Bollocks. The real problem with Super Bowl XL is that it was horribly officiated. It’s very, very rare that I watch a game and think, “those officials did a bad job”. I watched that game and wondered why those officials had a job.
Stupid Chargers. :(:smack::(:smack:
sings
San Dee-ay-go, stupid Chargers…
Hey, has a nice ring to it.
I noticed in the MNF game, there was a close call with a first down measurement, and the ref bent down and really made sure he got a good look at it…
Well I think that’s an overstatement in any case, but I suppose it depends on just what the rule is. If the refs are supposed to throw the flag when a player dives and tackles low but, in the process, also hits a blocker, then it’s totally understandable how the mistake was made; at full speed, it sort of looked like Hasselbeck made contact (especially if one didn’t have a perfect angle). If the refs are not supposed to throw the flag on a successful tackle that also hits a blocker, then, yes, it was 100% egregious.
A receiver will never be allowed to push a defender backwards. I don’t know what you’re watching if you think otherwise.
Also, there is no four point play in football.
The only way you say any of that is if you only ever saw the Madden and Michaels show. If they show a replay that doesn’t show the play in question, and then proclaim that it didn’t happen, it kind of leaves a false impression. Is that the only time you saw it?
You’re forgetting the rare and mysterious double safety.
Look, I’m not going to get into a pissing match with you on who knows more about football. You’re welcome to believe that it was obvious and blatant PI, and that it was called that way throughout the game and is called that way throughout the league. I disagree. In fact, every single person to whom I’ve spoken about the game, other than the Steelers fans, disagrees. I understand bias - Lord knows I’ve never seen an undeserved penalty called against a Giants’ opponent - but if you can’t view the fact that virtually every non-Steelers fan who saw the game thinks it was a bad call as evidence that you just might - might - be biased by your fandom, then you’re not being realistic.
I’m watching the play right now, frame-by-frame, and it’s reminding me of something I had forgotten before. Jackson breaks toward the center of the field, toward Hope. Hope initiates contact with Jackson, putting his hand in the center of Jackson’s chest to stop the latter’s movement. Jackson puts his own hand out, contacts Hope in more or less exactly the same way Hope contacted him. Both guys have their hands on one another, neither is interfering. How is Jackson interfering but Hope is not? Then Jackson breaks back the other way. Touchdown.
Oh, and Ha Ha! You caught a typo! You win the thread!
You know what? You’ve convinced yourself that this whole thing is because everyone else is too stupid to actually see what’s going on, so: sure. That’s all I ever saw.
I’m not going to convince you, and you’re certainly not going to convince me, so what’s the point of this, anyway?
Yes, but you’re arguing that it was obviously and blatantly not pass interference, or at least shouldn’t have been called as such. You can’t very well get on him for believing his interpretation is the One True Call when you’re doing the same thing.
For what it’s worth, I don’t really remember the play, and considering I was screaming at the referees throughout that game that suggests that it was a marginal call either way.
Fair enough.
Why are you being reasonable in a sports thread? You’re ruining my buzz.
<wanders back to youtube to try to figure out how all those Saints got so freaking open all day long>
It was a marginal call. By the rules, it could have been considered pass interference. But if that kind of act is called pass interference, there should be at least a 4 or 5 flags thrown for the exact same thing every game. This last Sunday, for example, I saw Donald Driver, Dennis Northcutt, Greg Jennings, Desmond Clark, Greg Olson, and others do almost the exact same thing, without getting flagged. The fact it was flagged in the Super Bowl and it happened to go, shock of shocks, against the Seahawks like almost all of the other marginal calls, was just sad for the game of football.
I don’t know if they’re stupid, really. They just got outplayed in every facet of the game.
Everyone? Here’s how King Kaufman of Salon describes himself:
Here’s his take on the push-off:
Here’s his take on the holding:
As I said in my very first post on the subject, I consider it arguable but possible that both the PI and the holding call were within the strict definition of the penalties in question. The point is what Hamlet has just said much more concisely: if that’s how it’s going to be called, it should be called like that the entire game, and certainly should be called like that on both teams. Which it was not.
It wasn’t? Which push-offs or holdings weren’t called? Were there more for the Steelers or Seahawks?
By your argument, it sounds like no team ever actually commits more penalties than the other team. I don’t see how that could be true. Also, there are examples of calls that should have been made against the Seahawks that weren’t, such as the block in the back on the return of Roethlisberger’s interception. Also, Locklear was among the most penalized in the league, IIRC, so should there be some artificial deflation of the impact of his abilities or lack thereof on the Super Bowl by not calling his holding or by “equalizing” it in some way?
No way. The worst call I have seen in any sport, ever, was when they overturned Polamalu’s interception, just two games before that one.
It was ruled correctly on the field. Then it was overturned. On review. Against any possible interpretation of the rules.
I watched the whole game. Close, borderline, ticky-tack stuff was called against the Seahawks, and not called against the Steelers. It’s really that simple. I could go play by play here, but that would be boring and pointless, because it all hinges on subjective assessments and we’re not going to agree on them, ever.
I don’t know how you’re getting that from what I’m saying. I’m saying that the definition of a penalty should be the same for each team. I’m saying that if Darrell Jackson brushes his hand against Chris Hope and Chris Hope brushes his hand against Darrell Jackson, then either they’ve both committed interference or neither of them has. And if it’s interference when Jackson does it, then it’s interference when Hines Ward or Terrell Owens or Lance Alworth does it. And if it’s not interference in most situations, but it suddenly becomes interference when it obliterates a Seattle touchdown, then it looks hinky. And if something that isn’t usually called a hold, that hasn’t been called a hold all day, suddenly becomes a hold when it obliterates another Seattle touchdown, then that looks even hinkier. And then when the officials hand 15 yards to Pittsburgh because a Seattle player had the temerity to make a legal tackle, it looks really bad.
A great example of the sort of thing I mean is the ridiculous call at second base the other day in the Yankees- Angels game. In case you missed it, the Los Angeles infielder was trying to turn a double play, and his foot didn’t contact second base. Now, under a strict reading of the rules, this means the runner coming from first should be safe. However:
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It’s standard practice for umpires to apply a sort of “neighborhood” rule, basically to protect the infielder from getting murdered;
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There was no indication that the customary “neighborhood” rule would not be in effect for this series.
When the umpires decided to abruptly call the game according to the strictest possible interpretation of the rules, in midstream and to the benefit of one team, that raised eyebrows and irritation. And that was in one instance. If, later in the same inning, the umpires started calling “on the black” pitches balls when the Yankees were at bat but strikes when the Angels were at bat, and then blatantly missed a call at home plate also favoring the Yankees… well, people would talk.
No. Holding should be called the same for all players. Whether Locklear is frequently penalized for holding or not has no bearing on a judgment of whether he was holding on that play.
A few hours before the trade deadline the Patriots released Joey Galloway, a week before their trip to London to face his former team. Probably not important for the Pats since he wasn’t being used and Aiken and Edelman have really emerged ahead of him. It will be interesting to see which WR poor teams give him a look, you have to imagine that he’ll have a job sooner than later. Where’s he gonna land? Washington? Carolina? Jacksonville? San Fransisco? Oakland? Kansas City? St. Louis? Detroit? Tennessee? Cleveland?
About 4 more hours until the deadline, probably won’t see any additional moves but it’s always interesting to wonder. I’ll be keeping an eye on it anyways.
Yeah, they’re professionals. I mean, making seven figures a year, heck, making even six figures a year is enough to get over the pain of losing by a wide margin. This isn’t Miami (Florida) scoring seventy points against South Brevard County Teacher’s College.
And Bellichek, well he wasn’t quite apologetic afterwards, but at least justified the passing in the fourth quarter: He said more or less "It’s not like we wanted to run up the score, but after we put in our second string QB, we had to use this chance to get him experience, so we had to run our regular offense. It wouldn’t be much good to have him hand off up the middle thirty times. "
And if there’s someone in the league who knows how important it might be later in the season to have a solid back-up QB, I think it’s Bellichek.
[Disclosure: I live in New England. ]
I wouldn’t say every facet of the game–the offenses were pretty even throughout. It was just our crappy defense and the porous offensive line that killed us. What’s the record for sacks (receiving) in a season? Cause I gotta believe we’ve got a chance to break it. :rolleyes: