I’ll add my own- the personal foul against Ike Taylor that was called when he and Boldin went into the Cardinals’ bench area was correct, but there certainly should have been an offsetting penalty against the Cards. One of the coaches (looked like Wisenhunt) clearly took a swing, or at least a swipe, in retaliation.
Also, Harrison should have been ejected from the game. He clearly took swings at one of the Cardinals’ players while he was standing over him (and got a personal foul called against him for pushing the guy when he got up).
Agreed that Ben’s knee was not down on the first touchdown that was challenged and overruled. It appeared to be a couple of inches off the turf and, pushing or pulling aside, that portion of the review shouldn’t have contributed to overturning the initial ruling.
Harrison’s personal foul was without question the low point of the game. While tossing him from a SB might be extreme, he certainly needs to be fined heavily. Many in our group were pretty apathetic about who we were rooting for and just wanted to see a good game until that happened, then almost to a man did not want to see such bad behavior rewarded with a win.
I’m fully prepared to believe Santonio Holmes had both feet in for the final TD with :35 but I’d sure like to see a picture or film from a conclusive angle. Most of the reviews showed the play from above or in front and it’s impossible determine. Only once did I see an angle that might work and it was over quickly and never reshown and we don’t have Tivo. My concern was that his right shoe was draped over his left and wasn’t quite making contact with the ground. Checking online, I found a lot of similar sentiment and this. If someone has a better angle it’d be great to see.
My takes. I didn’t have benefit of DVR to re-review plays in the first half.
FTR I was rooting for the Steelers, but not fanatically.
1 Roth non-TD. Looked like he was down to me, plus it was technically a foul to pull R-burger. Pushing the runner happens 10 times a game, but pulling the runner is rare enough that a foul could have been legitimately called.
TD return. Right call.
3 & 4 Warner fumbles. In both cases, his arm moved forward and the ball came out moving forward. Seems like both should be incompletes. But the second one was close enough I don’t mark the officials down too much for it.
Holding for a safety. Marginal. The O-lineman did grab the rusher as he was falling backwards, but it’s hard to tell if the rusher was falling over anyway.
Roughing the passer. I don’t remember clearly, but think it was somewhere between ticky-tacky and bad call.
Roughing the holder. I lean against making this call. It looked to me like the rusher stumbled off balance and just happened to fall into the holder, without enough control to have a chance to avoid him. Sometimes in football sh*t happens and shouldn’t be a penalty. But again, a close call either way.
Fitzgerald TD #1. Looked good to me.
Holmes TD. On replay, it seems possible that one foot was caught behind the other and may have not quite scraped the turf, but certainly no indisputable evidence, and in a case like that, I think TD is the right call.
Others:
Definitely at least one missed flagrant hold by the Cards early (I only remember wondering how the Steeler’s rusher could breathe with an arm across his neck like that).
A couple of defensive holding calls (I think one each way, though the one against the Steelers was declined after the ball was caught) looked incredible ticky-tacky, brushing the receiver’s jersey with no perceptible effect on his progress.
The PF on the Steeler in the Cardinals bench could easily have been offsetting PFs each way.
It always surprises me how much the ball carrier can do to a tackler that would be an instant penalty if the tackler does it (there was a face-mask call at one point where both players had their hands in identical positions on each other’s helmets, both pushing pretty much the same way). I suppose it will take a paralyzed d-back to change that rule (and then only if it’s a star d-back and an unknown running back).
Overall, no complete screw-ups, though I thought they could have made a few less calls. On a game-management level, I wonder if a couple of offensive holding penalties early might have sent the message to O-linemen enough to prevent so much holding the rest of the game. They did keep things from getting too chippy, even though there were a few flare-ups.
rexnervous saw the same thing I did, so I wasn’t alone. I didn’t see it initially, as I thought it was a great catch. But after they kicked the extra point, they showed a different view of it, where he clearly didn’t catch it cleanly… he caught it high, it looked like it bounced off his helmet a bit and slid down his body as he was falling. The thing was, when he got to the ground, the first thing to hit is the tip of the ball. The ball is driven up into his hands making it more secure.
At the minimum, it should have been reviewed, but they didn’t even bother. I thought that was strange.
I would love to know what went on with Harrison and that guy on the punch. Something was said about his mother, I suspect. It was so strange.
The Taylor thing was the right call, IMO. I don’t like the offsetting penalties, especially when one player clearly takes the first swing. Taylor seemed to be the first guy, so he got the flag.
I think when you see this play again, you may be embarrassed about this description of it. The problem with your interpretation is that Wilson wasn’t blocked at all. He was lined up outside of Aaron Smith on the end of the line. Basically, he and #91 for the Cardinals run over Aaron Smith, and Wilson just runs himself into Mitch Berger.
There’s just no use in making up stuff to cry foul about.
Thing about the Holmes catch is this - there simply was not enough evidence to overturn it. Personally, I think he caught it, fantastic catch. But they reviewed it and whatever your personal feelings are, it would have been much more controversial had they overturned it.
I’ve seen it called recently, though I can’t remember the game. It has to be the 15 yard kind of facemask where the ball carrier grabs the facemask and jerks the head for it to be called. The stiff arm on the play in question wasn’t even close to warranting a flag and well down on the list of questionable calls, IMO.
Oh, his arm was moving forward, all right. It’s just that his knuckles were on the wrong side of the ball. The quarterback has to have his arm moving forward WITH CONTROL OF THE FOOTBALL.
Again, with feeling: WITH CONTROL OF THE FOOTBALL.
They did look at it again - upstairs. It was so obvious, there was no need to make them go under the hood.
Funny thing - if it were ruled a forward pass, it would have had to have also been ruled illegal touching, since the first thing it hit was an offensive lineman. With five seconds left in the game, the ten second run off for an offensive penalty would have killed the clock.
That would have worked for me…I probably lost my prop pool thanks to that play. I chose Pitt for most TOs and Arizona for last possession. It still stings.
I’d like to see the replay again, but that’s my recollection from the game, from the replay they showed at the time. If he wasn’t trying to pancake the holder, then I don’t know what the heck he was trying to do … Something else equally stupid, I suppose.
I have no dog in the fight. I’m a 49ers fan (weep for me), so I don’t want to see the Steelers take the SB record for themselves. On the other hand the Cardinals winning a SB would just feel wrong. It’d be like the Clippers winning the NBA championship.
I think they got the initial call wrong and the overturn was correct. I initially thought it was a waste of a challenge, but I changed my mind after a few replays. I’m a little suprised the refs thought there was enough to overturn, even though I think they missed the initial call.
I think they got this one right. If they didn’t, there wasn’t clear evidence to the contrary. If they call on the field had gone the other way, I don’t think it would have been overturned.
Right call.
Right call, but not reviewing it boggles my mind.
If this was holding, they should have been calling it consistently all game. I agree with the call as the rules are written, but the flag is inconsistent with the reffing for most of the game.
This was an awful call. Awful.
I thought he was blocked into the holder, but the rules may limit the number of steps you have to recover. He clearly took more than two steps after the block and hit the holder, but he was also clearly off balance the whole time.
I thought it was a good catch. I may have to watch the replay a few more times looking for the bobble.
I don’t think he got it. I think his right foot was off the ground, but there’s no way the ref could overturn it based on the replays that were shown.
I’m not familiar with the rule in question.
Again, I’m not familiar enough with the rule. It seems to change as players become more and more creative.
I thought you couldn’t be the first to make a “football play”, i.e. be the first to hit the ball carrier, either.
It depends on how far out of bounds they are; the coaches and guys not on the field aren’t supposed to be on the thick white line, that’s what it’s there for. In rugby, the home team has to put up flags 5 meters from the touch line that everybody is supposed to stay clear of.
I specifically remember a play on MNF quite a few years ago where the running back grabbed the facemask of an attempted tackler, and dragged him by the neck two or three steps. That most certainly got a foul.
More of a maul than a scum, really. A scrum is much more organized, a maul is virtually identical to a goal line stand.
Looked to me like he was tripping, but kept tripping more than he had to in order to get a shot in.
Forgive me if this was mentioned upthread, I didn’t read it all, but there was a blatant, serious clip on the Harrison INT-TD at the end of the run that clearly prevented a tackle. Woodley blocked Tim Hightower square in the back right in from of the runner at the 20 yard line.
You are patently insane and biased if you think Roethlisberger was in the endzone on that first non-TD. The replay could not have been more crystal clear and the officials made the correct call. There’s really no room for argument on that, the replay angle was flawless.
As I explained here the facemask on Cromartie was a bogus call. First off the runner committed an illegal stiff-arm. (NOTE TO EVERYONE: You are NOT allowed to use your hands to a defenders face if you are the ball carrier, the rules are clear and the NFL issued a point of emphasis about that this previous off-season. That said, the Refs always fuck it up.) Secondly, Holmes probably shouldn’t have been flagged at all since it was a minor infraction, he didn’t grab and pull the facemask. That’s a judgment call for the Refs, so you can’t get too bent out of shape over it, but I think the new facemask rules dictate that it should not have been flagged.
The final play absolutely should have been reviewed. I think it was a forward pass, just like the previous play that was reviewed earlier in the game. It doesn’t matter if his arm was hit before going forward. The way the rule is written all that matters is that his arm was moving forward with possession of the ball. That makes it an incomplete pass. The fact that his arm was grabbed and the ball contacted as it was cocked is irrelevant so long as the ball wasn’t loose, which it wasn’t.
The NFL is perpetrating a lie that the play was reviewed, but the Refs didn’t go under the hood and therefore is by definition wasn’t reviewed.
Again, you’ll be embarrassed if you watch this again. Clipping will never be called when the two players are looking at each other, and when the blocker first makes contact with the other players’ shoulder first. “Square in the back”? Not even close.
I suppose I’m patently insane then. The replay confirmed that his knee was up, off the field, and the overturn was bogus.
An illegal stiff arm? Okay - but you’ll never, ever, ever see a stiff arm like that called. Unfair? Perhaps, but boo hoo hoo. That’s just the way it goes.
the refs upstairs reviewed the play, and it was obvious to everyone that he had nothing near control of the ball. Could not be clearer. No control, no pass, regardless of whether his arm was going up, down, backwards or forwards.
Again, irrelevant anyway, since a pass would have resulted in illegal touching and a 10 second run off, but a correct call on the field and correct booth review.
Turn the sound off a watch it again. At the 26 second mark you see the ball reach the back of Warner’s wind up. Woodley at that moment hits his arm and the ball. Now, watch the play after Woodley hits him, at any point does the ball leave Warner’s hand? No, it does not. Warner drives the ball forward through the contact making it a pass. In order for it to be a fumble the ball has to be loose before his hand goes forward, and it definitely wasn’t.
To the other suggestion that it somehow would have been a penalty for hitting a lineman is completely wrong, the ball was deflected by Woodley and therefore that is moot.
The only call listed in the OP I thought was clearly wrong was the roughing the passer call; it’s simply unrealistic to expect a rusher to stop immediately, especially, as Madden pointed out, with a big QB like Roethlisberger, who you’re going to need to give your best shot to get down.
The holding call was kinda ticky-tack, but they were calling it tight both ways.
Which brings me to the two calls I thought were totally blown: did nobody else see the two non-calls on Roethlisberger for intentional grounding? On one, there was nobody even on the screen where he threw it; on the other they picked up the flag and called “out of the pocket,” but it was not at all clear to me that he was.
I think when you see this play again, you may be embarrassed about this description of it. The problem with your interpretation is that Wilson wasn’t blocked at all. He was lined up outside of Aaron Smith on the end of the line. Basically, he and 