They were 7-5 at one point, and things were looking pretty dim for them. They run off 8 straight wins.. and 3 of them were away games during the post-season against teams that everyone predicted they would get their butts kicked.

Your predictions (or hopes) didnt come true.

Pittsburgh was just as much a victim of bad officiating as the rest (see Indy game) - give it a rest already.

Just to clarify, all anyone has argued is that there were 4 or 5 very important calls that were under the scrutiny of instant replay, whether challenged or not, and the replays showed the calls to be highly questionable, if not just flat out wrong. One was rightly overturned, the others were not reviewable. No one has argued that EVERY call went to the Steelers, but the close, game changing calls did. I see no conspiracy, just bad referereeing.