| Author | Message | ||
| bsee
Senior Member Username: bsee Post Number: 2156 Registered: 3-2004 |
Great ending in terms of action. Too bad the game was so marred by the involvement of the officials and a general lack of class on the part of some players. Holmes, in particular, was an idiot toward the end of the game and I was sorry to see him as the "hero" of the Steelers victory. Every catch was followed by a mini-celebration, even when time was short. When he brought that ball down to the five or so, he proceeded to wander into the end zone while the team was rushing to the line for a spike. They called a timeout, so it didn't matter, but he still was clueless to do that. Both offenses really stepped it up in the last few minutes after a ho-hum performance all evening. Warner played a pretty solid game and I'm not sure I agree with that fumble call at the end. He should have ended that play sooner anyway, but it looked to me like the ball was still in control of his hand when his arm started forward. The ball wasn't going where he wanted it to on any account, but I think it was still firmly in hand at that point. Congrats, Steelers and fans! | ||
| fmm
Advanced Member Username: fmm Post Number: 255 Registered: 6-2002 |
Clarence thinks he's Rick Wakeman, the band looks like a bunch of accountants, except for Bruce, who looks like a UPS driver. | ||
| bsee
Senior Member Username: bsee Post Number: 2157 Registered: 3-2004 |
I thought the band put on a pretty good show. With all the instruments, you'd think it would be complete cacophony. Four guitars, sometimes five plus keyboard, bass and horns? How do you do that and sound good? | ||
| bassman10096
Senior Member Username: bassman10096 Post Number: 1189 Registered: 7-2003 |
I was positive it was an incomplete pass, which could conceivably (the way things were going) have been very, very important. I'm at a loss for why the officials didn't stop play and review it. I'll admit I was pulling for AZ, but we might have been denied an even more interesting end to things - and perhaps even a different champion. I thought Bruce and company were entertaining. They've never been much to look at, and now they're old, too. I wish I looked so good on stage (LOL). Bill | ||
| slawie
Junior Username: slawie Post Number: 43 Registered: 8-2002 |
I was hoping for a Cardinals win even though I am a 49ers fan. I watched it at work live. In Australia You are right about Holmes Bob. Might have something to do with all this free-agent stuff. | ||
| bsee
Senior Member Username: bsee Post Number: 2159 Registered: 3-2004 |
Another rule thing bothers me... It isn't a case of a bad call, but a bad rule. On the Steelers drive that had the three Cards personal foul penalties, the middle one was a face mask on the sideline. The receiver who was "fouled" was stiff-arming the tackler by pushing up on the bottom of his face mask. I saw that clearly, but I'm not sure I ever saw the actual penalty committed. I have seen this a number of times and think it should be an "illegal hands to the face" penalty. It doesn't make sense to me that an offensive ball carrier should be allowed to contact a defender's face mask when no other player on the field can get away with it. If you want to stiff arm a defender, you should be required to make that contact from the shoulders down. Slawie, did you catch Nadal-Federer? That was another epic battle, though not the greatest tennis ever played. I wonder if Nadal would have blown Federer off the court if he was fully rested, or if the extra energy would have had him playing a different strategy that might not have worked as well. Nadal battled like a warrior, but I think Federer lost that match in his head before he lost it on the court. Now, I need a bit of sleep after watching five hours of overnight tennis instead of sleeping last night. | ||
| slawie
Junior Username: slawie Post Number: 44 Registered: 8-2002 |
I watched the tennis final until 1:00am and it was not as good as the game on Friday with Nadal and Verdasco. Those two belted the crap out of the ball for 5 hours and 14 minutes. Truly a wonderful spectacle. The pace, strength of shots and length of the rallies was awesome! BTW I believe that Holmes did not make contact with the ground with both feet on that final touch-down. What can you do? As Miles Davis said, "Once the note is played there is nothing you can do about it". | ||
| hifiguy
Intermediate Member Username: hifiguy Post Number: 152 Registered: 10-2006 |
That was about as good a fourth quarter of football as you're going to see anywhere. I've been a Steelers fan (my second favorite team after my hometown and hopeless Vikings) for a long time. They're a great organization that has been in the same family for some 70 years and the Rooneys are as much a Pittsburgh institution as the Pramanti sandwich and the steel industry. That Mike Tomlin (an ex-Vikes coordinator) is their head coach just makes me like them more. Tomlin had "future coaching superstar" written all over him for the last few years. What was really cool was that no one talked about him being an African-American coach, only that he was a young coach. Kurt Warner is a great story and it's hard not to root for him - at least until he opens his mouth. He has blind, unquestioning and incurious faith; fine. Keep it to yourself. Ya know, Kurt, your coaches and teammates may have had a lot more to do with getting you to the Super Bowl than the sky daddy. Consider that, if you can. Tony Dungy (the classiest coach I've ever seen) is a man of faith as well. But Tony doesn't think Jesus cares who wins a football game and talks about his faith only when asked about it. Warner always throws it in your face like a cream pie in a Laurel and Hardy silent movie. Crass and classless. As an atheist, it was easy for me to hope Warner had a good game, which he did - he was great - but to ultimately hope the Steelers won. And I am sure that Tony Dungy is incredibly proud of his former assistant. Roethlisberger will win at least two more Super Bowls and will be a no-brainer lock for the Hall of Fame. | ||
| jacko
Senior Member Username: jacko Post Number: 2090 Registered: 10-2002 |
I caught the second quarter when I got home from a concert in Glasgow (more elsewhere). I've never really paid much attention to American Football but I was on a high and wanted to see springsteen so I thought, with 10 minutes to play I'd hang on and watch some of the play. I was surprised (and don't take this the wrong way guys) at how much time seemed to be wasted. It seemed to take about half an hour to play the last 5 minutes of the quarter. My son (who follows these things told me it was so they could discuss each play before making it. Now, again at the risk of offending everyone, all the plays I saw looked identical. However, I was impressed by the steelers defender who took the ball the full length of the pitch just when the cardinals looked like getting a touchdown right at the end of the quarter. I think they could have given springsteen anothe 15 minutes. 'Little' steven looks anything but these days ;-) I was also left to wonder who the Boss is these days as Clarence semed to spend more time in the spotlight then bruce. I went to bed as soon as the band finished. No way was I staying up till 3am (uk time) on a work night. Graeme. | ||
| white_cloud
Senior Member Username: white_cloud Post Number: 597 Registered: 11-2007 |
I am a big fan of American football as we call it here in the UK ( Im a NY Jets fan - it aint the winning that counts its the taking part!) I have followed it for 25 yrs and I love the Super bowl. When it comes to big time sporting events nobody does it better than in the US! Loved it  | ||
| tbrannon
Senior Member Username: tbrannon Post Number: 975 Registered: 11-2004 |
Graeme, I used to try to explain Gridiron to everyone while I was living in NZ. It's a tough sell- especially when the one game most overseas folks see each year is the Super Bowl (which takes about 1.5-2hrs longer to play than a normal game). The Kiwis and Aussies couldn't understand why there was so much down time- to which I'd respond, "Uhhhhh- cricket?" =) It's just a totally different game than rugby union or league and trying to compare the different games is really difficult- especially if you're used to seeing the non-stop action in rugby. To be honest, at first I found Union to be a bit slow- all those lineouts are kind of boring when you don't understand it- kick to touch, ruck, ruck, ruck.... ;) I've been a lifelong Chargers fan- season tickets have been in my family since the Chargers first game in Los Angeles in 1960. Football is like any other sport- the more you understand the nuances of the game, the more exciting and impressive it is. BTW: Congratulations to the Steelers- though I think the officiating was slightly lopsided. I also think some of the on field antics marred the game somewhat. If Harrison isn't fined his entire Super Bowl bonus for that cheap shot he took on the punt, then there really isn't any justice in the game anymore. The officiating was horrid from day 1 this season and the Super Bowl wasn't any different. The league needs to examine how the game is officiated- either make ANY play reviewable (penalties included) or the game itself is going to start coming into question. Toby | ||
| olieoliver
Senior Member Username: olieoliver Post Number: 2015 Registered: 2-2006 |
My synopsis of the Super Bowl. 50 minutes of pure boredom (with the exception of the last play of the 1st half) followed by 10 minutes pure excitement. 2 good teams with some great players (with the exception of a couple of Steelers that acted like Schmucks!) And 4 guys in striped shirts suffering from “Cranial-Rectitus”. Officially the worst officiated game by an officiating crew in the official history of the official Super Bowl. OO | ||
| tbrannon
Senior Member Username: tbrannon Post Number: 976 Registered: 11-2004 |
"Officially the worst officiated game by an officiating crew int eh official history of the official Super Bowl" Olie- Don't forget the last Steeler's Super Bowl win. The Seahawks got shafted in that one... | ||
| bsee
Senior Member Username: bsee Post Number: 2162 Registered: 3-2004 |
It definitely seemed that the officiating favored the Steelers, at least on all the bad/questionable calls. I like the concept of the Tennis replay rule. Admittedly, the technology there is a lot quicker than NFL replays, but they get unlimited challenges until they are wrong three times in a set. That sounds like a lot, and maybe it is. In the NFL, I'd like to see unlimited challenges until you get it wrong twice. There's no reason related to the fairness of the game why one team should have to stop at three if the refs keep making mistakes against them. In last night's game, two of the "bad" calls were overturned on replay, enough said there. Admittedly, I don't believe that either was a gross error, and I do favor treating a questionable fumble/incomplete as a fumble on the field to ensure the right team gets the ball if it was actually a fumble. That doesn't mean that the refs can't get together and decide it was a pass attempt after the action and before going to replay, though, which is what should have happened on this one. The three penalty drive was out there as well. The roughing the passer call didn't involve an extension of arms to drive the QB into the turf and wasn't particularly late. Meanwhile, on that play, Roethlisberger fired the ball out of bounds with no one in the vicinity and didn't appear to be outside the tackle boxes to me, but no grounding flag. That may have been like the one later in the game, though, where he was about a half yard outside the tackles. I didn't see the alleged face mask, though it probably occurred since no one was complaining about it. I certainly didn't see Holmes twisted or wrestled down by the mask, though, so maybe it was the equivalent of the old five yard variety and should have been a no call? I never heard of a "running over the holder" penalty before, but it was more of a hurdling than a leveling and I don't think I would have called it unless the rules are very strict on the matter. It didn't look like contact that could lead to injury, which is what most of those rules are about. The chop block on James was questionable as well. He hit that guy straight on and the fact that a lineman was just placing a hand on him doesn't qualify as "engaged" to me. That rule is to prevent someone from coming in at an angle to injure the knees of a guy who is stood up and defenseless, clearly not the case here. I also don't think Parker escaped the end zone, but the holding a play or two later created the safety anyway. If they called it a safety, there certainly wouldn't have been video to dispute the call. Those replays showed a big crowd and not much detail on the position of the ball. Finally, I really don't believe that final call was correct on the fumble/incomplete pass. While Warner's hand was twisted and the ball wasn't going to end up anyplace good, it appeared to be firmly in his grasp until his arm started forward. Again, I don't think they could have overturned it if they called it the other way. I was looking forward to the Cards getting the ball back with 7-8 seconds on the clock and somewhere around the Steelers 30 after the fifteen yard unsportsmanlike conduct was walked off. It would have at least meant a couple exciting shots into the end zone rather than a kneel down. At least I didn't see any plays start two seconds after the play clock hit zero. Can anyone point to questionable calls or penalties that went the Cards way? -Bob | ||
| wideload
Intermediate Member Username: wideload Post Number: 133 Registered: 6-2003 |
At least Pittsburgh didn't cover the spread, so while the trophy goes to Pennsylvania, the money goes to Arizona! (not that I'm a bettin' man, you see; just trying to spread some cheer in Phoenix!) | ||
| jet_powers
Senior Member Username: jet_powers Post Number: 426 Registered: 2-2003 |
While the officiating may not have been the best I feel that the Cardinals shot themselves in the foot time and again by taking as many penalties as they did... a bit more discipline on their part and perhaps the outcome would have been different. You can't give any NFL team that many breaks and still win... As far as having pop concerts during halftime, I could certainly live without it. It's a football game after all. Just a football game. -JP | ||
| bsee
Senior Member Username: bsee Post Number: 2163 Registered: 3-2004 |
The "taking" of penalties IS the officiating in some cases. Jet. The only bad penalty I saw the Cards commit was that running over the kicker thing. The player should have known better than to take that line if that is the rule. Really, the Cards got a break when the Steelers only got three points from the opening drive, but there was only one truly bad play that killed them. That Harrison pick-six to end the half was at least a ten point swing if not 14. Of course, the question remains whether or not they would have found their offensive stride in the fourth if they hadn't fallen behind like that. In any case, the result is the result. As far as a big halftime show, I sort of agree with you. All season long, there is a structure to a football game. The teams prove they are the best playing within that structure only to show up for the championship game and alter it with an extra-long break for the half. A pre-game or post-game show on a larger scale might be cool to help the fans feel they got their money's worth for the hefty ticket prices, but the excessive halftime celebration isn't necessary. Anybody see any commercials that they found particularly entertaining? There seemed to be an awful lot of in-your-face sex selling but minimal real creativity. The top three we remember were the potato heads, the Clydesdale in love, and the Cheetos birds. | ||
| lmiwa
Intermediate Member Username: lmiwa Post Number: 147 Registered: 2-2008 |
All superbowl commercials available here: http://superbowlads.fanhouse.com/ |
