FoxSports: Seattle was the better team...

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by jspchief

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".

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

[Bowser]

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.

[Kerberos]

Originally Posted by Bowser

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.

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?

.

[Lono]

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.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Bowser

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 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.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by arc

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

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

[Mike in SW-MO]

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?

Originally Posted by arc

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

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.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Phobia

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

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).

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by Phobia

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

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".

[Inspector]

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???

[Dr. Van Halen]

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.

[kpic]

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".

[jynni]

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]

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