I have mixed feelings about it.
James Harrison seemed short of the end zone on his 100 yard INT return to me. Knee down on contact with defending player, ball not breaking plane.
And Warner's last throw just looked like an incomplete pass. I thought the fuss was for intentional grounding. I could not believe it was ruled a fumble.
But the Steelers played a great game and they deserve their trophy and SB win.
James Harrison seemed short of the end zone on his 100 yard INT return to me. Knee down on contact with defending player, ball not breaking plane.
And Warner's last throw just looked like an incomplete pass. I thought the fuss was for intentional grounding. I could not believe it was ruled a fumble.
But the Steelers played a great game and they deserve their trophy and SB win.
One quick way to show how in the tank the refs are for Pitt in the Superbowl is look at the penalty yards. Of course these ignores the blown calls that may or may not get reversed and the crucial NON-calls like the block in the back on the 100 yard int return.
Lets look at the numbers:
postseason 2008:
Arizona in 3 playoff games - 14 penalties for 127 yards
Tonight- 11 for 106
Pittsburgh in 2 playoff games - 13 for 111
Tonight - 7 for 57
That is one way to make it up when you're allowing 400 yards and getting outgained by 100
Back in 2005....Pit had 16 for 108 in 3 games, Seattle had 9 for 73 in their 2 playoff games.
In the Super Bowl Seattle had 7 for 70, Pitt only 3 for 20.
I am sure it is just a coincedence that Seattle and Arizona suddenly starting committing more penalties when the Steelers were on the field
Lets look at the numbers:
postseason 2008:
Arizona in 3 playoff games - 14 penalties for 127 yards
Tonight- 11 for 106
Pittsburgh in 2 playoff games - 13 for 111
Tonight - 7 for 57
That is one way to make it up when you're allowing 400 yards and getting outgained by 100
Back in 2005....Pit had 16 for 108 in 3 games, Seattle had 9 for 73 in their 2 playoff games.
In the Super Bowl Seattle had 7 for 70, Pitt only 3 for 20.
I am sure it is just a coincedence that Seattle and Arizona suddenly starting committing more penalties when the Steelers were on the field
Yes Pitt made some big plays on the 1st and last drives. The fact they won TOP is partially due to the penalties that cancelled Cardinal gains and put them in 2nd or 3rd and 20 situations. Both teams had 1 turnover so that was a wash, although Pitt was allowed to score on the Ariz INT instead of having the illegal block called so it would have been 10-7 at halftime and the whole 2nd half would have been different.
My comment was in regards to yardage.
All I said was Pitt made every big play that needed to be made. That doesn't mean AZ didnt make any big plays.
In regards to the me calling Fitzy's play a big play, I was trying to say that the YARDAGE gained was fairly even on the stat sheet out side of Fitzy's reception right down the seam for 70 yards - that both teams moved the ball fairly evenly offensively outside of that one play. It would suggest that Pitt didnt get their asses kicked all over the field if yardage is fairly even, Pitt owns time of possession, makes less mistakes, etc.
AZ had 2 turnovers, Pitt had 1. With Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, I would argue AZ has the best chance of any team in the NFL to complete a hail mary - despite it being a low percentage play. We'll never know what may have happened if Warner got that ball off. Nobody is better at timing jumps than Fitzgerald.
I honestly thought the officiating was pretty good. There was a lot of chirping, a lot of emotions flying, a lot of guys losing their cool and I thought the refs caught as much as they could. The only thing I thought was a horrible call was the late hit on Ben. But refs aren't perfect and it's tough to catch blocks in the back downfield on INT returns when they are positioned to see everything within that 15 yard span at the other side of the field. It literally happens all of the time, and the refs simply aren't in position to catch everything like that and I would place a good sum of money that coaches actually coach these guys to do whatever it takes to spring their guys loose because the refs aren't in position to see it. I know I would.
