The HOLDING CALL did it ALL

[Dumbass]

It only takes one bad call to change a game folks. The refs made 4 horrible calls that I can recall. 3-1 in favor of PIT but the holding call was the biggest one. PIT went to 21-10 when it may have been SEA 17-14 and they robbed us of a dramatic finish.

You guys that are arguing that these calls don't affect the outcome probably are not even thinking about that call because it did not result in a score or a turn over. It resulted in a 2nd and 20 or something like that. A call that goes under the radar but for a team in need of a big play at a critical time THAT IS THE BALL GAME.

Yea Stevens dropped a bunch of balls but should those botched plays by Seattle be all that we can blame because we can not call out the refs.

I didn't know NFL refs had badges.
Yea, those guys don't get called out either.

I say this not giving a rat's ass about either team and only having lost my $25 in my pool. I am a disappointed fan.

[poptart]

The NFL is right on track to becoming the NBA.

NBA has 'star' calls, and the NFL has 'team' calls.

Pitt was the league's team of choice for this week's game.

Everyone should have known that going in.


Fans need a new league.

[BSmack]

You guys that are arguing that these calls don't affect the outcome probably are not even thinking about that call because it did not result in a score or a turn over. It resulted in a 2nd and 20 or something like that. A call that goes under the radar but for a team in need of a big play at a critical time THAT IS THE BALL GAME.

Damn right it was the ball game. They picked the worst possible times to use poor blocking technique. Don't hook the defender with the arm and those calls don't happen. There's a reason the Steelers only sacked Hasselback twice. Or didn't you think of that?

[PSUFAN]

When you're using your arms to bend the rusher's head and arms back, and you're standing behind him, that's holding. On the plays that holds were called, they generally could take their pick of who to flag.

[Cicero]

It only takes one bad call to change a game folks. The refs made 4 horrible calls that I can recall. 3-1 in favor of PIT but the holding call was the biggest one. PIT went to 21-10 when it may have been SEA 17-14 and they robbed us of a dramatic finish.

You guys that are arguing that these calls don't affect the outcome probably are not even thinking about that call because it did not result in a score or a turn over. It resulted in a 2nd and 20 or something like that. A call that goes under the radar but for a team in need of a big play at a critical time THAT IS THE BALL GAME.

Yea Stevens dropped a bunch of balls but should those botched plays by Seattle be all that we can blame because we can not call out the refs.

I didn't know NFL refs had badges.
Yea, those guys don't get called out either.

I say this not giving a rat's ass about either team and only having lost my $25 in my pool. I am a disappointed fan.

Dude you're soo right. On the very next play Hasselbeck dropped back and was picked off by the Umpire and he brought it back to the 23. The Umpire was just at the right place at the right time. So the holding might have been questionable. Hass is still to blame for throwing the pick.

[Cueball]

How pissed do you think we were when the Back Judge jumped Brady's pass in the endzone and ran it back to the 1 against Dungver? Squawkfan shoud ask the Walrus why he decided to suit up Scott Norwood instead of Brown.

[Dumbass]

You guys that are arguing that these calls don't affect the outcome probably are not even thinking about that call because it did not result in a score or a turn over. It resulted in a 2nd and 20 or something like that. A call that goes under the radar but for a team in need of a big play at a critical time THAT IS THE BALL GAME.

Damn right it was the ball game. They picked the worst possible times to use poor blocking technique. Don't hook the defender with the arm and those calls don't happen. There's a reason the Steelers only sacked Hasselback twice. Or didn't you think of that?

No the same way I don't think there needs to be "balance" in calls. If they are there make them. I just did not see it on the replay and at the same time I bitched so was John or Al. It did not look anywhere close to a true hold (or hook as you say) and it was an opportunistic call. You know when a QB has someone down the middle...that smooth drop back and follow through...you know when those are connecting. As soon as he released it I said, "that's it"...you see the confidence and bam here is this guy wide open down the middle and it gets called back. What is also troubling to me on a play like this is that it appeared to have no effect on the play. Like an uncatchable ball can not get a PI call...well, this play was not an opportunity for a sack the way it played out. Well from my memory, it was a quick 3-4 second to the realease and the guy was not hooked to the floor or something like that.

I don't know. I didn't like it and this play is going under the radar. Salisbury is here talking about this play and that play but nobody will ever call out plays like this and they do serious damage. Crying about th refs is always frowned upon and disregarded but come on. We know peeps make mistakes and we also know peeps have questionable morals. So if and when the officials gambling scandal ever comes out (in any league), don't be surprised.

They may not have given them a win (and I am not saying that) but they may have protected that spread. :wink:

[Dumbass]

You guys with th pick argument. Again, I am sorry that is not a valid point in my book because the point is that the call should never have been made. If it is not, Matt may not be throwing the remainder of that drive. Now again, everytime I say this I say the score may have been 17-14 after that drive ended but Shaun could have gone Jerome and fumbled on the next play. I am not saying they would have scored for sure. The same way Vince Young may not have scored after that boy's knee was down before making the TD. You can never assume any score is a given from any position on the field, the same way I don't think you can not respect the damge done by a call like this.

Oh and I retract my statement of Salisbury. He just called it out and gave it it's due. Props to those that do.

I also saw the replay just now. I still do not see the hold but I take back the effect comment. A hold would have prevented a hit on Matt and possible sack but I still don't think that qualified as one.

[BSmack]

No the same way I don't think there needs to be "balance" in calls. If they are there make them. I just did not see it on the replay and at the same time I bitched so was John or Al.

Well, if John Madden agrees with you....

[poptart]

A team wins the turnover battle 2-1, outgains the other by 60 yds, and loses the game by 11 pts.

A very rare event.

[Tom In VA]

A team wins the turnover battle 2-1, outgains the other by 60 yds, and loses the game by 11 pts.

A very rare event.

What was that saying on the old SCIII Jim Rome board ? "Scoreboard is the only stat that matters" or something to that effect.


Bad calls, bad non-calls have always been, are, and will always be a part of the game.


Trash talking Stevens dropping those passes has much more to do with Seattle losing the game than bad calls, as do missed field goals.

[Red]

Shitty calls were the order of the day.

When is the NFL going to put a camera on the goal line so they don't have to rely on a shot from an angle to guess if the ball crossed the plane?

When are the referees going to grow a pair of nuts and make the call that they see instead of looking to the guy across the field for reassurance?

When is the NFL going to mandate that their referees quit moonlighting and - like the players, coaches and every fucking other person in the league - work full time?

You know what the really sad part is? That crew is the best the league has to offer.

[BSmack]

When is the NFL going to put a camera on the goal line so they don't have to rely on a shot from an angle to guess if the ball crossed the plane?

Did you even watch the game? There was a camera on the goal line.

[Dumbass]

No no no, Red makes a good point. I noticed that too. The goal line is not split right down the middle of our screen. That is why I only say I think that curve of the ball passed the goal line but that angle is misleading. It may not have.

Yea and another point on Stevens. Um, where is that clown that was trying to tell me Seattle had the best receivers in the league? Bwahahahaha.

Just heard some more radio. Dan Patrick commented on that run in by the line judge too on Roth's TD. They are talking about it on Rome right now too. Peter King ranked it in his bottom 6, regarding the play, of Super Bowls he has witnessed. I said it was a nice October Super Bowl and it is being shared throughout but that doesn't mean a whole lot anyway. What did we expect? An overhyped AFC conference in which the 6th seed made it in (still in my opinion the best AFC team they could have sent) and an NFC champ that played a depleted wild card team to get in. It was what it was. If these teams were to retun next year, it will be a much better ball game I am sure.

Dilfer was on the radio today too and had some interesting comments on Dan's show. Oh and D'Marco Farr talking about how Dilfer is glad they saw NYG instead of STL. Please bitch. Warner would have been on his ass the whole game and Jamal would have mowed them down. If I still cared about making that argument, I would be on the phone right now. Baltimore dominated the playoffs like no other.

Anyways, catch NFL tonight and whatever you can. Interesting non-calls on PIT on simillar "holding" plays. That was such a convenient flag. If you do not think this officiating is being torn apart throughout the country, you haven't caught any shows yet today. It is dominating the talk of the game.

[smackaholic]

When is the NFL going to put a camera on the goal line so they don't have to rely on a shot from an angle to guess if the ball crossed the plane?

Did you even watch the game? There was a camera on the goal line.

i watched it. the camera was not on the goal line. it was a few yards deep in the endzone, making it more or less completely useless in deciding this call. he is right. it should be right on the fukking goal line.

[RadioFan]

Jason Whitlock's column today ...

DETROIT -- What crime-ridden, boarded-building, automotive-industry-ravaged, snowy Detroit couldn’t do, an NFL officiating crew pulled off with relative ease in front of plenty of bored-silly football fans inside beautiful Ford Field.

Sports’ and television’s most indestructible beast — the Super Bowl — met its match in the 40th playing of the game the world stops to watch.
The inevitable finally happened. A group of middle-aged executives trying to keep pace with a group of highly trained 20-something athletes destroyed America’s sports holiday.

Pittsburgh’s one-for-the-thumb Super Bowl will be remembered as the game when physically overmatched referees and heads-buried NFL executives flipped non-Steelers fans an XL middle finger.

<Rack the fuck out of that three-paragraph blast.>

The Steelers shook off a terrible first quarter and whipped the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 in Super Bowl XL.

Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher, after a 14-year pursuit, secured his long-overdue first title. Receiver Hines Ward won the MVP award with a five-catch, 123-yard, one-TD performance. The Bus, Jerome Bettis, contributed a couple of big plays in his Super Bowl homecoming. And Ben Roethlisberger, the boy-wonder QB, overcame a couple of critical mistakes with a few all-heart runs and throws.

The Seahawks did what they could to help the Steelers, too. Jerramy Stevens, called out by Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter during pregame hype, dropped enough Matt Hasselbeck passes that FBI investigators would be negligent for failing to interrogate Stevens today. His third-quarter TD catch has to be considered a smokescreen, clutched with two hands to fool people suspicious of a point-shaving scandal.

Seattle coach Mike Holmgren’s end-of-the-first-half play-calling and clock management also contributed to Pittsburgh’s victory. Trailing 7-3 and having moved the ball to the Pittsburgh 40 with 48 seconds on the clock, the Seahawks wasted a good 30 seconds as Hasselbeck flapped his arms, shouted directions and impersonated Peyton Manning at the line of scrimmage. If not for a Pittsburgh timeout, it appeared the Seahawks were going to take a delay-of-game penalty or try to run out the entire clock.

Eventually, Holmgren sent Josh Brown out to attempt a 54-yard field goal — which Brown missed — and walked into the Seattle locker room with one timeout in his pocket.

But make no mistake about Super Bowl XL, the performance of referee Bill Leavy and his crew overshadowed Pittsburgh’s heroics and Seattle’s blunders.

Paul Tagliabue’s league has an officiating crisis. Bogus, inconsistent flag-throwing and rule-interpreting is making the national pastime difficult to take seriously. So far, only Joey Porter has demonstrated the necessary courage to address what we all see.

Many of these part-time, 50-year-old referees don’t know what they’re doing and can’t keep up with the action.

Porter fumed when the refs nearly stole Pittsburgh’s playoff victory over Indianapolis by overturning a Troy Polamalu interception.

Porter probably won’t address the first-quarter touchdown that Sunday’s referees stole from the Seahawks. Hasselbeck avoided pressure and hit Darrell Jackson in the back of the end zone with a beautiful strike. The Pittsburgh cornerback immediately turned to back judge Bob Waggoner and begged for an offensive pass-interference call. After a couple of seconds of thought, Waggoner granted the Pittsburgh request and erased Seattle’s hard-earned touchdown.

The Seahawks settled for a field goal. Had they not been robbed of the four points, they would have ended the game with the ball and the opportunity to drive for a game-tying touchdown.

Seattle was victimized by two other questionable first-half calls — including the 1-yard TD run the refs awarded Roethlisberger when he seemed a few inches short of the goal line — but the final backbreaking call helped set up Pittsburgh’s game-icing, reverse, wide-receiver-pass-to-Ward touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Ike Taylor intercepted Hasselbeck deep in Pittsburgh territory. Hasselbeck stopped Taylor at the Pittsburgh 29 with a perfectly executed form tackle across Taylor’s knees. The refs flagged Hasselbeck for illegally “blocking” Taylor across his knees and gave the Steelers 15 additional yards.

The Seahawks justifiably can complain that Sunday’s one-sided officiating disrupted their offensive rhythm and undermined their focus. The officiating had to creep inside their head.

And NFL fans need to acknowledge that there’s something terribly wrong with professional football. This year’s playoffs were horrible. Sunday’s Super Bowl stands as an appropriate symbol of the 2006 playoffs — boring and poorly officiated.

We are too technologically advanced, and the NFL is overrun with too much money to put up with the kind of officiating errors that are ruining the pro game. The league needs younger, full-time referees on the field and a three-man officiating team sitting in the press box supervising what is called on the field. All calls — including ones like the offensive pass-interference call that killed Seattle — should be subject to quick review and overturning.

You don’t need an official on the field to stick his head underneath a blanket draped over a camera to review calls. Those decisions can be made in a press-box suite. Instead of stopping the game for commercial timeouts on nearly every change of possession or when a coach just wants to stop the clock, the game should go to a commercial timeout whenever a critical penalty needs to be reviewed in the booth.

Also, the officiating crew should be forced to address the media and defend their decisions. It’s ridiculous that the media are allowed to confront players, coaches, executives and owners, but the guys who can easily change the course of a game with one questionable decision are pretty much off limits.

Bill Leavy and his crew ruined Super Bowl XL. Am I the only one who would like to hear them defend their incompetence?