NFL Playoffs

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Ack! I may have already jinxed it! It just occurred to me that at 17 months old, my son Jack should have his very own Terrible Towel by now! I share mine with him (he shakes it - 17 month olds don't have the coordination to twirl them properly), but this is something that definitely needs to be rectified - but that won't happen until after the Super Bowl. (Now if I lived in Pittsburgh or Tampa, I could easily find a Terrible Towel - but living here in Baltimore Ravens country - well - not so easy.

 

I'm getting a vision.....

Arizona....

Ring....

 

What you never heard of overnight shipping or this crazy thing called the internet? Open up the wallet you cheapskate, your team is depending on you. I know I never spared any expense on behalf of my beloved Patriots.

 

Ouch, I feel for ya man. I lived in cheatriot(no offense to the fans) country for a while >.< Go get your boy his TT, it's required! My dog is the closest thing I have or probably will have to a kid for a long time and he has one

 

... It thought he was saying his dog was the closest thing he had to a Terrible Towel. I was picturing him swinging the dog around by the tail....

Whoosh ... whoosh ... whoosh ... WAAA HOOO!

 

And a last second score by the cardinals..... what the.... Well, they were warned.

 

Ugh, I was hoping for the Cards (underdogs), and was sooo pissed when the Steelers won. But, it was a well played game (minus the plethora of personal fouls) and very intense.

 

My man Darnell Dockett let me down on the last Steelers drive... I kept calling for him to be MVP, but he couldn't pull it out.

Fun predictions that were made during the game (and we were about 80% correct whenever my group made a guess).

1)The early rollout (on goal-line) with Roethlisberger running for it and NOT making it.
2)Back shoulder fade and a couple plays later an actual fade to Fitzgerald.
3)QB draw for Steelers near goal-line.
4)Holding for safety.
5)Cardinals scored too early (too much time on clock).
6)Warner sacked to end it.

 

Staying up for it was worth it.

 

I can't figure out what it is with Pittsburgh and the referees. I didn't have a preference in this game, but it seemed to me that for the second time the referees gave the Superbowl to Pittsburgh.

 

Can you explain how so? The penalties were fairly even (10 on Arizona, 8 on Pittsburgh). It seemed to me that there were five questionable - or outright wrong - calls in that game that went in the Steelers favor. Two of them the Cardinals challenged (Roethlisberger's scramble for a TD, when he was actually down at the 1, and Warner's fumble that was really an incompletion). Both calls were (correctly) overturned, so in these cases replay worked the way it should have. Harrison's TD return was also reviewed because it happened at the end of the half, and I thought the refs got that one right too.

The other two questionable calls were: The play where it looked like Willie Parker didn't get out of the endzone, and the play probably should have been ruled a safety. There was no way to tell exactly where the ball was, but it didn't look like he made it. However, since the very next play DID result in a safety, I don't see that as a potentially deciding non-call.

The final play that went in the Steelers' favor was the only one that you have a good arguement for. On the last snap of the Cardinals, I cannot believe the refs did not review it to see if Warner's arm was coming forward. It certainly seems to me it might have. There were five seconds left on the clock when that happened, so there would have been time for one play into the endzone. I will concede that if they had one more play, they may have been able to score a touchdown, but we all know last second passes into the endzone are low-probability plays. I'd hardly say that means the refs handed them the game.

(I hope you aren't talking about the game-winning TD catch by Holmes - I think he definitely got both feet down, and there wasn't really any arguement by anyone that he didn't.)

While true, I don't know if there is any way to avoid this. I think you score when you have the opportunity to score. Ideally, yes, you take more time off the clock, but what was Fitz supposed to do? Fall down deliberately? The Cards were down by 4 points, and needed a TD. If he runs out of bounds before he gets to the endzone, the Cards can take more time off the clock, but there is no way to know whether they still will score a TD.

 

I thought Parker got out of the end zone on his second push. He landed on an offensive lineman and his knees never touched until the ball was over the goal line. I was disappointed in the final call -- the rule-of-thumb on the field: if the ball is moving forward it's considered an incomplete pass, backward is a fumble. The refs didn't follow tradition for the on-field call and then didn't review it. I think it should have been called an incomplete pass and then reviewed (which probably would have resulted in the same outcome). It should certainly have been reviewed just to squash all rumors.

Stupid penalties really hurt the Cardinals, not necessarily in points but in time the defense had to stay on the field. I think those amazing goal line stands took their toll physically on the Cardinals -- they simply were not the same in the final two minutes. It also took the Steelers long enough to realize the mismatch with Holmes -- the Cardinals are just now realizing that one.

I thought it was the best Superbowl I've seen -- the only way it could have been better was if Arizona won. (I like to see the underdog win.)

 

There were a couple personal foul plays that went against the Cards that were debatable. One in particular on roughing the passer... it was after Ben was scrambling around a bit, he threw the ball and was then sacked... the ball hadn't been out of his hand long enough for the rusher to stop in time, but they called it anyways, which resulted in a first down.

I don't think they scored though, so I guess it doesn't matter much.

 

It seemed that the official's did call some things in Pittsburgh's favor early, but they more than made up for it with a slew of penalties in favor of the Cardinals later in the game. And for the record, I'm a Seahawks fan and don't think the officiating was very bad in their Super Bowl against Pittsburgh.

And the score too early was kind of an inside joke kind of prediction. Since it seems after every game winning drive (that follows an opponent's score) they ask an offensive player what he was thinking going into the last drive:

"They gave us too much time."

Is the answer about 90% of the time

 

I don't think there was enough time to avoid all contact, but I think the penalty came because he deliberately shoved him over. If he tries to lay off and kind of just runs into him, I don't think it gets called. But you can clearly see his arms extending and shoving Big Ben down.

There were actually three personal fouls on that drive, and the Steelers did get a field goal out of it. The one you mentioned was the 2nd one, and it was the only one that was debatable. The first one was a clear cut facemask, and the third one was when the defender steam-rolled the holder on the field goal attempt for no explicable reason. I actually laughed at that one - I had never seen something like that happen before, and apparently, neither did the holder, because he had this, "What the hell?" expression on his face as he got up.

 

The only calls on the field that I didn't see as being correct was the one holding call against Arizona's LT on James Harrison(it should have been a face mask but at least they finally called holding on his man) and the roughing the passer against the Cards...thats the first roughing the passer that has gone in Ben's favor this season...and also one of the ones that should NOT have been called.

Other than that it was an amazing game, I was disappointed by how much the refs were involved. IMO in a game like that you have to let them play ball not call a bunch of ticky tacky calls.

After Fitzgerald scored that long td I was like that was the worst thing they could have done...left the game in Big Ben's hands. And, Like he's done all season, Ben came up huge when it counted most.

 

The facemask call was kinda debatable. There's no doubt that Rodgers-Cromartie had his hand in there, but the offensive player's stiff arm was into and grasping the defenders facemask.

Roughing the passer I didn't like, since if it is that close I think you should let it go.

Roughing the holder? Seriously, lol. I had no clue that it was a penalty, but it makes sense. In the Cardinal player's (Wilson) defense, his momentum did take him into the holder, but still... c'mon!

 

It was an ok game except for the Cards coming into the game & wanting to run the ball.
WTH?
You are the #2 passing team in the conference & you want to RUN the ball?
No,you stay with what got you to the big game(& when they went back to it in the 2nd half they started scoring again)
Yeah a couple of the calls were pretty ?!?!?!? but that happens in almost every game.