FoxSports: Seattle was the better team...
 

Refs were far from super in this one

Kevin Hench / FOXSports.com

This is the space where I get to crow about the frightening precision of my Super Bowl prediction.

Where I get to remind everyone that I guaranteed the Steelers would win the title after they beat the Colts. That they were the only championship-caliber team among the final four. That they would dismantle the Broncos in Denver and waylay whomever the NFC sent at them. This is the space where I get to wag a finger at my colleague Ian O'Connor, with whom I'd waged a dueling columns battle of opposing prognostication. He picked the Seahawks and made a very strong case for them.

This is the space where I get to say, I told ya so. But I won't. I can't.

I've never felt so empty being right. I feel dirty. I wish I'd been wrong. The Steelers did not deserve to win this game. They were not the better team. O'Connor was right. Seattle was the better team.

So, Paul Tagliabue, how does a team lose when it outgains an opponent by 57 yards, controls time of possession and wins the turnover battle?

Like a crazed CIA analyst running through the halls of Langley screaming into open offices about some impending calamity, I've been shrieking hysterically about the terrible officiating in the NFL and warning that some day the brutal calls were going to affect the outcome of the Super Bowl.

That some day was Sunday.

Every single questionable, marginal or outright bad call went against the Seahawks.

Their first three big plays were all wiped out by penalty calls. On their second drive, Darrell Jackson caught an 18-yard pass on 3rd-and-6 that would have given Seattle a first down at the 23. But Chris Gray was called for holding James Farrior. When Farrior pushed upfield, Gray did hook him with his right arm, and Farrior went down. When referee Bill Levy flagged Gray, it was a bad omen for the Seahawks. Instead of being on the edge of the red zone, they came away without any points.

On their third drive, the Seahawks looked to take a 7-0 lead when Jackson separated from Chris Hope in the end zone and Matt Hasselbeck delivered a perfect strike to his outside shoulder. The back judge looked uncertain —sound familiar, Patriots fans? — then finally jerked his flag out and called offensive pass interference to wipe out the touchdown. The replay showed receiver and defender hand-fighting with Jackson getting the slightest push into Hope's chest before turning to catch the ball. ABC's John Madden thought the call was dubious. FOX analyst and all-time great offensive lineman Brian Baldinger had no doubts, calling it "absolutely horrendous" on his FOXSports.com Super Bowl Instant Analysis. ESPN's Steve Young and Michael Irvin also had no uncertainty, dismissing the call as ticky-tack and insisting the Seahawks got robbed of a TD.

Then came a huge call on the first play of the second quarter. Peter Warrick ripped off a 33-yard punt return to give Seattle the ball at the Steelers 46. But Etric Pruitt was called for holding. How clear was it? Well, Madden thought the call was for Pruitt holding the gunner at the beginning of the play. It wasn't. The flag came in during the runback and it looked pretty minor. Another example of an official searching to make a call.

So despite totally dominating the first 20 minutes of the game, the Seahawks led only 3-0.

Then came Pittsbugh's first touchdown. Whether you think Roethlisberger broke the plane of the goal line seems to depend on which team you were rooting for. The odd part was the line judge seemed to have determined that Big Ben had come up short as he ran in from the sideline. Since Roethlisberger had been pushed back well short of the goal line I don't know what he could have seen as he got closer to the pile that would have made him change his mind. But up went the arms. Had Roethlisberger been ruled short of the plane, that call would no doubt have stood too. But you figure the Black and Gold would have pounded it in from the two-inch line on fourth down so there's not that much here for Seattle fans to complain about except for the continuing storyline that every single call was going the Steelers' way. And the worst was yet to come.

The Seahawks were on the verge of taking a 17-14 lead early in the fourth quarter when officiating disaster struck. Hasselbeck had drilled a pass down the seam to Jerramy Stevens to set up first-and-goal at the one when suddenly Levy appeared in the middle of the screen to call the play back on account of holding on Sean Locklear. No less a source than newly-minted Hall of Famer John Madden came right out and said it was a bad call. This penalty was beyond ticky-tack. Baldinger called it "another terrible call" and added that the Steelers were offsides on the play. It was yet another official searching for a call, desperate to throw his flag, yearning to impact the action. Why, why, oh, why? That's 14 points the officials simply took away from the Seahawks. Incredible.

After a sack, Hasselbeck threw a pick and then was penalized 15 yards for making the tackle. I'm not kidding. The same thing happened in the Indy-Pittsburgh game in the regular season. It's like the officials become so discombobulated during the change of possession that they just randomly start throwing flags. The call was that Hasselbeck had thrown an illegal block below the waist on the return. Never mind that Hasselbeck wasn't trying to block anybody and did, in fact, make the tackle. Just another terrible call that cannot be reviewed in Paul Tagliabue's NFL.

The Steelers took quick advantage of their enhanced field position and just like that it was 21-10 Pittsburgh when it should have been 17-14 Seattle.
But the stripes weren't done.

First, they blew a fumble call on the field — of course against Seattle — before overturning it after replay. Then, with the Steelers trying to run out the clock, Levy granted Roethlisberger a timeout, even though the play clock clearly read zero before the quarterback signaled for time. It ended up being the final bad call in Seattle's coffin. As Madden and Al Michaels watched the replay they shared a laugh about a similar bad non-call in an earlier playoff game between the Bears and Panthers. This is what it has come to:

Announcers comparing the bad calls happening before them to the bad calls from earlier rounds of the playoffs. Is this really what the NFL wants?

http://msn.foxsports.com/id/5310196_36_2.jpg
Did the refs get this Ben Roethlisberger touchdown call right? It's certainly up for debate. (Elaine Thompson / Associated Press)

With Cris Collinsworth lobbying for pass interference to be eligible for review on Inside the NFL after New England got jobbed in Denver; Joey Porter inveighing against the league after the game in Indy; Young and Irvin railing at halftime of the Super Bowl; Baldinger being spot-on with his Instant Analysis critique of the officials; and Madden and Michaels wondering aloud about the officiating during the game ... is anybody in the league office listening?

Or can we pretty much count on next year's playoffs being dominated by the officials too?

Was that Mike Holmgren or Mike Martz?

The one area where most people agreed Seattle might have an edge was on the sidelines. Mike Holmgren was supposed to be a better game coach than Bill Cowher. But a funny thing happened to Holmgren at the end of the first half (and again at the end of the game): he became Mike Martz. Not once, but twice, Holmgren basically ran the clock out on himself.

One other decision Holmgren made should haunt him. After Mack Strong did a shameful job of not stretching out for a first down — on a tackle by a cornerback no less — the Seahawks faced 4th-and-inches at their own 26 with a 3-0 lead in the second quarter. The situation reminded me of when Bill Belichick went for it in a similar situation against the Colts in the playoffs three years ago, made it and sent a statement. Despite having an MVP tailback who was 16-for-16 on 3rd-and-1 this season, Holmgren went the safe route and punted. The Steelers scored and Seattle never led again.

Darrell Jackson, what might have been

After tying a Super Bowl record with five catches in the first quarter, Darrell Jackson was shut out. But, oh, what might have been. If not for a holding call, a marginal offensive pass interference penalty and a momentary lapse of knowing where he was on the field, Darrell Jackson could have had eight catches in the first half for 124 yards and two touchdowns.

As it turned out, his five catches for 50 yards will be easily forgotten.

Joey Porter vs. Jerramy Stevens

Joey Porter was pretty invisible. Jerramy Stevens wished he was. Despite scoring a touchdown, he had three huge drops, two of which were drive killers when the Seahawks were marching deep in Steelers territory. Porter may have had only three tackles and no sacks, but the "soft" label he hung on Stevens sure seemed to fit as the 6-foot-7 tight end short-armed several passes and seemed to be hearing footsteps all night.

Kevin Hench is supervising producer of The Sports List on Fox Sports Net.


http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5310192

The refs may have been much less then stellar, but I'm still glad the Steelers won.

The chiefs statistically dominated several teams this year & managed to loose.

Yes there were some bad calls against the hawks, but overall The seahawks failed to execute, failed to get the ball in the endzone, and failed to stop the steelers.

The Seahawks punted 6 times, turned the ball over on downs, missed 2 field goal attempts, and had an interception.....They had chances to score, but they failed. I hate it when people whine about bad calls. When you have a bad call against you, you must realize the importance of executing on your next oppurtunity, and get the ball in the endzone.

I'm sure taking away a play that would have surely made it 17-14 in the 4th quarter had no impact.......while missing a Steeler penalty on the same play.

It's rare to see that many calls blown in a game towards just one team, singling them out almost in a way. I wanted the Steelers to win regardless, but the refs really did hand this game to the black and gold.

If I'm not mistaken, doesn't Bill Levy ref our games in Denver almost every season it seems like? Not saying that has anything to do with us getting our asses kicked up there year after year, but it certainly doesn't help us one bit, you know considering when we do go up there it always seems that we have 10+ penalties for 100 somethin yards as opposed to the Broncos having 1-2 penalites all game.

What did Seattle do to warrant winning the game? The Steelers made 3 big plays(Ben scrambling and hitting Hines on 3rd and long, Parker's run, and Randle El's pass), while Seattle needed a huge miscue by Pittsburgh just to remain in the game. I would say Seattle outplayed Pitt in the first half, but Pitt proved to be the better team in the 2nd half.

Well it's hard to be remembered for making big plays when the ones you made were magically taken away.......

The push off by DJax was it. And while I did think it was ticky tack, he did push off to gain separation. It wasn't a completely bogus call.

The Hawks failed to do what they needed to do to win.
Blame that on the refs if it makes you feel better.

It is meaningless to try to anayze a game by saying if a certain penalty didn't happen then the score would have been more in favor of your favorite team.

Heres an IF for you... IF the score was closer the steelers would not have run the ball on 8 out of 9 plays on their final drive, and would called plays primarily to score instead of plays designed primarily to run out the clock.

That holding call on the RT was huge. Biggest play of the game probably. Otherwise Seattle scores, takes the lead, has all the momentum late in the game.

"The back judge looked uncertain —sound familiar, Patriots fans? — then finally jerked his flag out and called offensive pass interference to wipe out the touchdown."

Maybe it's just me but it certainly looked like he went to pull that flag immediately but missed it and it took him a couple seconds to find it....but maybe that's just me.

While the officiating seemed a little iffy (to say the least) today... his has been going on all year. Granted, it is the Super Bowl, people should be used to it. Happened in the pre- and regular season, happened in the playoffs, happened in the big ship. Why is everyone so suprised??

I've seen them throw flags later than that.

Oh I completely agree...I just felt like this one wasn't a case of complaining enough to get the call. He was reaching for the flag the whole time.

Yeah.. I got your point, BUT
Even if it was complaining ... it worked and it's worked BEFORE.

Good teams usually overcome bad calls. The Steelers did it twice in Indy. The horrible non-call on the pass interference and the replay call on Troy P.
It seemed the refs wanted to hand the game to Indy, but Pittburgh outplayed the officials mistakes...

Understandable, it certainly has.

I wouldn't call fumbling the ball and then benefitting from Vanderjagt's choke job overcoming the bad calls. New England's pretty dang good, but couldn't overcome the officials in Denver. You cannot win unless the officials allow it, period. They could negate any play you make with a phantom holding penalty if they're so inclined.

I came into this game wanting the Steelers to win, after meeting so many classy Steelers fans in Denver. But it was hard to root for them after it was clear that the refs were only going to call Seahawk penalties and ignore Steeler penalties.

I don't feel good about this Superbowl at all. I'll always carry an asterick in my own head about this Superbowl. Steelers fans will crow, but I'm always going to discount this one and not let them live it down.

"Yeah, it was a nice win. I really think you guys would have lost that one if the refs didn't get in the way. But it was a nice run anyway. Good luck next season."

I guess there is a first time for everything. ROFL

I can't believe I agree with TJ.

The people that got robbed in this game were the fans. Officiated fairly, it's an exciting game tht comes down to the wire. Instead, after the catch at the one is taken away and Hasselback gets flagged for making the tackle after the desparation pass that's picked on third down, the game was over and it was snooze fest after that.

The attitude of "I hate it when people whine about the refs" is why the NFL can get away with this bullshit year after year. The officiating throughout the season was horrible and it came to a head in the Super Bowl. It's really time to do something.

The game sucked and the refs were criminally bad.

And to top it off, the Stones played at halftime.

what a waste...

"Every single questionable, marginal or outright bad call went against the Seahawks"

Worst officiating in a SB that I can ever remember.

It's not just you. I'm not into conspiracy theories regarding the NFL but I do believe they have a preference for a certain team winning. It was clear last night that Seattle was NOT the preferred team.

The two penalties, both questionable, were HUGE calls that impacted scoring opportunities. With the addition of the non-touchdown for Pitt, the :shake: Stealers win.

I looked at my buddies at one point in the game and said matter of factly "the NFL wants the Steelers to win this game".

I'm not a black helicopter type in general, and especially not with the NFL. And maybe it wasn't anything as devious as an NFL plot. But the officiating was decidedly one sided in that game, and the poor calls almost exclusively hurt Seattle. I don't think it's unreasonable to say the Seahawks would have had a lot better chance of winning if the game had been called equally.

The sad thing is, the refs have been blowing it all throughout the play-offs. They have to realize that the players elevate their play and take the game to new speeds, and the refs have to be capable of elevating their performance to match.

Yep I agree.

"The Seahawks were on the verge of taking a 17-14 lead early in the fourth quarter when officiating disaster struck. Hasselbeck had drilled a pass down the seam to Jerramy Stevens to set up first-and-goal at the one when suddenly Levy appeared in the middle of the screen to call the play back on account of holding on Sean Locklear. No less a source than newly-minted Hall of Famer John Madden came right out and said it was a bad call. This penalty was beyond ticky-tack. Baldinger called it "another terrible call" and added that the Steelers were offsides on the play."

I'm glad I'm not the only person who thought the steelers were offsite. It was pretty clear...

DT

Change some names and descriptions of specific plays and you could probably say similar things about every game this year.

The officials suck. They get calls wrong all the time in favor of and against every team.

Look how many games might have turned out differently for the Chiefs if all the calls had been made correctly. And it goes both ways.

While I agree there were some really, really lousy calls, I gotta say I've seen it pretty much every game I've watched this year. Maybe the cameras are getting better at catching the bad calls or maybe the officiating is just slowly getting worse and worse - I don't know.

But yesterday's game was just like all the rest this year, full of bad calls.

I don't think the Seahawks loss can be 100% blamed on the officials. They caused some of their own problems. Allowing Randle El to make that throw, having Lin Elliot kick for them, crappy clock management.....I think the Steelers win this one even if the bad calls weren't made, but I guess we'll never know for sure.

When does training camp start???

You can sell a lot more merchandise if an east coast team wins, than if a small market in a distant outpost wins.

I think what bothers me most is that this is the Super Bowl officiating squad. They earned the right to call this game through a process of performance evaluation.

This is supposedly the BEST crew.

That is frightening.

Of course the NFL wanted the Steelers to win. One for the thumb; Bettis retiring after a Hall of Fame career in his hometown; Cowher solidifying his position as a HoF coach; on and on.

The refs should give their paychecks to charity. There was a debate on another thread about the pass interference on D. Jackson, and I thought it was a crap call. How many times do you see that call on a touchdown pass? And if Jackson was Terrell Owens, that TD stands. Not to mention the personal foul Hasselbeck picked up for tackling Ike Taylor, and Jackson being ruled out of bounds on another TD pass when he clearly kicked the pylon. Horrible.

However, all of that being said, Seattle blew it. Two missed field goals and numerous dropped passes did them in.

Matt Hasselbeck is this years version of Jake Delhomme from a couple of years ago.

I would never (prior to this years playoffs) think there is a conspiracy in the NFL to favor a certain team over another (and I highly doubt most conspiracies by nature) but while watching the Indy Vs Pitt. playoff game I think most of would agree it seemed as though NFL was trying their best to lean the odds in favor of Indy and Pittsburgh was able to overcome those odds. I was not rooting for either team but after watching last nights game I will always feel that the NFL leaned the odds in Pittsburgh’s favor and Seattle was unable to overcome them as Pittsburgh did earlier against Indy.

It is a sad day for me to be an NFL fan that I will now think one way or another instead of letting the players play the NFL will attempt to put a "storybook" scenario to certain games. Somehow I feel like I did when I was a kid and wrestling finally came out and admitted it was just a planned outcome and now I realize that I may someday in my lifetime see the NFL as "Sports Entertainment".

[QUOTE=arc]I can't believe I agree with TJ.

Instead, after the catch at the one is taken away and Hasselback gets flagged for making the tackle after the desparation pass that's picked on third down, the game was over and it was snooze fest after that.


This is my take on the Hasselback block penalty. After watching it several times you can clearly see he was attempting to take out the lead blocker. The blocker kind of jumped to the side a little bit to keep his legs from getting cut. Hasselback just got lucky by making the tackle. He was attempting to take out the lead blocker by his legs which is illegal. That is why the flag got thrown.

Maybe THIS time the call had farther reaching implications like "THE SUPERBOWL" ... But I have watched TonyG get this call against him time and time again and defenders can maul him up one side of the field and down the other but one little pushoff from TonyG and he gets the same flag.

I CANNOT feel sorry for anyone getting flagged for that. Sorry I have seen our team get called for it as well.

If the Seahawks would have made a few more plays this point may have been moot. IMO

Steelers were getting hosed pretty good in the playoffs by bad officiating at INDY but they still found a way to win. nuff said.

Maybe the officiating wasn't equal both ways but how many times have we as Chiefs fans seen the same thing happen to US?

.

I'm actually quite shocked - while watching the game I didn't think the officiating was that bad.

Sure the OPI on Seattle was a tad tickytac (the official was not undecided though - he waited to see if the receiver caught the ball). OPI was also called on Pitt at another point in the game and I thought it was just as tickytac.

Ben did cross the LOS on his touchdown. Remember, all that has to happen for a touchdown is for the nose of the ball to pass the front of the goalline. It did that much, even if it didn't completely cross it.

Bob Dole is pretty sure he remembers an "illegal block" personal foul call on an interception tackle going against KC in the recent past.

It doesnt matter if he kicked the pylon or not. He had never established himself in bounds. Touching the pylon only comes into play when you already have possesion. He clearly had one foot down and the other out of bounds. Another thing if Jackson's push off wasnt right in front of the official no it wouldnt have been called. But the rules say he can not extend his arm. He CLEARLY extended his arm to get seperation. When you do something like that right in front of the official its going to get called. The ref was trying to get the flag out immediately just couldnt find it. Of course fox sports didnt want to see that. Another thing no one wants to talk about Hasselback's fumble? Are you kidding me he got touched by a finger nail before he went down. He fumbled the football. Steelers ball. Seattle had a ton of chances to score but couldnt put it in time after time. Dropped balls and their defense giving up the big play lost them the game, not the officials.

Odd that you justify the push off and Jackson being out of bounds as the letter of the law, then want to overlook the tackle on Hasselbeck because it was "only a fingernail". A fingernail is all it takes.

I can't believe that play wasn't reviewed either, it was close enough that in a game of this magnitude it should have had a closer look.

The calls were definitely slanted toward Pittsburgh.

Seattle still had a chance to win and didn't, but if they don't take the TD off the board or call the invisible holding penalty, the game would have been a lot different.

So you think that fingernail tackled him? Just because I touch you and you run 3 or 4 yards dive and fumble doesnt mean your down by contact.

I believe the call was made in accordance with the rule.

Being touched by your opponent on your way to the ground consitutes a tackle in the NFL rule book. You can debate the way the rule is written, but the call was accurate.

You are right. I was just wanting to throw that into the debate of "ticky tacky" calls that people are mad about. I will say I cant see how a corner goes up with a reciever battles for a ball picks it off and falls down then gets back up and runs. By the rule book he was touched so he should also be down, but ive seen that scenario happen many times where he was not called down by contact.

I thought the NFL was better than that, but that's what it's looking like.

I missed the second hold call and the out-of bouncds play, so I can't offer opinions on those.

I thought the offensive pass interference call was absolutely correct. the fact that it frequently isn't called doesn't change the fact that the receiver pusshed off. Not only did the receiver extend his arm with his hand on the defenders body, but the defender went from leaning forward toward the receiver to leaning backward with his weight on his heals, away from the receiver. The writer points out all of the people that thought it was a bad call. Every one of thm except Madden was an offensive player. I'd like to get the opinion of a defensive back.

The first holding call was correct as well. The RT hooked his arm around the throat of the defender and pulled him backwards in a classic bulldog maneuver. Can't do that.

The fumble call would have been wasy to miss by an official depending on where was standing. On one replay from the hasselbeck's left I said no way he was touched. Fumble. From the other angle, he was clearly swiped going down. Down by contact. The right call was made. Whether or not the original call was a bad call or just wrong depends on where the ifficial was standing. Anyone catch where he was at?

How is Pittsburgh "east coast"? They're 6 hours from the Atlantic.

I enjoyed the game. Stevens sure is lucky the refs sucked or the finger would be pointed where it belongs - at him - despite his TD reception.

Pittsburgh isn't 'east coast' but they are a 'storied franchise' of the NFL. That alone gives them a much greater fan base all over the country, which translates well when hocking NFL material. All the fairweather fans now in their 40's and 50's who grew up 'steeler fans' (similiar to the cowboy and 49er fans of my generation) now have a reason to go out and buy another steeler jersey and or sweatshirt.

As a fan of Mizzou football, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Chiefs, I feel I am well-versed in pointing out instances when officials jobbed the other team :D

In fact, last night was so bad, it reminded me of when Vince McMahon screwed Bret Hart out of the WWF title by having Earl Hebner ring the bell when Hart never submitted (the Montreal Screwjob...yes it's sad to say I made that comparision).

BFD. Spokane (in eastern Washington) is six hours from Seattle. Would you consider it on the West Coast?

Besides, from our point of view, anything east of the Mississippi is "east coast". :p

I thought the push off in the end zone was a fair call, does it always get called, no, should it, hell yes. I wasn't rooting for either team to win, so my bias is at an all time low. Watching in HD damn close to the TV made it more then obvious that Ben's dive the ball did go over the goal line, maybe by a full centimeter, but it was obvious that it was a TD. The holding by Pruiit was also obvious he pulled the guys shirt over his sholder blade while on the line of scrimmage, easy call to make.

That holding call late on the Stevens catch though was complete BS, as well as the 15 yarder against Hasselbeck for making a great tackle. It seems that if you get within half a second of the clock reaching zero the refs almost always seem to miss the false start, should be such an easy thing to get right, but the stupid refs blow this all the time. I would love to see this moved up to the booth, put a big red light that goes off around their screen (like the backboards in NBA games) when the clock reaches 0. Should make it obvious enough and they could call it down to the field.

For the most part it was a boring game, and it wasn't the penaltis that really made either of these teams look good or bad, when I look back at this game it will not be the bad calls that stick in my head, it will be how neither team looked sharp at all that I will remember.

Spokane west coast? Not really. No more so than Las Vegas.

%(/

The way the group that I was with saw the out of bounds catch was that his second foot clearly was down out of bounds before the other foor hit the pylon.

The fumble was also a good reversal, watching at live speed he didn't look like he was touched, but obviously he was. I'd take that over a down by contact any day, because they were able to at least make the right call in the end, whereas if some idiot judge comes running in pointing at the ground even if he didn't blow his whistle before the ball changed hands, suddenly it isn't reversable.

I don't agree with Fox.

The Seahawks had some opportunities to score and didn't. The penalties were called at inopportune times, but looked like penalties in almost every instance. The call on Hasslebeck for blocking below the knees seemed like a stretch.

If I were going to back a team, it would have been the Steelers to stay with the AFC.

The bottom line is that in the end, regardless of the penalties called, the Steelers would have won the game. When they needed to perform, they did and Seattle did not.

Chiefs fans have joined the Bronco faithful in the blame it on the ref game...

Officials or no officials...the Steelers would've won regardless. The NFC is wicked bad.

Scoreboard.

People in Spokane consider themselves West Coast... Hell, so do people in Boise...

The Seahag's recievers continue to Drop balls on critical situations. SSDY.

Don't blame the Zebras.

Worst SB officiating ever.

That was offensive pass interferance. He pushed the guy and the guys weight went back onto his heels. I don't understand how so many people could think otherwise, he reached up and shoved the guy, how the hell more blatant would it have to be? Do we only call it if they shove them hard enough to knock them down?
sheesh

Steeler fan alert. Not even trying to hide it here. How'd he get in here?

It was a non-call at best. The DB initiated contact.

In this same vane (NFL wanted Steelers to win), did you notice how many commercials showed the Steelers making love to the Lombardi trophy? It wasn't until the 2nd half that they showed a Seahawk in one of these commercials.

I was like, "man, can it get any more obvious than that!?"

I mentioned that in my thread, comparing the NFL to the WWE.

I've read comments that well Seattle still had chances, and didn't execute, so the bad calls can't be blamed....

Well, ya...It's not like a dominant SF whipping up on the hapless Donks, like past SBs. This thing was evenly matched, and the bad calls happened at the worst time for Seattle. This game was decided by the refs.

Oh horse shit. I didn't see the DB lift the receivers arm up and put it on his chest.

DB initiated contact. Watch it again.... and try to be objective.

I'm not objective? I didn't give a shit who won. I didn't even bet on anyone. My wife bought a "Go Seahawks" cookie for the party at my house if that counts since one of my co-workers was rooting for the Seahawks.

To me it's plain. He reaches up, shoves the guy and goes the opposite way, it's pushing off. Is there something about initiating contact in the rule book?

That said, I'll watch it again if there is a clip anywhere.

Hmm, dunno about that one - thus the reason I think it should be a non-call. There IS a rule regarding contact after five yards... and the DB broke it. He reached out and put his hands on the receiver; the receiver brought his arm down to get the DB's hands off of him, then made the catch. Technically the DB committed pass interference since he initiated contact after five yards with the ball in the air. The receiver brushing off the DB's hands did NOT commit OPI, but it could be construed as illegal contact; that is, if the DB hadn't put his hands there first. Either way, it was ticky-tack penalty and NEITHER player should have been flagged. But for the sake of consistency the refs penalized the Seahag player ;)

Actually, the DB (Hope) made the first illegal contact at the goalline, then did it a second time just before Jackson pushed off.

IMO Jackson pushed off, and should have been flagged accordingly, but Hope made illegal contact twice before Jackson pushed off. If you're going to "let em play" when Hope is all over DJ, then you have to be consistent and let DJ get away with a minor push off. Otherwise, if you're going to call a tight game, call it consistently tight and flag Hope for illegal contact.

I had no rooting interest whatsoever in the game. That being said:

Seattle fans and the people crying foul are sore freakin losers.

The officials didn't miss two field goals.

The officials didn't make Jackson stick his arm out (giving the appearence he pushed off) He could have easily made that play w/o the stiff arm.

The officials didn't tackle defensive linemen.

The officials didn't drop almost every pass thrown their way. (Stevens)

The officials didn't give up a 3rd and 28 conversion.

The officials didn't overthrow Jackson for a crucial interception.

The officials didn't coach the game like Mike Martz. Seattle's play calling and clock management was pathetic.

Seattle didn't execute. Bottom line.

And for those of you with the stick up your ass about Bettis leading the team out of the tunnel........

His TEAMMATES asked him to do so. Was referenced at the time, and in newspaper accounts today.

The better team won yesterday.

Classic!

Thanks for that input, Steeler fan.

So you're saying you think it's okay for officials to do a bad job as long as the better team wins?

Wow, didn't even make it past the first line, congratulations.

AGAIN.....no rooting interest....Chiefs weren't playing, so who cares?

Lose with class = "We're not going to blame this game on anyone but ourselves," said Seahawks defensive end Grant Wistrom. "We lost the game. They played better than we did. They didn't make the mistakes." -Grant Wistrom

Classless losers = "I didn't even touch him," Jackson said. "I guess that's how it is when you are on the road. And I guess that's how it is when you are going against the world." -Darrell Jackson

I agree. No one should care if the officiating is bad in the biggest game in the league.

I have no rooting interest either.

Which is why I was absolutely disgusted by the horrible officiating in the league's biggest game.

I've re-read my post a couple of times now....don't see anywhere where I said it was okay for the officials to do a bad job.

But, as we Chiefs fans know, shit happens. We get "screwed" on what seems like a weekly basis. It happens to all teams at some point in the season.

Good teams, championship teams, rise above adversity and win.

Seattle didn't.

Regardless of your stance on the officiating, Seattle played like garbage. Even with all of your conspiracies, they still had opportunities to win the game and didn't.

To be fair, the officiating sucked all year long. It seems as if they picked the most likely to fug up to call the game.

Maybe you should go back and read some other people's posts too. I'm crying foul, which makes me a sore loser according to you, yet I never claimed the officials lost the game for Seattle.

Personally, I think your apathy makes you a loser.

I am probably in the minority, but I have Tivoed that TD dive, frame by frame, and I think the side of the football crossed the front plane of the goal-line by about a half-inch.

I also think Jackson pushed off in the end-zone. It may have been a little push, but it was still a push.

The holding call that brought back the first and goal looked very much like a holding call from earlier in the game, and that may have been why it was called. I actually yelled at my TV when it happened, thinking it was holding. Until I saw the replay.

The personal foul on Hasselbeck was bad. There was a blocker next to the runner, but it was clear that he was making the tackle, not a block.

The refs did get the fumble on Hasselbeck right. If he had not been touched, it would have been a fumble. I thought Stevens had fumbled earlier, but they ruled it incomplete.

Hasselbeck did not throw that INT because of a bad call.

Overall, the officiating was as bad as normal. I call sour grapes.