"Since when do the Rolling Stones Suck."

Since about 1964.

(*sigh*) Great column, gentlemen. Your words mirrored many of my thoughts.

When asked about officiating in the National Football League, and what would need to happen for real and sweeping reform to take place, I’ve always said that having the wrong team win the Super Bowl would be about the worst, most graphic thing that could happen…the NFL’s “Code Black".

Now we get to find out if that’s the case. Journalists and talking heads are already blasting Bill Leavy and his goon crew, and it’s only going to get worse. We shall see if the Seahawks get anything more than another meaningless apology out of this, or if they will be seen years from now as the heroes who fell on the grenade which caused the NFL to hire full-time referees, begin far more severe physical and rules training for their officials, and bring far more severe disciplinary action when those officials err to this degree.

Were that the case, it would almost be worth it. But if Mike Pereira worms his way out of this one on Total Access, if Leavy is fined half a game check or let off dead-solid free…the NFL will have far more serious issues to deal with than the upcoming status of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

It will, instead, be fighting for its very integrity. And the fans will go away if they cannot possibly believe that everything is being done to insure fair competition.

Right now, I want nothing more than for Bill Leavy to feel the same measure of pain that he has caused every Seahawks fan. But in the long run, what I need from this – what we all need from this - is for Paul Tagliabue to wake up to the ticking bomb in his kitchen, and do something about it.

If he doesn’t, he’ll be singing, "Nobody’s Fault But Mine� sooner than he could possibly imagine.

I can accept some of the complaints, but Roethlisberger crossed the goalline. And Jackson pushed off. And if you're going to invoke neutrality so will I - I'm a Broncos fan. With a soft spot for the Seahwaks because I lived in Seattle recently for 4 years and rode Alexander and Hasselbeck to my fantasy championship this year.

The two plays I'd really like to see again are Locklear's hold and Jackson's non-TD where he hit the pylon.

Neutral fans are upset by the officiating not because it deprived Seattle of a win, but because it deprived us of a closer more entertaining game.

Hats off to yizzins for the win. I don't want to take away from their celebration.

How many days until draft day?

Regarding the pylon isn't it two separate issues?

Possession - two feet in bounds must be resolved first then you look at whether the ball crossed the plane.

I think that the pylon is in bounds but not the ground if you take my meaning. If his foot hits the pylon above the ground then all that matters is where it comes down. Since his foot came down out of bounds after hitting the pylon there is no catch.

Well, it'd kind of complete the circle, since the Vinny Testaverde "touchdown" against Seattle was the impetus for the return of replay. (And, it's worth noting, although it never occurred to me that the pylon call could have been a touchdown and therefore should have been reviewed, that the ones they *did* booth review I think they got right, both times. So at least that worked as designed.) I'd be a lot more bitter about the poor officiating if I didn't think you could credibly make a case that with the exception of the defensive front and Bobby Engram, the Seahawks were substantially worse than the officials, let alone Pittsburgh, on this given Sunday.

Did anybody hear from Ryan? I hope he survived last night's celebrations. I was disapointed by the poor officiating, and I didn't think either team played remarkabally well (I mean, they are supposed to be the two best teams in the NFL, and this is what we get for a performance), but I think the Steelers still deserved to win. In the end, the Steelers made three big plays, and the Seahawks made two (one negated by a "holding" call). Combine that with Seattle's lousy two-minute drills, and the Seahawks deserved to win even less than Pittsburgh did.
But I'm just glad the rest of the NFL's fans have a new champion to complain about.

To repeat what I said in the game thread last night:

The difference makers in the game:

1:Key drops for Seattle

2:The (non) holding call. Turned 1st & goal at the one into 1st & 20 at the 29. No holding, no pick and very probably Seattle score to go up by 3.

3: The loss of Manuel the Seahawks FS. His backup was at fault for the Parker TD when he took a bad angle and for the Ward TD when he bit on the fake. Chances are one of those scores doesn’t happen with Manuel on the field.

4: Two missed Field Goals. If the Seahawks make one of them, they only need one score at the end.

5: The butchered 2-miute drills, particularly at the end of the 1st half. If that drill is more efficient, at worst Seattle kick a short FG, making the end of the game far more manageable.

The NFL needs to take a long look at its officiating. The playoffs have been dreadful and last night was a joke. The officials should NEVER be the story in a game, and sadly they are the biggest story of all.

I have no real problem with Rothelisberger TD. It was a marginal call but not terrible, and certainly was never going to be reversed. The PI call on Jackson was fussy, but it was right in front of the official and there wasn't an obvious example that wasn't called later in the game.

The (non) holding call was dreadful. I didn't think it was a hold at the time, and what makes it worse is that the Steelers got some key non-calls at important times.

The (non) horse-collar on Porter should have been called, but hasn't been all season. If it's not going to be enforced they should take it out of the rule book. The PF on Hasselbeck was a farce, but in the scheme of things wasn't important.

Having said all that, congratulations to the Steelers. They made the key plays at key times, not just the big plays for the TDs, but, for example the two 3rd-down conversions late in the 4th which sealed the win. Seattle didn't and that makes Pittsburgh (just) deserving winners.

For the fans of the other 30 teams who are complaining about the officiating ... what league have you been watching for the past 20 years? This is what the NFL is, it's what the NFL has been for decades if not longer. The officials always suck, games are routinely officiated in a way that looks one sided. Big freakin' surprise. If anyone, and I mean anyone, REALLY thinks that this is some sort of league-mandated conspiracy to have one team win, then I recommend giving up watching football and turning to the WWE. Why even watch a sport that is "fixed"? Were there bad calls? yes. So what. That's the way the NFL works.

Oh, by the way, Aaron and the rest of the Outsiders, thanks for a great year of football analysis. Don't forget to take a vacation, you've earned it.

I don't like the week off between games from the championship to the super bowl. I am of the mindset that we would have had a better game. I am very , very glad the steelers won. Yet I'm greatly disappointed in the play of my team. But I'm very happy for the bus. Oh and I hope the whiz stays with the steelers one more season.

I was about to say what Moe just did. I really, really wish we could have a real rulebook, because that was an interesting call. I'd assume that you'd need possession for the pylon rule, but you never know....

Really nothing more to be said. Every game has "what if's" but when the what-ofs all revolve around official's judgement calls which all seemed to go one way, it's not been a good game.

Personally, I think all the calls be the officials except for the Hass personal foul were justifiable. However all of them went one way, and as you've pointed out, there were a number of no calls which would have gone the Seahawks' way had they been called.

I absolutely agree that we were robbed of what should have and would have been a great game by officiating.

A bunch of things:

* Cowher outcoached Holmgren. (Just like he outcoached Switzer in his previous Superbowl, except this time his team wasn't outmatched in terms of pure talent.) Running game not working? Call an end-around. Roethlisberger not having a great game? Try Randle-El on a reverse pass. Good stuff.

Holmgren didn't make any huge mistakes, but didn't do much for his team, either. (Like maybe call a timeout from the sideline when Hasselbeck is butchering the two-minute drill in the second quarter?)

* A bunch of close/judgement calls/non-calls benefitted the Steelers, more so than the Seahawks (who did get a few, like picking up the flag for the helmet-to-helmet that didn't happen). I don't think the Seahawks would or should have won, but people will bitch about it anyway. Steeler fans, get used to it.

And while you're at it, stop crying about Troy Brown's lateral in the 2002 AFC Championship. ;-)

* Seattle picked a bad day to don their throwback "Dropped Passes Group" moniker. That's principally why they wouldn't and shouldn't have won -- if they got more chances, they likely would have dropped more passes.

Their punting didn't help, either. Downing zero punts inside the 20 in a field position battle (like this game was early) ain't good. Not all of them were good punts, but at least two were blown by the coverage team.

* Seattle's defense did better than I expected, especially after losing a starting safety, cornerback, and lineman.

* This game reminds me of last year's Superbowl. Here's why: last year, Philadelphia generally had more success moving the ball than did New England, and had better field position. But sloppy play by the Eagles (especially McNabb throwing poor passes) meant that multiple scoring opportunities yielded no points to them, so that while they had more scoring opportunities, they lost the game.

This year, Seattle generally had more success moving the ball than did Pittburgh, and had better field position. But sloppy play by the Seattle (especially receivers dropping catchable passes) meant that multiple scoring opportunities yielded no points to them, so that while they had more scoring opportunities, they lost the game.

Redskins fan here (so a neutral observer).

What happened last night was a travesty. The Seahawks were absolutely robbed at a fair chance to compete in the game by the officials.

I also feel sorry for steelers fans who know deep down (although i doubt they'd publicly admit it) that their win was tainted by the officials.

To all the FO staff. Thanks for a great seasons' work! Don't take to long a holiday though, I need my fix. ;)

Aaron -- thank you.

For some undefinable reason, it means a lot to have your reasonable perspective validating what the rest of us (I'm a Seahawks homer) saw. I came in prepared to lose. I even came in prepared to lose on a lame refereeing boner, some new Vinny's helmet (can't believe we actually got a simulacrum!), or forgot-to-run-off-40-seconds thing. We're the Seahawks. We've seen it before. But it was just excrutiating to experience it, the whole time; call after call, non-call after non-call.

I'm really sad. I'm considering going cold turkey off football; FO's writing and wit and perspective is a good argument not to, a stronger argument this morning than anything the shield has.

15 years ago, the Bush pere administration was floating a plan to do affirmative action in a way that race or gender could be "a factor" but could never be "the deciding factor." Michael Kinsley wrote a column pointing out that if it's never a deciding factor, then in reality, it's no factor at all. That's the question here. There's an establishment perspective that would like to say, Seattle made some of its own mistakes, the dicey calls wouldn't have guaranteed the other outcome, therefore, it's no factor. That's a lie. There are always other contingencies you can point to in a game like this. Nobody makes every play. The other guys are getting paid to stop you making them, after all. That doesn't mean we can act like another variable doesn't exist at all. And if it exists, we have to acknowledge that some percentage of the time, or some percentage chance in a single game, it's decisive.

Whether it was or not yesterday may be impossible to say. But no honest observer could say s/he is sure it wasn't.

Oh and bob #9, I don't think anyone is accusing the officiating of any conspiracy (maybe they are on Hawks' boards) but the idea is that bad calls will generally even themselves out. They didn't, and basically through no fault of the Hawks, that was a huge difference in the game.

Maybe if the Hawks had played better those calls wouldn't have mattered, and so they don't have anyone but themselves to blame. But if the calls were better, it would have been a much better game, and it's unfortunate it wasn't.

Also getting play time on football internet forums everywhere:

Stevens' "incomplete pass" on what clearly looked like a fumble right in front of Farrior. He caught, took a step and a half, or two steps, and turned around to run upfield before letting the ball go after the hit.

Block in the back on Ben on Herndon's interception return. Does that penalty apply on INT returns? If so, the Hawks have the ball at the 30, not the 20. That makes the TD much harder, especially since they stalled out at the 50 like it was their job.

Everyone can agree that Foote's (or was it Farrior's?) hand didn't "tackle" or in any way cause Hasselbeck to fall down and lose the ball, so "downed by contact" is stretching it.

Thus, not every call went against the Seahawks.

In my view, the best part of the night was Tom Brady being booed. Somewhere, Peter King wept.

"Seriously, what was the deal with 90% of the tickets going to Pittsburgh fans? How does that work? Where did the corporate fat cats go who usually get these tickets? The Super Bowl shouldn’t be a home game for one of the teams."

The Steelers' fans were closer and cared more about getting tickets and paying scalpers. Most of thoss "corporate fat cats" sold their tickets, and they sold them to Steelers fans because that's where the demand was. The Steelers' 1st Superbowl, against the Vikings was a lot like that as well, practically a home game. The Steelers just "travel well".

I must have been really drunk watching this game (good bet) but I never thought during the game the officiating was that bad. On the push off, I've seen worse not get called but it was a push off. The holding call was ticky tack, but I could easily see where a ref seeing it from a ways away at game speed would think it was a hold. The out of bounds catch, I was fairly sure at the time that you had to have possesion before hitting the pilon to count as in bounds but I'm doubting that more now. The only suspicious thing is all these close calls went against Seattle in crucial situations.

One of the reasons "everyone" Aaron cites is writing columns about the bad officiating is that this was a game from which a "storyline" did not emerge. You can talk about Roethlisberger's dreadful game, but the fact that the Steelers won takes some of the steam out of that. You can talk about how the Steelers played a mediocre game, but that lightning struck three times (Parker's run, Roethlisberger's pass to Ward setting up the touchdown, Randle El's pass to Ward), so they won. It's difficult to "analyze" a game that was determined by three outliers. This is one of the most dissatisfying SB's to talk about in an interesting way, so we're falling back on the obvious target. As a Steeler fan, here are some random thoughts:
1. It's good to know that the Steelers can win when Roethlisberger plays poorly, but I'm not counting on it as a strategy for the future. At this point in his career, he is by no means as bad as he looked yesterday, nor is he quite as good as he looked against Indianapolis. He's had fabulous success and I anticipate him having an outstanding career and being a top level QB for many years to come, but yesterday showed that he has plenty of room for improvement.
2. Roethlisberger got the ball over the front of the goal line on his TD; it was called that way on the field and upheld on review. It looked that way to me and to the Giants and Eagles fans with whom I was watching the game. That's one that the "bad officials" people should simply let go.
3. The pass interference call that wiped out the Seattle TD was debatable, but not the travesty of justice that some seem to be painting it as. It took place right in front of the official who had a clear view of it. Similar incidents have been called pass interference in other games; others have been let go. As I said, a debatable call; since I have a rooting interest, I don't have an unbiased mind.
3. The penalty on Hasselbeck's tackle was miscalled.
4. I think this game would have been MUCH better if it had been played last week. Both teams were on a roll at that point--well-oiled machines. Both seemed to be kind of clanking along, in need of a tune-up for much of yesterday.
5. If nothing else, it's good to lay the "Cowher always chokes in the big game" thing to rest. Did I hear correctly that Madden was something like 1-5 or 2-6 in AFC championships? (I'm sure someone can find this more easily than I can, since I'm already taking too much time from work by reading FO and writing this!) Madden is now in Canton despite that record (if what I heard was accurate). Those who denigrate Cowher are going to have to look elsewhere.

Pawnking #18 .. this is Aaron's post from above that I was respondiong to in #9.

"Fine, but why should all the iffy judgment calls go one way? You don’t want to think about conspiracies, but it just seemed like for two weeks, the league, ABC/ESPN, the city of Detroit, and the NFL wanted the Seahawks to just go away so the Steelers could have the title, like Seattle wasn’t even in the game. They ran those black and white vingettes of players talking about winning the trophy and the FIRST FOUR were Pittsburgh players. Maybe the way the officials acted was just subconscious."

Nice column. I doubt Paul Tagliabue is too happy with the way the game played out. Two other minor things I noticed:

On the Wistrom sack, Marvel Smith practically pushed him into Roethlisberger.

There was a sequence of plays during which Haggans (I think) sacked Hasselbeck. That whole drive, and maybe more, Haggans was quicker starting his rush than the Seattle OL was getting to their blocks. I couldn't tell whether he was offsides at any point, but it was really close.

First of all let me say that I am a lifelong Steeler fan, PGH born and bred. To me the reactions to this game are more of a perception problem than anything else. The commercials during the game that featured players favored the Steelers heavily, the trophy photos (Annie Liebovitz?) and the Disney commercials with no SEA players at all. That being said the commercials had no effect on the game or the officials, just on viewers perceptions which is why so many 'neutral fans thot things favored PIT so heavily. I can't believe folks are complaining about the crowd makeup, all week long the Steeler fans on the board kept saying that there would be a ton of Steeler fans there. I predicted 75/25. They bought their tickets FROM the corporate types at extravagant prices. If you had a free ticket and someone offered YOU $4000 for it, would you turn the $ down? Yes the officiating was bad, but it wasn't as lopsided as people are saying, just that SEA couldn't recover from their bad calls. Steven's fumble early on would have been recovered by us if no whistle blows and that would have been huge, Ben got blocked in the back on the INT return, we got some terrible spots. We did get the benefit of some marginal calls but they were correct calls, Ben did break the plane, there is a still photo that shows it clearly, did the ref call it right away? NO, but it was the right call. On the D-Jack PI, The ref has to call that, he extended his arm to push off and did so right in the officials face. And the official reached for his flag way before Hope started complaining. D-Jacks foot hitting the pylon is irrelevant, what must hit the pylon or cross the plane is the BALL. He must have two feet down in bounds to have possession of the ball, and he never got two feet down, there was no review because there was nothing to review, no two feet, no possession, no TD. Aaron, I'm not sure how you got Jones 'creaming' Kimo. Maybe you watched a different game than I did, but outside of one long play SEA got almost all their running yards going right or up the middle. The first quarter which i agree they dominated, they threw right at Ike and ran right at Clark Haggans. Everytime they ran towards KVO and JP they got stoned, same for the second quarter. All night long they got one long run to the left side and that was a bad play by Deshea Townshend. Kimo's main job on running plays is to tie up the tackle so he can't get out and hit Joey and Kimo did a great job of that. On the Locklear holding play that everyone is complaining about-it WAS holding and a very egregious hold at that. The replay is a bad angle but if you can see the live action angle it is clear as day that he not only held but almost pulled him down to the ground and he had to because he was beat and Clark was about to crush Hasselbeck. Ben sucked majorly (22 passer rating), but he did make a few plays when he had to, but if he hits Wilson for the TD instead of Herndon for the INT, nobody is talking about the refs, cuz the score would be 21-3 Steelers.

Again, to me this issue isn't that these calls were "suspicious" or that the ghosts of Pete Rozell and Roone Arledge decided the game before kickoff. It's that throughout this year's playoffs, the refereeing has been often been inconsistent, and occasionally just flat wrong (i.e. the penalty on Hasselbeck).

As a neutral (Pats) fan, I didn't really see anything that indicated that Seattle would have been able to execute down the stretch of a close game, so I don't know that the outcome was affected. But the SB was the culmination of a lot of refereeing problems this year, and it paints the league--not the Steelers--in a bad light. That's what should worry the league.

Thanks to Aaron et al. for all the great content this year.

As I recall, the replay on Jackson's catch showed his left foot in, right foot out, left foot hit the pylon. Perhaps my memory is not accurate, but I'm pretty sure the refs got that call right.

I will throw another bad call that hurt Seattle at you. Joey Porter absolutely took Alexander down with a horse collar on the play before Hasselbeck threw the interception at the goal line. That would have been an automatic first down. On the replay, you could Porter clearly reach inside the jersey and take Alexander down by the shoulder pads. That’s textbook.

Yah, I saw this too and yelled "horse collar, what the hell?" when it happened. But as others have pointed out here, the rule actually says

All players are prohibited from grabbing the inside collar of the back or the inside collar of the side of the shoulder pads and immediately pulling down the runner. This does not apply to a runner who is in the tackle box or to a quarterback who is in the pocket.

and as the Answer Man from the Buccaneers states,

The key word in that paragraph is “immediately.� It is not illegal for a player to grab those spots and use the leverage to pull himself toward the runner. What the league doesn’t want is that grab and immediate yank downward, which too often results in significant injuries to the lower legs.

Which means that if Porter grabbed, pulled backwards, and then let go and tackled normally as he fell down, that's fine. Which is what I thought happened, although I'd love to see a clip.

The commercials during the game that featured players favored the Steelers heavily, the trophy photos (Annie Liebovitz?) and the Disney commercials with no SEA players at all.

I'm pretty sure they were selecting those clips (the trophy ones) based on the plays that were occurring on the field. After Hasselbeck's touchdown pass, the next clip shown was Hasselbeck with the trophy.

Let me self-identify as a Steeler fan, first off.

My first reaction is that this was one of the ugliest Super Bowls I've ever watched. An unsatisfying way to see my favorite team finally win a championship.

However, I think the Steelers did put together an astonishing string of playoff wins -- the most impressive playoff performance in NFL history,in my view.

Some points I'd want to make:
1. Officiating: I really don't see the controversey over Ben's TD. Look at the replay. Where do you people think the ball is? Under his shirt against his belly? That ball did cross the plane.

2. Jackson did push off in the end zone, and that created the opportunity for him to catch the ball. The ref has to make that call.

3. Ben was clipped on the INT return -- that wasn't called. Locklear held Haggans all night.

As for Ben, I think it's tough on him to say he choked in this game. He had very little help. The running game did nothing. Nothing! The O-line for Pittsburgh did not have a good night. And when he threw the ball, people were not open. Not saying Ben played well, as he obviously wasn't accurate and seemed to be gun-shy and short-arming stuff. But I think the Steelers' offense was pretty dysfunctional all night.

Ben did make some very key plays on 3rd down, and the 3rd-and-28 play was pretty damn ballsy. So I'd disagree with the notion he choked, because if he was, he would have taken off an ran the ball on that play.

Give the Steelers defense some credit. They held Seattle to 10 points. The Seahawks beat themselves in a lot of ways, mainly because Holmgren is in love with the pass, and he made a big tactical error not pounding Alexander particularly in the 2nd quarter, when the Steelers were on their heels, and had gained nothing at all in the entire 1st Q.

Don't say the Seahawks outplayed the Steelers because they did not. They dinked and dunked the ball, which makes for some nice looking stats, but football isn't a contest of who can throw the most 5-yard outs. The Steelers defense played a very good game, and the Steelers made enough big plays to win. And they capped an excellent postseason, and were able to pull out a Super Bowl despite having, in my opinion, an overrated O-Line, and no running game.

Just want to close by saying I think Matt Hasselbeck is very impressive, and the game made me a fan of that guy, whom I'd seen little of before the playoffs. Hats off to Seattle for a great year.

There were only 2 clearly bad calls:

1. The hold on Locklear - In the officials defense it may have looked like a hold from a different angle.

2. The Hasselbeck penalty after the INT - Ironically, this same penalty was called on PIT twice earlier in the year after INTs. Besides these three times, I've never seen it called in any other game. If Hasselbeck hit a blocker low then it is a penalty but I didn't see it.

As far as the rest, I think the officials mostly got it right:

1. Ben TD - IMO, he was in. If not, the Steelers score 95% of the time on 4th and a molecule anyway.

2. Engram PI - That was clearly PI and it happened right in front of the ref. Easiest call of the night.

3. Porter horse collar tackle - looked to me like he grabbed the jersey and not the shoulder pad. Thus, no penalty.

4. Engram pylon play - His second foot may have hit the pylon but it never hit the ground. Does touching the pylon count as having a foot down?

Re: Ben's TD. On the big HD screen, it looked like the tip of the ball crossed the plane, but it was really close.

The WORST call in the history of the NFL went against the Steelers a couple of weeks ago in Indy (you know which one I'm talking about). Did the Steelers use that as an excuse to lay down and die? No, they found a way to win the game. That's what championship teams do. Seattle had some calls go against them, but instead of overcoming them, they lost their composure. End of story. Good luck getting back to the Super Bowl next year minus Shawn Alexander.

By the way, if you FO guys can't tell already, I love this site and you guys did a great job all year long. Without all those debates about ALY and the SEA run D, I don't know how I get through the two week run-up. KUDOS to you all and get PFP 2006 out ASAP plz.

As for Ben, I think it’s tough on him to say he choked in this game. He had very little help. The running game did nothing. Nothing! The O-line for Pittsburgh did not have a good night.

To quote Aaron before the game,

"I don't think people realize exactly how good Seattle's run defense is."

What baffled me was that Pittsburgh was trying to run the ball early. Apparently Pittsburgh also didn't realize how good Seattle's run defense was.

Other gem predictions by Football Outsiders: Seattle would attack Pittsburgh's ends, and have success (they did). They would attempt to pass to running backs, and have success if they threw to other than Shaun Alexander. Alexander dropped two easy swing passes.

" All we are saying is that this game should have had a level playing field. And, if you don’t buy the idea that the officiating was slanted against Seattle,"

Maybe, just maybe the field was level and more penalities were committed by the Seahawks. As stated in #22, when things don't go according to "script"....

Pitt made some big plays, SEA didn't.

Spot on analysis. I think the pertinent question is not whether a particular play would or should have been called a penalty, but rather how many times would that particular play be called a penalty? On the DJ "pushoff" (btw, totally asinine to claim that he actually pushed off, or that that was the reason he made the reception, totally incidental contact and the defender was beat regardless), I think 99/100 times that play would not be called a penalty. Ditto with the phantom holding call.

Even if every referee call could have been justified by the rulebook, I look at the sum of the penalties, and note that they were all extremely marginal, all went against one team, and all occurred on big Seattle plays (this doesn't include the non-calls on Pittsburgh- in addition to the holds and horsecollar, the guy who sacked Hass on that one potential TD drive was clearly offsides by 2 feet). I guess I'm a wingnut but I'm sniffing conspiracy here. Just terribly biased officiating, no way this was just bad calls.

I tend to think that a lot of neutral fans were rooting for Seattle because of a backlash to the apparent coronation of the Steelers. I almost always root for the AFC team and so I was rooting for the Steelers in this game although they creamed my Broncos two years ago, but I started to really feel for Seattle when it was apparent they were being ignored. I think if you picked Seattle to win, you probably had some interest in seeing them win and would react to bad calls against them for than against the Steelers.

And I do think that Stevens' non-fumble was as egregious a miscall as some of the other ones being brought up.

I don't know that full-time refs would help. What are you going to make them do during the week? Other sports have full-time refs becasue they play games more than once a week.

I think most times DJax's push would be called a push. He extended his arm right in front of the official, and ended up with significant separation from the DB immediately after the extension. Whether or not he really pushed, he extended and separated. And right in front of the official that called. That gets called 99/100 times, not the other way around.

#19

To most anyone except the refs it did look like the Stevens incomplete was actually a fumble, but 1 down later the Stealers get the ball back in roughly the same field position and go 3 and out. Hardly earth-shattering stuff.

The block in the back, as Pitt fans are grabbing at straws, was a block in the side, then Ben turned as he fell down. Watch the tape (nice block by the way).

The touch on Hasselbeck didn't have to "cause" him to do anything. But if he was "touched" which you admit, he is down. Read the rules.

These are minimal impact at best, but it's good to see you agree that bad officiating would have an impact.

Steelers fans: if you were on the receiving end of those calls, you would be going apeshit and you know it.

What really irritates me about the holding call (besides the fact that it was wrong, and that is not how holding is called 98% of the time) is that if Seattle scores a touchdown there we have the making of an extremely entertaining finish, with the Steelers attempting to do something, come from behind in the second half, that they hadn't been asked to do in the playoffs. Who knows? Maybe Roethlisberger catches fire, and his fourth quarter becomes part of Super Bowl legend. Instead, we get a laughable holding call, leading to the interception, with fifteen yards of field position gift-wrapped for the Steelers as well.

I missed the Jackson pylon play due to a spilled beer, but it would be good to have the NFL give us the rule. It would be even better to see the rules before the game starts.

I don't get the criticism of Holmgren's playcalling. If Jeremy Stevens makes the catches that a reasonably competent NFL tight end makes, the Seahawks would have been in fine shape. If you want to criticize Holmgren for having Stevens on the field, fine, but that ain't playcalling. As to the clock management at the end of the first half, Hassebeck was calling audibles, so it becomes diffcult to fault Holmgren, and the end of the game is a trip to Longshotville, and really inconsequential. Holmgren's playcalling for the most part kept the Steelers off balance, and unable to create the chaos they did versus the Colts and Broncos.

Boulware's play killed the Seahawks every bit as much as Stevens', and the hideous punting didn't help either. However, if you had told me that Roethlisberger would throw for 123 yards, no touchdowns and two picks, while Alexander ran for 95 yards, with the Seahawks only having one turnover, I would have wagered large money on the Seahawks. The only statistical indicator of a Steelers victory, besides the points, of course, in that Hasselbeck threw almost 50 times.

By what, fumbling the ball away and then using their psychic powers on Mike Vanderjagt?

Of course. Everyone knows the real reason Vanderjagt missed is because Cowher gave him "The Jaw" when Vanderjagt gave him the "money" sign. Clearly, jaw beats money.

Boy, you guys are complaining more than the Seahawks fans.

DJ didn't get a touchdown because he never established possession inbounds before he hit the pylon. When Ron Mexico does his Superman imitations at the goal line, he already has possession when he flies over the pylon.

Roethelisberger did break the plane from my view, the tip of the ball being about 1/2" over the goal line. An even if he didn't, its hard to see them not going for it and not making it from the 6 inch line.

etc., etc.

How did Pittsburgh win? Pittsburgh won the same way a Baseball team can win 3-1 while only getting 4 hits and giving up 15 hits. If three of your hits are home runs, and you only give up 1 run defensively, while your opponent strands 1 or 2 guys on base every inning and hits into a couple of double plays, you are going to win every game. Pittsburgh only needed 4 plays to win the game - pass to Ward on the 3, Roethelisberger 1 yard TD run, Parker 75 yard TD run, Randle EL to Ward TD gadget pass. Everything else was killing clock.

If you'd just sit back and think about it, Seattle was never really close to winning this game because Stevens couldn't catch passes, DJ didn't understand that whole catch out of bounds isn't a catch rule, they kept making dumb penalties, the kicker couldn't hit 50 yard field goals in a dome, the punter aimed for the back of the endzone every time.

The game only appeared close because of Roethelisberger's bone headed interception at the 6 yard line. Doesn't it say something that Seattle could only get into the endzone in around 34 minutes of possession when the offense was given the ball with just 30 yards to go? Aren't the chances of coming away with a TD when starting on the 30 about 2 in 3?

I mentioned this here in the lead-up to the Super Bowl that the game would come down to Hasselbeck controlling the ball, because even when Roethelisberger does poorly controlling the ball, the Steelers still win or are close to winning. Hasselbeck threw his pick, Seattle lost.

RE #40 Touchy-touchy, Aaron. How abot McFadden's pass defensed on Wayne in the end zone?

On the DJ “pushoff� (btw, totally asinine to claim that he actually pushed off, or that that was the reason he made the reception, totally incidental contact and the defender was beat regardless)

That's just crap. Full speed, it's clear that bracing his arm against Porter slowed his momentum and allowed him to turn around quickly. Porter's feet were braced (trying to turn around as well) so he didn't move.

Slow motion it doesn't look bad, but full speed it was pretty clear to me.

Hey, I'm a Seahawks fan, so I must have an opinion. Not really bummed about the Steelers winning, but it's sooo true the game's energy was sucked away by uneven play by both sides. Lots of ripping on the refs, with some real arguments, but let's face it--neither team had a good performance on the field.

You know what the Steelers were? The computer opponent in any Madden game. You've shut down their running game, they can't complete a pass to save their lives, but you just know the computer-aided success play is coming. OMFG THEY JUST CAUGHT A BROKEN-PLAY BOMB TO THE 2 YARD LINE. Then you break your controller and have to use the bad one with the stuck B button. GOOD LORD, 75 YARD TD RUN.

The Seahawks, on the other hand, re-emerged from 2004 with hands of stone. The Jackson calls were fine with me. He did have his arms out and in contact with the DB on the TD. The guy who said his foot brushing the pylon but hitting the GROUND out of bounds is likely correct. (Usually pylons determine FOOTBALL location, when people reach for it with arm extended--their feet are already in-bounds.)

What it masks is Hasselbeck throwing an inaccurate deep ball, the pair to Jackson and another to single-covered Jurevicius matched with a much shorter corner. Alexander had almost 100 yards, but no special runs that said "MVP." They picked up the Steeler blitz, but did little with it--where were the West Coast Offense slant routes, other than the one that slipped through Engram's hands? You could argue they needed more Alexander inside the red zone, but remember that Hasselbeck was the key to the Carolina victory. Another game like that would've carried them, but it didn't happen.

Seriously, it was a subpar performance by both teams. It reminded me of the Rams / Titans Super Bowl that was so exciting at the end. People forget it was mind-bendingly dull for three quarters, and only the last ten minutes saved it.

"but if I can add a couple more: Roethlisberger’s Delay of Game where they gave him a timeout after the clock hit zero"

That's down to officiating technique. See the Jerry Markbreit column--there's one official looking at the play clock waiting for it to hit zero. When it hits zero he looks to see if the ball has been snapped, thus there is a delay, which Jerry says is about 1 second. A grace period, which is given to all teams, so while not completely accurate that is at least completely consistent.

Hope made contact with Jackson in the end zone that was ignored, and Hope also extended his arm out on the PI call. Jackson pushed Hope's arm off of him.

There is no way the official calling the Roethelisberger touchdown could tell the ball crossed the plane by an inch without the super slow motion replay. He only made the call because Ben put the ball over the goal line after he was down.

Should Dyson have been ruled in because he clearly crossed the plane
after being down against the Rams?

I think the pylon doesn't come into play unless you already have 2 feet in, but it's an interesting call and I thought should've been reviewed.

I think the pylon doesn’t come into play unless you already have 2 feet in, but it’s an interesting call and I thought should’ve been reviewed.

Why? Just because we don't know the rule doesn't mean they do. If it's clear as day to the officials (i.e. "always look at the feet first") then it didn't need to be reviewed. I don't know the rule, but that doesn't mean it needs to be reviewed.

43: Vanderjet needs one of those psychic shielding helmets like Magneto has.

i thought it was the best fixed game i ever watched.

I'm not a Steelers fan, I had no rooting interest in the game, and frankly, I'm really surprised at the amount of griping at the officials. The only call that I thought was clearly a poor one was the one made against Hasselbeck's tackle attempt. That was it. Darrell Jackson didn't just kind of push off, he clearly pushed off, and he did it with a referee standing right next to him. I understand that it wasn't a big time shove or anything, but it's what he used to get separation and it deserved to be called. And I thought that Locklear was holding on the Stevens catch that got the ball down to the one yard line. I wouldn't have called Roethlisberger in, but it was a 50-50 call that would have been unsatisfying no matter which way it went. It was unfortunate that Seattle kept on shooting themselves in the foot whenever they got close, but blaming the refs is akin to killing the messenger.

All I can say about the Super Bowl is...poor Peyton. This was clearly his year, then he goes out and plays one bad half coming off of his coach's son just having committed suicide, and now he has to live with the sight of watching Ben Roethlisberger play a dreadful game and come away with his "winner" credentials better than ever. Seriously, Peyton must feel pretty ill right now.

Aaron: I think Vanderjagt's shank was actually Belichick exercising his anti-Randle-El psychic powers. Taking Indy down with him!

... the Steelers got some key non-calls at important times.

Hmm, interesting. Unlike the Indy game, nobody is saying there were any bad calls. People are just complaining that Seattle had more penalties called against them than Pittsburgh did. So then why is everybody afraid to say the obvious, that this is a result of COACHING? Holmgren was absolutely outcoached.

I think nearly all commentators are hypnotized to think that unless there are big plays from Porter or Polamalu, the Steelers' defense isn't doing anything. (Madden and Michaels were clearly baffled. Listening to them you'd have thought the Seahawks had a 14 point lead for most of the game.) But the Steelers' defense played their best game of the season yesterday. Almost no blitzing, but all kinds of zone the Seahawks weren't mentally prepared for. The game plan was to wait for the 'Hawks to unravel. And that's exactly what they did, and that's why they got called for more penalties. They were not mentally tough enough to face the extremely bland Pittsburgh game plan, and they lost confidence, and thereby defeated themselves.

Dare I say it ... Cowher's game plan was Belichekian in its brilliance. He's obviously learned from losing. The Steelers clearly "looked" like the better team in last year's AFC Championship, for example, with the exception of the handful of big plays from the Patriots that led to the final score ...

Skip Bayless would rather rip his own balls off with his teeth

Is that even physically possible? Whatever else you can say about Bayless, you'd have to admire someone with that kind of flexibility...

(Er, I mean, nobody is saying there were any *atrociously* bad calls where we can't even imagine what the ref was thinking.)

Jackson shoved the DB in the chest. It made him hop backwards. Thats not incidental contact, you can watch it on the highlight clip.

If that is offensive holding, there are going to be some really, really, long games next year, without much scoring. Holding was called because the pass rusher ended up on the ground. It was a clearly bad call, totally inconsistent with how holding is normally enforced.

RE #55:
I have said on several occasions, the Refs are (actually according to the rules) part of the field. There is no alternative to having refs make the calls. After the '01 loss to the Pats, I was down, but I felt the Steelers lost the game because they didn't match the big plays of the Pats (blocked FG among other plays.) I view this as the same except this time I am on the sweet, not the sour side.

I don't expect SEA fans to "suck it up." They lost in an ugly game and that is never easy. They will get over it and they will be a contender.

Neutral fans and press-types I think are responding to the ugliness of the game and the deviation from script. I mean, my goodness, folks are saying they as fans were robbed! We are such an entitlement society sometimes. It wasn't the perfect shoot-out that was envisioned. Too bad, suck it up!

Re: 40

Jeez, Aaron, comments that snarky will get people thinking you do have a serious anti-Pittsburgh bias.

After the overturned INT, on Indy's next drive, Pit stopped a swing pass to James for 2 yards, forced and incompletion and sacked Peyton twice. On the fumble, Ben made what anyone must admit was an impressive play on the tackle. Bryant McFadden made a great play on a fade pass to Reggie Wayne in the corner of the end zone.

Arguing the Steelers folded up after the play is in pretty poor form, Aaron. You're really sounding like you've got something against the Steelers in this thread - I don't believe you do, personally, but I think you might want to calm down a bit. Unless you're getting a lot of personal emails, I'm not seeing the "Hahaha, your predictions are teh suxor, you suxor" reactions you seem to be expecting (and if you are getting such emails, I apologize on behalf of my more idiotic bretheren).

Comparing Ben's TD to the last play of the Rams-Titans game? That's ridiculous.

Look, this won't go down as one of the great Super Bowls. But part of that is due to the fact, I think, that both defenses played great.

I agree with an earlier poster that the media's reaction to this game has more to do with the fact that a clear narrative doesn't really present itself, so people are focusing more on things like the refs.

It was a good defensive game (dropped balls had something to do with the Seattle receivers being hit a lot, I think), but the Steelers made the big plays to win it.

Why would the pylon come into play when he clearly never had 2 feet in to begin with?

If anyone wants to hand out blame, blame the Seahawks for not making good with their opportunities. How many plays did they run in the first half in Steeler territory and only managed 3?

*not a Steeler fan but sick of the friggin crying*

If every call we complain about in Audibles had gone the other way, against Pittsburgh, do you think that the FO staff would have told Steelers fans to suck it up and deal, or do you think our complaints would have been the same?

I don't understand. Are you saying that you would be complaining about these calls even if they had gone the other way? If you're complaining about them now, don't you think they should have gone the other way?