PunBB

I will say that the block below the waist call on Hasselbeck was flat-out wrong. Too bad it had no real impact on the outcome of the game.

Everything else seemed legit to me...and i'm no casual fan, but one who watched every playoff game in its entirety.

If you are going to say that the NFL hands a game to a team, your claim really ought to be able to be backed by video evidence. Objectively speaking, every call the officials made (except the Hasselbeck "illegal block", which only gave PITT extra yardage after an already devastating INT) was supported by the video. I honestly do not understand what all the fuss is about.

Lost bets on Seattle, i suppose.... :roll:

The Horrible Esthete Wrote:I will say that the block below the waist call on Hasselbeck was flat-out wrong. Too bad it had no real impact on the outcome of the game.

Everything else seemed legit to me...and i'm no casual fan, but one who watched every playoff game in its entirety.

If you are going to say that the NFL hands a game to a team, your claim really ought to be able to be backed by video evidence. Objectively speaking, every call the officials made (except the Hasselbeck "illegal block", which only gave PITT extra yardage after an already devastating INT) was supported by the video. I honestly do not understand what all the fuss is about.

Lost bets on Seattle, i suppose.... :roll:

No lost bet here. Though I was really, really tempted to put money on Pittsburgh to cover.

I don't understand how it is that feel your opinion of Ben's TD is somehow augmented by the fact that you watched every playoff game in its entirety. Did that give you eyes with better vision? No replay that I saw - and I watched the game in HDTV so I had pretty damn good resolution - showed the ball breaking the plane. I was left to conclude that the official saw something I didn't, but in a season full of pretty poor officiating, it wouldn't surprise me if the call had been flat out wrong.

And again, I don't care about either team so I've got no bias. I'm not going to go as far to say that the league gave the Steelers the Super Bowl, I'm just saying that there were some pretty questionable calls on a couple of major plays.

this picture looks to me like the ball definately broke the plain

emperor penguin Wrote:this picture looks to me like the ball definately broke the plain

Really? I dont think so, but its too hard to tell for sure. But Im done with this debate, the game's over Pittsburgh won, life goes on. Seattle didn't play well enough to win, imo anyway.

emperor penguin Wrote:this picture looks to me like the ball definately broke the plain

Umm, since the pic is from an angle behind the plane how can you tell if it broke the plane?

Camera angle we watched clearly showed the ball beyond the plane while he was in the air. Then he got hit and was pushed back nearly a foot so when he landed the ball was nowhere near the goal line. But in the air he was definitely across.

cferneyh Wrote:Umm, since the pic is from an angle behind the plane how can you tell if it broke the plane?

Well, if you look at Ben's left hand, you can see that his fingertips are virtually resting on the plane of the goal line, and you can plainly see that his right hand (and the ball) are further upfield than his left hand.

Touchdown. That's perfect visual proof in my world.

And btw, the only reason i stated that i had watched every playoff game this season was to illustrate that i am a dedicated fan of the game, and therefore perhaps a little better versed with the way game is being officiated compared to those who "are not football fans at all" (as one complainer wrote), or those who admittedly aren't even familiar with the fundamental rules of the game....

The Horrible Esthete Wrote:

cferneyh Wrote:Umm, since the pic is from an angle behind the plane how can you tell if it broke the plane?

Well, if you look at Ben's left hand, you can see that his fingertips are virtually resting on the plane of the goal line, and you can plainly see that his right hand (and the ball) are further upfield than his left hand.

Touchdown. That's perfect visual proof in my world.

And btw, the only reason i stated that i had watched every playoff game this season was to illustrate that i am a dedicated fan of the game, and therefore perhaps a little better versed with the way game is being officiated compared to those who "are not football fans at all" (as one complainer wrote), or those who admittedly aren't even familiar with the fundamental rules of the game....

Funny how even looking at the same pic we still can't agree. :lol:

What I see is his right elbow resting on the ground before the goal line and the ball downfield from where his elbow is resting. Actually, on second glance I suppose one could also see the football as being on top of his right forearm which I suppose would make it a TD. Either way, the pic is still pretty inconclusive to my eyes, just like the 341 replays were.

cferneyh Wrote:Funny how even looking at the same pic we still can't agree. :lol:

:lol: That is rather humorous.

However I must assert that he fact that two parties can disagree on the result of the play after scrutinizing film and photographic images means that it was a very very close and very very tough call to make. In such a situation, it is completely unfair to hammer on the officials, who had to call something.

cferneyh Wrote:

emperor penguin Wrote:sorry LizardKing I was wrong when I said the ball has to only touch the line, according to <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.nfl.com/fans/rules/definitions">http://www.nfl.com/fans/rules/definitions</a><!-- m -->, it is a touchdown when "any part of the ball, legally in possession of a player inbounds, breaks the plane of the opponent’s goal line, provided it is not a touchback." so therefore even if 1mm of the ball broke the plane which is the beginning of the white line, then it is a touchdown. To me it looked like a little bit of the ball broke the start of the white line in the air.

I'm not a fan of either team, but I don't think that ball broke the plane. And it was one of those calls where there was no irrefutable evidence either way - in other words - had the official not called a touchdown, I don't think that call could have been reversed either.

And that offensive pass interference call in the endzone was W E A K.

couldn't agree with you more....why can't we get along in the hockey discussions..lol

the seahawks didn't get screwed, they got fucked up by THE STEEL CURTAIN XL!

What a piss poor, horrible game. Both teams played like shit and Pittsburgh got the breaks. That's the way it goes. The worst call of the game was the holding call on the Seattle O-lineman when Hasselbeck completed a pass downfield and the Hawks would have scored a touchdown on the next play or two. That was a horrendous call and had a HUGE IMPACT ON THE GAME. Seattle had the Steelers on the ropes and were just about to take the lead. Next thing you know, it's 1st and 25 and next thing you know Hasselbeck throws an INT and before you can blink it's 21-10 Steelers. That was clearly the turning point of the game.

However, maybe the Hawks got away with stuff during the game. You'd have to analyze every play of the game to determine who got away with more calls. Pittsburgh won the game, that's the bottom line. They looked horrible doing it and Hines Ward was SB MVP by default since nobody deserved the award.

tigerthelion Wrote:What a piss poor, horrible game. Both teams played like shit and Pittsburgh got the breaks. That's the way it goes. The worst call of the game was the holding call on the Seattle O-lineman when Hasselbeck completed a pass downfield and the Hawks would have scored a touchdown on the next play or two. That was a horrendous call and had a HUGE IMPACT ON THE GAME. Seattle had the Steelers on the ropes and were just about to take the lead. Next thing you know, it's 1st and 25 and next thing you know Hasselbeck throws an INT and before you can blink it's 21-10 Steelers. That was clearly the turning point of the game.

However, maybe the Hawks got away with stuff during the game. You'd have to analyze every play of the game to determine who got away with more calls. Pittsburgh won the game, that's the bottom line. They looked horrible doing it and Hines Ward was SB MVP by default since nobody deserved the award.

the worst thing about that holding call, is that the steelers were offside on that play..total bullshit..the more i think about it, the more i'm convinced the "fix" was in....

LizardKing51 Wrote:

emperor penguin Wrote:this picture looks to me like the ball definately broke the plain

Really? I dont think so, but its too hard to tell for sure. But Im done with this debate, the game's over Pittsburgh won, life goes on. Seattle didn't play well enough to win, imo anyway.

i definitely agree. they just didn't bring a good game - even if some of the calls were questionable - i still don't think they would have pulled it off in the end. it made me laugh today going into work - hearing people bitch about the game. as much as i love football - lets all move on! i'm already excited for next year! :thumb:

Who cares.

Yeah, I'm bitter.