Super Bowl XL

[Arstron]

Congrats Pitsburg! I was pulling for the seatle, but pitsburg did play a good game.

[skriptal]

Although I dislike the steelers, good job and congrats to you.

[BobTheCow]

Sweet, the Seahawks lost. That's pretty much all I wanted to see. And I was rather disappointed with the commercials... my emotions were summed up when a goddamn SLIM-FAST commercial took up 30 seconds of my life. Yeck.

When I heard a week or so ago that the Stones were supposed to play the half time show, I vowed not to watch them... couldn't have possibly turned out well. So I played a Seahawks/Steelers N64 Blitz game with my buddy's roommate instead. I think I'm happy with that decision.

[Kai]

Super Bowl X-tra Lame, if you ask me!

Ha ha ha!

[Maksimus54]

That was freaking unbelievable. If you steelers had actually won by outplaying us I would congratulate you but to have the game ruined by horrific reffing is just a freaking kick in the balls.

[Lohman446]

That was freaking unbelievable. If you steelers had actually won by outplaying us I would congratulate you but to have the game ruined by horrific reffing is just a freaking kick in the balls.

Yes, there were some highly questionable calls on the field. That being said, there were some horrible calls that were made (and not made) in the Indi game that Steelers overcame, good teams overcome those things. In the end, I doubt it would have changed the final outcome of the game, though certainly the score. Seattle not being ready for a gadget play involving Randle El was an alarming lack of preperation or discipline considering they had two weeks to prepare for it. Of course, its also a bad sign when the best pass of the night is made by someone other than your QB (though I give that scramble to the line and pass to Ward great credit, that was awesome).

[BobTheCow]

That was freaking unbelievable. If you steelers had actually won by outplaying us I would congratulate you but to have the game ruined by horrific reffing is just a freaking kick in the balls.

Ugh, my suitemate was whining about the same thing last night and I wanted to punch him. What "horrible calls" did you disagree with? Roethlisburger's touchdown? The call on the field was a touchdown, and there simply was not conclusive evidence to prove that the ball didn't break the plane. Had the original call not been a touchdown, I believe that also would've stood, just because there was not undeniable video evidence in either direction.

That pass interference on Jackson in the end zone? Or the crazy amounts of holding? While we might not be used to seeing those degrees of physicality being called as penalties throughout the year, they are, in fact, infractions, and yesterday's refs called them as such. And let's not forget how the Steelers shot themselves in the foot through the entire first quarter; their game plan appeared to be "3 and out!" for more than 20 minutes, due in no small part to multiple penalties... neither team was aided enough by the refs to make a significant difference.

It's possible the reffing wasn't completely perfect, but when can you ever expect it to be? I think the ref crew did a fine job yesterday, and the Steelers came out on top fair and square. And I juts took ENTIRELY too long explaining that. Ugh...

[Maksimus54]

The entire booth including John Madden agreed that the touchdown wasn't. The interference call was nothing. D-jac barely touched him, and in all fairness he was touched as well so it should have been nullified. Some of the holding was legit, but the hold on our pass to the one was total BS. Everyone that had seen a review could tell you it was a legal block. I accept the fact that the hawks should have come back from those, but to say they weren't bad calls is being flat out ignorant. Then to call our QB for a low block while tackling the man that intercepted him? If indy had won the game that the refs tried to give them how would you have felt? By the time the SB rolls around I expect the game to be won by the team that puts on the most dominating performance, not the team that has to overcome the least adversity by the reffing staff. Realize I'm not trying to bash the steelers, I really like them as a team, but to win a game by playing their B game against seattles A- game is just frustrating.

[Lohman446]

The entire booth including John Madden agreed that the touchdown wasn't.

You may have some valid points there, but when you go way out on a limb on the first one it makes you look bad. They agreed there was not enough evidence to prove (or disprove) it was a touchdown, thus the call on the field stands (as it should). I'll address the others - the low block on the tackle, horrible call, no doubt. Would it have mattered? Likely not, Ward could have had to run another fifty yards wtih the ball on that throw, he was so open it wouldn't have mattered. The offensive pass interference. By the letter of the rule that was offensive pass interference. There were other factors, and I don't think I have seen it called for so minor contact all year though. The hold call is debatable. It looked like he held him from how he moved, and the rule books for holding are clear that the ref does not have to see it. That being said, I surely did not see it in the replays, though what alarmed me is how late the flag came in.

I think that the Steelers would have found a way to pull out a closer game (they normally do). Even without the issues (or less issues) I think the outcome would have been the same (though not the score). Frankly it seemed to me the Steelers wanted to win more, they went the extra effort. Ben made tremendous plays when he had to, though I only saw him through one good, fully on target pass all night. Parker showed amazing moves. Ward caught some horribly thrown balls and played a technically "perfect" game (not giving up when Ben was scrambling and it looked like he was running, selling the reverse). Randle El caught ?? on that interception when it looked like he was going all the way. The Steelers did not come together well in the first half, but they had many many outstanding plays by many players.

[FooTemps]

It was a combination of the Seahawks gettin calls and the Steelers pulling off the right plays at the right time. Lets just leave it at that.

edit: Okay, I'm still pissed... I'm just not going to argue since it won't change a thing.

[BlackVCG]

Either way that superbowl was a complete :yawn:

The Indy - Colts game was the only good game from the playoffs. Oh and watching my Pats dismantle the overrated Jaguars was good too.

[rkjunior303]

Pats will win the next 2. Mark my words.

[BobTheCow]

Pats will win the next 2. Mark my words.

We've already had this discussion, Rob. And you're still so horribly wrong.

[Lohman446]

Pats will win the next 2. Mark my words.

If they were in the NFC I would say they stand a chance. But to go through the playoffs in the AFC and then the superbowl is a big deal. All the more remarkable that they have done it in the past. You know your going to play two games and going to likely get two of the four: Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Indi, Denver... Big games. Face it, the superbowl could just be replaced with the AFC title game.