###OFFICIAL SUPERBOWL XL THREAD###

[VarlosZ]

My response to your duplicate post form the other thread, posted for others' sake.

P.S. -- There's no reason for us to go back and forth in both threads. Pick one and we'll stick to it. (Not taking a shot here; obviously I'm just as much at fault.)

[Albert's Pujol]

[ QUOTE ]
I have seen worse. Unfortunately, it has come this postseason. Unfortunately, it came in the past couple postseasons. The officiating definitely needs to be addressed big time this offseason. You cannot have an NFL where the officials have a big say in the outcome of the games. You cannot have some officials calling weak push-offs and some not calling them. You cannot have some officials calling cheap holdings and some not calling them. Everyone has to be on the same page. Officials calls are too important in football to have these kinds of problems. It is a shame.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately, welcome to the last 8+ years of the NFL. The game has gotten steadily worse, and the officiating has sunk to an unacceptable level...but if you dare call out the refs you are subject to a pretty stiff fine. It's the refs who should be subject to a stiff fine for the piss-poor job they've been doing the last few years.

[.Alex.]

[ QUOTE ]
My response to your duplicate post form the other thread, posted for others' sake.

P.S. -- There's no reason for us to go back and forth in both threads. Pick one and we'll stick to it. (Not taking a shot here; obviously I'm just as much at fault.)

[/ QUOTE ]
If the ref is going to be a nit about it, why didn't he call illegal contact on the defender, since he had two hands on Jackson as he was crossing the goal line on his route.

[VarlosZ]

I didn't see that, but I'll look for it when I watch the game again in a day or two. The interference call, however, was not a case of the ref being a nit. It was pretty blatant, and it was right in front of his face.

[$DEADSEXE$]

i totally forgot about the personal foul on Hasselback for actually rying to tackle the the guy with the ball.

Imagine if they threw that on Big Ben when he took down N Haper...lol

[Ryan Beal]

[ QUOTE ]
WTF, look how the refs hold up #23 when he goes to cover ward!! The ref just went out and held his jersey, WHAT A JOKE NOW HES WIDE OPEN!!!! THANKS REF!!

[/ QUOTE ]

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[OneChipWarrior]

As a fan, I really didn't wanna see my team win this way. Even personally, this was one of the worst superbowls in recent memory.

I dunno why people complain about that first interference call. It's nitty, but still a legit call. The rest of the game however, we were all acutely aware that the Seahawks were dominating us and losing thanks to the refs and some big Steeler plays.

The Steelers game plan and Ben Roethlisberger sucked in the first half. Had you told me this prior to the game, I would have brushed you aside saying "[censored]..."

[mostsmooth]

espn analysts
watching espn talk about the highlights
3 things that made me scratch my head:
1. one claimed ben used his "great arm strength" on a particular play. either ben has no armstrength or he underthrows his deep receivers on purpose 99% of the time.
2. claimed ben "absolutely was not in" for the TD. i think the ref had some set of balls with the delayed td call, but after looking at the replay, theres really no doubt part of that ball hit the line.
3. they couldnt figure out why when the seattle receiver kicked the pylon on his attempted pass reception, he didnt get credit for a td like michael vick did when he dove and hit it with his hand. big difference between the two plays would be that mike vick had already established possession on the field.
theres more, but whatever. how do they get their jobs?

[JaredL]

After thinking about the game itself more here are my thoughts:
1. Seattle pretty much dominated in small plays, especially in the first half, but got dominated in big plays.
2. Seattle big guys on both sides were better than I expected against Pittsburgh. Polamalu was handled extremely well in particular, and the defense did completely shut down the run.
3. Roethlisberger played better than people give him credit for. His stats are terrible. His second interception is the worst pass I've ever seen him make. However, he did really well scrambling and at least didn't panic and kept it together (ie didn't pull a Maddox) toward the end despite having a bad passing day. He also threw a perfect TD pass to Ward who dropped it.
4. where was Heath Miller? Now that I think about it, where was Randle El? I don't remember any passes to either of these guys.
5. calls weren't nearly as bad as people here are saying. I made more comments about this in the ref thread.

Jared

[OneChipWarrior]

The Steelers had a [censored] game plan and poorer execution than Seattle but still managed to capatilize on their lucky breaks.