All you whiners, cry me a river!
Let’s look at some of the calls:
The pass interference call – yes it isn’t called all the time, but yet it is called sometimes. Did he push the defender away? Yes he did. If you look at the replay, the defender takes a step back after the push. The defender doesn’t take that step back if he’s just getting stiff-armed. Do you also remember that Pittsburg had an offensive pass interference called on them too? But unlike Seattle, they were able to overcome the penalty.
The ‘phantom’ TD – the end zone shot showed where the football was in reference to where it was on his body. The sideline shot showed that while he was in the air, the nose of the ball crossed the plane of the goal line and THEN the ball was moved backwards. And if you want to play the ‘IF’ game, IF it wouldn’t have been ruled a TD, chances are Pitt scores on the next play anyways. All it did was give Seattle more time to run a horrid hurry up offense.
The Hasselback penalty – That I will agree was a bad call. BUT, Pittsburg ran three plays before the TD pass. If the defense stops them from getting the first down, that play doesn’t happen. Yes the penalty gave them a shorter field, but there’s a good chance that even without the penalty (all things being the same), Pitt starts at the 29, gains 11 yards and they still could’ve run that play (yeah they like to run those plays at mid field, but may have made an exception based on how much time was left) and they still would have had the TD.
The holding calls – One was definitely a holding call, the other was questionable, but in the refs mind it was a holding call. But it wasn’t like it was the first or the second. Seattle was called for two offensive holding penalties in the first half…one was declined and the other accepted. So it’s not like the refs decided to call holding penalties in the second half.
But there was also a reception by Stephens where he caught the ball, turned and ran and took two or three steps and then fumbled, but since the blew the whistle, it could not have been reviewed.
People say that the refs should let the players play. I agree somewhat, but if penalties are not called that should be called, those are just as bad as if they made the calls. Jazz/Bulls game 5 (I believe) at the end of the game, Jordan pushes the defender away, gets the open shot and hits it. People will say you don’t make that call at the end of the game, but if you have someone take advantage of that, then you get situations where a whole team suffers because of the non-call. Did it cost the Jazz a championship? We’ll never now because the refs let someone get away with something illegal…All I know is that calls have to be made, regardless of the game, to keep it so that a team/player doesn’t take advantage of refs not calling penalties because it’s a big game.
We can play the ‘IF’ game all you want. If there wasn’t that holding call Seattle has the ball on the one…but they may not have scored anyways…if they did they still had to get the onside kick. IF Big Ben doesn’t throw that second INT the best is that Pitt is up 21-3 at the least 17-3. If the Seattle kicker doesn’t miss those two field goals then would things have been different?
The facts are: Seattle did not take advantage of their opportunities in the first half. They held Pitt without a first down the first 4 Steeler possessions and all they had to show for it was 3 points. Pitt had an offensive interference call against them the drive they scored the touchdown so they were able to overcome the penalty and not let it become an excuse. Steelers had 3rd and 28 and the Seattle defense, not the refs, let them get the first down. Yeah the Steelers lost the time of possession battle because they had two quick scores. The stats weren’t as lopsided as people would think. Seattle had 6 more first downs…well a 75 yard run and a 43 yard pass would take away from your first down totals. Third down efficiency – Seattle 5-17, Pitt 8-15…and if I remember right, Pitt didn’t get any first downs because of a refs call…blame that on the defense. Total plays was lopsided…77 to 56, but again when you have two long scoring plays, and the team you play against dinks and dunks a lot, you’re going to have that kind of a stat. Passing yards was a big disparity…but when a team only has to throw the ball 22 times, you’re not going to get a lot of passing yards, and the Steelers usually don’t pass a lot anyways.
So yes Seattle had calls that didn’t go their way, but other then the Hasselbeck call, none of them were ‘bad’ calls and they weren’t the only ones that had penalties called against them. It’s just that one defense was able to stop them when they needed to, and the other defense didn’t. But if it makes you sleep better to blame it on the refs instead of how the team played, well there’s nothing I can do to change your mind there.
Okay, I fixed it.