Discussion of Official Calls in Super Bowl 43

The Game Room
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If I miss any, please add them. I’ll try to remember as many “controversial” calls as I can and my opinions on them. These are my opinions only, of course.

  1. First Steeler TD, Big Ben getting pulled into the endzone by Hartwig, ruled a TD on field, overruled by instant replay.

Bad call. They got it right on the field, but screwed the replay review. I have watched the play a dozen times, and Ben isn’t down until he’s easily into the endzone. He is laying on top of Hartwig as he moved into the endzone. The official call was that his knee hit the ground before he crossed the endzone. Not true. If you watch it closely, you can see a shadow between his knee and the ground. If another part of his body hit the ground before crossing the goal line, I don’t see it. That review was huge, and they got it wrong. (FTR, Ben didn’t get in against the Seahawks, and the officials blew that call too. Totally fascinating to me how they can’t seem to get these replay calls correct).

  1. Harrison return for TD.

Right call. It was close, but like Ben, Harrison was on Larry Fitzgeralds legs and was not down until crossing the goal line.

  1. Warner fumble - overturned to be incomplete pass.

Right call. It was a close call, and I think the fact that the ball came out in a spiral after the hit didn’t hurt, but I think it was consistent with similar calls I’ve seen during the season.

  1. Second Warner fumble. - end of game, and apparently not reviewed.

Right call. They should have reviewed it if indeed they didn’t. But, it was a fumble. Warner’s arm and the ball were hit before he went into throw mode.

  1. Holding on Hartwig in end zone. - resulted in safety.

Tough one. I guess under the rules, he did hold him, but I don’t think that call should have been made… especially when Harrison was held consistently throughout the entire game.

  1. Roughing the passer against the Cards defense against Big Ben. - Steelers get 15 yards and first down after he threw the ball away to keep the drive alive.

Another tough one. Like the holding call, it was probably technically correct, but if it wasn’t called, I don’t think I would have been shocked.

  1. The roughing the holder penalty - personal file against Steeler field goal holder Berger. - gave the Steelers 3 more downs, but didn’t change the outcome. Steelers come away with three points.

As ticky-tacky as that call seemed, it’s a pretty clear cut rule. You can’t hit the holder when he’s defenseless, and it was a bone-head penalty. Just as bad as Harrison’s stupid personal file on the punt in the 4th quarter. WTF was that?

  1. Larry Fitzgerald’s first TD catch. - loft into the corner, he came down with the ball.

I think it should have been reviewed. On subsequent viewings, (and I didn’t see it until I watched the play again after the game), the ball wasn’t cleanly caught. If you watch it again, watch the ball kind of slide down Fitz’s body as he goes to the ground. The tip of the ball hits the ground before he has clear possession. At least as I understand the rule.

  1. Holmes’ TD - ruled a catch

Right call - he did catch it.

  1. Steve Breaston doesn’t fair catch a punt and is tackled immediately. I don’t think the Steeler defender gave him the proper buffer to make the catch, and it should have been a penalty.

  2. Holmes’ TD celebration. No penalty on using the ball as a prop. He clearly did. I can’t believe this wasn’t called, as it would have given the Cards great field position after the kick-off for the final drive.

I’m sure there are a few other ones. How’d I do?

Full disclosure - most of you know by now I’m a Steeler fan, but I try to be objective with the calls. I want the game to be played and called correctly, regardless of whether or not it helps or hurts the Steelers. Of course, I always want the call to go our way, but I’ll admit it when I see evidence that the call was incorrect.

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As an aside, I have to say that I think Madden and Michaels do a disservice to the league and fans everywhere. I think they have a real bias against the Steelers (why Madden would is obvious; why Michaels does I have no idea), and their commentary of Super Bowl XL made it appear that a bunch of correct calls that favored the Steelers were bad, whereas they had no comment about calls in the other direction.

As to your observations, I agree with nearly all of them. I defy anyone to show me where Ben’s knee went down before he got in the end zone on the first Steeler touchdown.

I’m curious about the Fitzgerald touchdown you described. I noticed that the ball was moving all around in his hands, including one point that he had it pressed between one hand and the back of his wrist on the other hand, but I actually didn’t watch to see if he did control it before going down.

I think there were many holding calls that weren’t made against the Cardinals, but that is true of most teams against Harrison all year. However, there was one such call that was made, but my problem is that it was called as holding, where the offensive lineman of the Cardinals actually grabbed Harrison by the facemask and yanked him around. Should have been a 15 yarder instead of a 10 yarder.

Something else I wondered about was Fitzgerald on the Harrison TD return. He ran most of the time out of bounds. I don’t actually know how the rules apply on an interception return, but I did wonder if he could do that and then come in to try to make the tackle.

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  1. The refs should have flagged this as a 10-yard penalty against the Steelers. You cannot aid the runner by pushing or pulling him.

I’ll leave the others be with the assertion you are clearly not viewing things objectively.

ETA: Absent from the list: On the Rodgers-Cromartie facemask… he appeared to get facemasked first and the runner cannot facemask a defender.

4

I forgot about this one, but you are right. Harrison was face-masked as far as I could tell, and thought that would be the penalty called. Wrong!

I wondered that too, since I couldn’t figure out where he came from. If someone on the sideline bumped Fitzgerald, that wouldn’t have been a penalty since he wasn’t in the field of play… is that correct?

5

You can go out of bounds and come back in. The only rule is that you can’t be the first one to touch the ball once you get back in bounds.

6

I wondered about that. I know that used to be the rule (aiding a runner to go forward), but I’ve seen that more and more this year, and it has not been called. I don’t know if there has been a rule change, or they blew the call. But I agree with you that if it is against the rules, that’s a penalty against the Steelers.

I try, but can’t deny that my objectivity might be strained in this game. I do try to make a fair stab at them, but I will concede that I could be looking at things with my team’s interests at heart.

As a ball carrier, you are permitted to stiff arm the tackler, and that includes the facemask. you can’t grab the facemask, but you can jam the tackler with an outstretched arm. I honestly can’t remember if the Steeler facemasked the defender or not.

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Yes, but this is usually in relation to a punt coverage. If it holds for everything, that’s fine. But if Fitzgerald is chasing Harrison out of bounds on the Steeler sideline, and a player on the sideline (or a coach for that matter) impedes his progress, is that a penalty? After all, being out of bounds on the sidelines is where the team is supposed to be. Are they under any obligation to get out of the pursuer’s way?

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Yes, the runner can. It’s considered a stiff arm. If there is a rule against facemasking a defender when you have the ball, I’ve never seen it called.

9

Not exactly - kick coverage guys cannot run out of bounds of their own volition and return to the field of play.

I don’t think there’s any similar rule for this circumstance, however.

10

No, the runner cannot facemask a defender. You see, a facemask is when you close your hand on the mask of the player. Simply putting your hand in his face is perfectly acceptable. It is when the grasping occurs that the problems arise.

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I can certainly understand the predisposition :slight_smile: All in all, it did not seem as though either team seemed to get a particular short end of the stick, the officiating was pretty bad all the way around.

Then again, there’s lots of stuff that happened that wouldn’t even catch a second glance during the regular season. I expect the NFL will stand by its refs 100% if the media raises a stink about call quality.

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  1. Disagree. I’ll check my DVR when I have time, but I remember thinking in live action that his knee was down before he got in. I felt satisfactorily vindicated by the replays. Oh, sure, I’m biased, but then again:

  2. Agree. Harrison definitely got it, although, yes, it was close.

One of the greatest plays in Super Bowl History, too. This one will be on NFL Films soon enough.

3 & 4) I don’t understand the intricacies of the forward pass determintaion well enough to say, but I remember thinking that both plays looked like forward passes to my untrained eye.

  1. Absolutely the right call. He held him. The video evidence was clear.

  2. Agree. It was technically the right call. With a QB like Big Ben, the defender probably assumed the guy was scrambling. You gotta make that assumption with Roethlisberger. The defender had every right to make that tackle, and it should be called every time. That’s what happens when you play a really good QB.

I was very impressed by how much Big Ben had matured over the last few years, too. I remember him nearly giving away Super Bowl XL several times, and he was clearly frazzled then. This time, he was secure in himself, confident, and he wasn’t overeager, nor was he overly cautious. He’s gradually developed his ability to scramble; I remember him sitting around in the pocket and getting his world rocked back when he was a rookie, but now he’s probably one of the best in the league at making something out of nothing. He gave a performance worthy of a Super Bowl champion.

  1. Agreed on all points. BTW, I’m noticing you’re calling fouls “files”. WTF?

  2. Fitz was clearly wrestling with the ball a little bit, but I don’t think it ever looked like he was at risk of dropping it. I would say he was in control the whole time, and, FTR, that was one of the coolest-looking catches ever, especially in slow motion.

  3. Agree. Close call, but he made the catch. Roethlisberger to Holmes is going to be a fun one to watch for the next 5-10 years.

  4. The NFL no longer has a halo rule. There was nothing even vaguely illegal about that play.

  5. I think that’s a dumb rule. I love those celebrations. His was pretty cool, I thought.

All in all, I thought this was a very well-called game. I was impressed by a lot of things in this game: the professionalism of the players and coaches on both teams, the fairness of the refs, the high quality of the calls, the tight time management and general coaching. I think this was a Super Bowl for the ages, even if the third quarter was a little boring.

Even as a fairweather Cards fan, I have to agree. I remember thinking, “Holding? 10 yards? Really? For that?”

I doubt that. I see it all the time in NFL games and it isn’t called. That might be an NCAA-specific rule, an old rule that has since been scrapped, or a rule that just isn’t called anymore. Personally, I like to see those scrums and I’m glad they’re legal. Although a similar play did save the Steelers from a safety near the end of the game (they just got nailed for a safety on the next play, I think).

That said, if it is against the rules, then, yes, the Steelers clearly should have been penalized twice.

Hostile Dialect,
Hostile Dialect, Football Fan

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  1. Disagree. I’ll check my DVR when I have time, but I remember thinking in live action that his knee was down before he got in. I felt satisfactorily vindicated by the replays. Oh, sure, I’m biased, but then again:

  2. Agree. Harrison definitely got it, although, yes, it was close.

One of the greatest plays in Super Bowl History, too. This one will be on NFL Films soon enough.

3 & 4) I don’t understand the intricacies of the forward pass determintaion well enough to say, but I remember thinking that both plays looked like forward passes to my untrained eye.

  1. Absolutely the right call. He held him. The video evidence was clear.

  2. Agree. It was technically the right call. With a QB like Big Ben, the defender probably assumed the guy was scrambling. You gotta make that assumption with Roethlisberger. The defender had every right to make that tackle, and it should be called every time. That’s what happens when you play a really good QB.

I was very impressed by how much Big Ben had matured over the last few years, too. I remember him nearly giving away Super Bowl XL several times, and he was clearly frazzled then. This time, he was secure in himself, confident, and he wasn’t overeager, nor was he overly cautious. He’s gradually developed his ability to scramble; I remember him sitting around in the pocket and getting his world rocked back when he was a rookie, but now he’s probably one of the best in the league at making something out of nothing. He gave a performance worthy of a Super Bowl champion.

  1. Agreed on all points. BTW, I’m noticing you’re calling fouls “files”. WTF?

  2. Fitz was clearly wrestling with the ball a little bit, but I don’t think it ever looked like he was at risk of dropping it. I would say he was in control the whole time, and, FTR, that was one of the coolest-looking catches ever, especially in slow motion.

  3. Agree. Close call, but he made the catch. Roethlisberger to Holmes is going to be a fun one to watch for the next 5-10 years.

  4. The NFL no longer has a halo rule. There was nothing even vaguely illegal about that play.

  5. I think that’s a dumb rule. I love those celebrations. His was pretty cool, I thought.

All in all, I thought this was a very well-called game. I was impressed by a lot of things in this game: the professionalism of the players and coaches on both teams, the fairness of the refs, the high quality of the calls, the tight time management and general coaching. I think this was a Super Bowl for the ages, even if the third quarter was a little boring.

Even as a fairweather Cards fan, I have to agree. I remember thinking, “Holding? 10 yards? Really? For that?”

I doubt that. I see it all the time in NFL games and it isn’t called. That might be an NCAA-specific rule, an old rule that has since been scrapped, or a rule that just isn’t called anymore. Personally, I like to see those scrums and I’m glad they’re legal. Although a similar play did save the Steelers from a safety near the end of the game (they just got nailed for a safety on the next play, I think).

That said, if it is against the rules, then, yes, the Steelers clearly should have been penalized twice.

Hostile Dialect,
Hostile Dialect, Football Fan

14

WTF indeed. Can I chalk it up to exhaustion, a few more beers than I usually drink and ebonics? phonetics? Crap… that’s just embarrassing. Thanks for pointing it out, but I’m humiliated. That’s a TERRIBLE typo.

Just give me a pass on this and hammer my points. I realize that my file=foul faux pas strains my already weak credibility, but I DID have the extra beer. :smiley:

You Narcissist, you. :stuck_out_tongue:

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oh, I forgot to address a couple of points.

Thank you for clearing that one up. I had no idea they removed the halo rule.

Dumb rule or not, if I was a Cards fan, I would be upset. I think that’s a 15 yard penalty. If the Steelers had to move their kickoff back 15 yards, the Cards would have much better field position to start their final drive.

Reminder to myself: Personal FOUL, personal FOUL :smack: ( what a jackass I am!)

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Fitzgerald’s first “TD” was not a catch (based on the replays they showed) and I was surprised neither Madden nor Michaels mentioned anything. He was still trying to control the ball when he hit the ground - the important part though is that a) you can clearly see the point of the ball - about level with his shoulder - hit the ground as he comes down, and b) when he actually gains final control of the ball, well after being tackled, the ball is down in his midsection.

Ergo, the ground jarred the ball loose, so incomplete pass.

However…

The only reason Fitzgerald didn’t catch it cleanly is because he was interfered with in the first place. Note the defender’s hand comes crashing down on Fitzgerald’s left arm well before the ball gets there, so his arm can’t get up in time to make the catch cleanly. And this is Fitz were talking about - 100% of the time he’d make that catch easily w/ no interference.

So a wash.

Other than that, as much as I think 2 of the 3 personal foul calls were ticky-tacky, I actually think the refs got all of the calls you noted correct. The Cards killed themselves in this game.

And I was rooting for the Cardinals…

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That’s what I saw, so I’m glad someone else at least saw the same thing…

On further review… I think maybe Big Ben didn’t score after all. It could be that his knee furthest from the camera hit before the ball went across… Madden and Michaels were referring to the knee closest to the camera, and that’s where I may have gotten confused. I am going to look at it again just out of curiosity, but I saw a highlight on the news this morning and it’s a lot closer than I thought. Of course, I’ve been looking at the wrong knee…

Madden babbles so much that he’s really not paying attention to what’s going on around him. I just can’t understand his appeal anymore. The guy was what, 1-7 in AFC Championship games? He would never have been elected to the hall of fame without his announcing gig, (and some believe his association with Madden football boosted his visibility as well). Cripes, he sucks as an announcer.

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  1. and 7): America shudders for its future, in the pansy-ass world where these momentum-driven “fouls” are the norm for unnecessary roughness.

It’s called football, and used to be played by something other than little tiny baby girls.

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Call on the field was correct. Big Ben’s knee was clearly down with just his head and shoulders leaning across the plane. I don’t think the Hartwig push thing was really visible to the officials- I couldn’t see it from any of the field-level views, just from above.

Correct call. He was on top of Fitzgerald and/or Breaston’s legs.

It looked like a fumble to me- ie., in the normal sense of the term, not the officiating sense- but his arm was going forward with the ball still in his hand, which is generally ruled as a pass.

Ridiculous that it wasn’t reviewed, but it could have gone either way. Again, though, his arm was clearly going forward with the ball.

Correct call- had Dockett not been held, Big Ben would have been pasted.

I don’t think it signifies that Harrison was held a lot, because they called it [against Gandy] at least four times.

Terrible, terrible call. There was absolutely no way anyone but a cornerback would have been able to stop in time. He was one and a half steps away. Plus, he was clearly attempting to pull up, as he just put his hands on Ben and wound up shoving him a couple of yards.

This was the worst. The defender was blocked into the holder. It wasn’t quite as bad as the personal foul called against Matt Hasselbeck on a post-interception tackle attempt in the last Steelers Super Bowl, but it was really, really bad.

The ball never hit the ground. His arm was under it the whole time.

Correct call. On first viewing (ie., live) I was sure he had gone out of bounds, but on replay, sure enough, he made a perfect catch-and-tap. Plus, the official was less than six feet away.

Halo/kick catch interference is almost never called unless the receiver calls for a fair catch. Would have been an ultra ticky-tack call to do it there.

Does the ball count as a prop? I’m pretty sure that hasn’t been called before.

Pretty good. No idea what you were looking at on the first Fitzgerald touchdown, though.