The Bobcat Nation

Calling that game??

Yep!

Refs are becoming too much a part of almost every game these days. Too bad, because not only are they making too many calls, they are making too many bad calls that determine the outcome of almost any game played.

Seattle was beat, by bad calls.

Which calls cost Seattle the game?

How about the Rothlesberger TD at the goalline that wasn't even close. 7 points.

Jacksons "push off" TD- 7 points
Stevens 17 yard catch to the Pittsburgh 1, called back for mystery hold, and should have been defensive offside on the linebacker. Potential 7 points.

Hasselbacks penatly on the TACKLE called a chop block.

The non call on Rothlesbergers chop block on the trick play that scored the TD.

All contested, commented on as bad calls, and huge in the flow of the game. You should have seen the game they were horrible.

catsrback76 wrote:How about the Rothlesberger TD at the goalline that wasn't even close. 7 points.

Jacksons "push off" TD- 7 points
Stevens 17 yard catch to the Pittsburgh 1, called back for mystery hold, and should have been defensive offside on the linebacker. Potential 7 points.

Hasselbacks penatly on the TACKLE called a chop block.

The non call on Rothlesbergers chop block on the trick play that scored the TD.

All contested, commented on as bad calls, and huge in the flow of the game. You should have seen the game they were horrible.

I watched the game. Ben's TD was right. The push-off on the Seattle TD was right (even if it is rarely called, you still aren't supposed to push off). Holds, blocks, etc., you can contest those on every play.

The Steelers beat the Seahawks, plain and simple.

Bay Area Cat wrote:

catsrback76 wrote:How about the Rothlesberger TD at the goalline that wasn't even close. 7 points.

Jacksons "push off" TD- 7 points
Stevens 17 yard catch to the Pittsburgh 1, called back for mystery hold, and should have been defensive offside on the linebacker. Potential 7 points.

Hasselbacks penatly on the TACKLE called a chop block.

The non call on Rothlesbergers chop block on the trick play that scored the TD.

All contested, commented on as bad calls, and huge in the flow of the game. You should have seen the game they were horrible.

I watched the game. Ben's TD was right. The push-off on the Seattle TD was right (even if it is rarely called, you still aren't supposed to push off). Holds, blocks, etc., you can contest those on every play.

The Steelers beat the Seahawks, plain and simple.

The Steelers got the W but they did not beat the Seahawks. Those calls by their very nature determined far more of the outcome of the game, even the calls you did not comment on. The less we see of the Refs the better, and in a game like the SuperBowl they need to play less of a role not more.
Listen to the commentators who get paid to be neutral and they all echo the same sentiments.

catsrback76 wrote:

Bay Area Cat wrote:

catsrback76 wrote:How about the Rothlesberger TD at the goalline that wasn't even close. 7 points.

Jacksons "push off" TD- 7 points
Stevens 17 yard catch to the Pittsburgh 1, called back for mystery hold, and should have been defensive offside on the linebacker. Potential 7 points.

Hasselbacks penatly on the TACKLE called a chop block.

The non call on Rothlesbergers chop block on the trick play that scored the TD.

All contested, commented on as bad calls, and huge in the flow of the game. You should have seen the game they were horrible.

I watched the game. Ben's TD was right. The push-off on the Seattle TD was right (even if it is rarely called, you still aren't supposed to push off). Holds, blocks, etc., you can contest those on every play.

The Steelers beat the Seahawks, plain and simple.

The Steelers got the W but they did not beat the Seahawks. Those calls by their very nature determined far more of the outcome of the game, even the calls you did not comment on. The less we see of the Refs the better, and in a game like the SuperBowl they need to play less of a role not more.
Listen to the commentators who get paid to be neutral and they all echo the same sentiments.

They get paid to be as entertaining as they can be -- not to be neutral. And in the case of Madden, not even to necessarily have any idea what is going on in the game at any given time.

catsrback76 wrote:How about the Rothlesberger TD at the goalline that wasn't even close. 7 points.

Jacksons "push off" TD- 7 points
Stevens 17 yard catch to the Pittsburgh 1, called back for mystery hold, and should have been defensive offside on the linebacker. Potential 7 points.

Hasselbacks penatly on the TACKLE called a chop block.

The non call on Rothlesbergers chop block on the trick play that scored the TD.

All contested, commented on as bad calls, and huge in the flow of the game. You should have seen the game they were horrible.

If it wasn't even close, why was it a TD?

longhorn_22 wrote:

catsrback76 wrote:How about the Rothlesberger TD at the goalline that wasn't even close. 7 points.

Jacksons "push off" TD- 7 points
Stevens 17 yard catch to the Pittsburgh 1, called back for mystery hold, and should have been defensive offside on the linebacker. Potential 7 points.

Hasselbacks penatly on the TACKLE called a chop block.

The non call on Rothlesbergers chop block on the trick play that scored the TD.

All contested, commented on as bad calls, and huge in the flow of the game. You should have seen the game they were horrible.

If it wasn't even close, why was it a TD?

It was close enough that there wasn't enough evidence to overturn it, but it was a bad call in the first place. In the case of the "push-off", the receiver cut back and the defender kept going the other way for about a second. The receiver's hands were close enough that it looked like he pushed off.

I am not a Steeler or Seahawk fan. Rothlisburge was clearily down BEFORE the ball crossed the goal line, it was an after thought on his part to extend his arms to cross the plane with the football. Smart move on his part but still not a touch down. The Seatle "push off" !?

Just a sad and discouraging loss. Were it a regular season game, I'd still be pissed. But this was the Superbowl!

Two of those calls were TOUCHDOWNS That's a game shift of 14 points. Gee, the game was won by.....14 points!!!

Not being a Steeler or Seattle hater or lover, I can honestly say Seattle got screwed. There were at least 10 big calls that seriously altered the outcome of the game. That was really embarassing for a Super Bowl. Anyone not admitting that is just not wanting to because they were so obvious.

Time to call in the ol' Bobcat motto.

There's always next year.

OUCH!!!

When I wrote the post above I took it with a grain of salt, about the calls that went against The Seahawks, but I just drove into work after posting that. I listen to ESPN Radio on the Drive in. Mike and Mike, the morning guys, roasted the refs. Then they give it up to Colin Cownerd, the 8-11 show, and he proceeds to scewer the refs, I get to my desk and tune my computer to Tony Kornhiser (sp?) and he and his guest are right now talking about the bad ref job! Maybe we do have something here.

Well, clearly the Seahawks did not play their best game. They bumbeled several passes and plays at the end of the half and game.

But those bad calls completely took them out of the game that they should have still been in. Look at the stats. They lead on nearly everything.

I was shocked when they gave Big Ben the TD. After watching the replay I thought, "No way are they going to give him the TD," yet they did. To exemplify the terrible job the refs did, look at the fumble call they had on Haselbeck in the 2nd half. The fumble was obviously caused by the ground, but they had to review it. I was shocked that they called it a fumble! I felt bad for Seattle because all the bad calls really played a HUGE role in the game. I was also surprised the number of costly holds called on Seattle. I watch the replays and had a very hard time seeing the holds. Seattle’s coaches or players must have said something to the refs to get them pissed, because those refs were gunning for them.

G.W.Bush wrote:I was shocked when they gave Big Ben the TD. After watching the replay I thought, "No way are they going to give him the TD," yet they did. To exemplify the terrible job the refs did, look at the fumble call they had on Haselbeck in the 2nd half. The fumble was obviously caused by the ground, but they had to review it. I was shocked that they called it a fumble! I felt bad for Seattle because all the bad calls really played a HUGE role in the game. I was also surprised the number of costly holds called on Seattle. I watch the replays and had a very hard time seeing the holds. Seattle’s coaches or players must have said something to the refs to get them pissed, because those refs were gunning for them.

That call was reversed not because the ground caused it (as that wasn't the question) but rather because he was touched on the way down. Had he not been touched, he wouldn't have been down yet, and it would have been a fumble (ground causing fumble doesn't apply in that situation). Once they saw the hand hit his jersey, the call was reversed.

As for the Ben TD, the ball crossed the front of the goal line before he hit the ground (relatively early the in the play). It was the right call. The push-off? Yeah, they don't call them often, but they should. The Steelers got lucky that the ref decided to apply the rules rather than follow the NFL policy of giving the receivers every advantage possible. But there was definitely enough of a push there to allow the receiver to break open while not allowing the defender to stay with him (and he noticably went backwards).

The illegal block on the Seattle QB was a bad call, and I have seen Ben called for the same thing earlier this season in exactly the same situation. It's a strange call, but fortunately it didn't lead to a score or dramatically impact the game (that I can remember).

I consider a bad call one that is obviously wrong (the Polomalu INT vs. Indy comes to mind), but not one that is merely debatable. I admit that there were many debatable calls, but I honestly saw just one or two wrong calls. The Steelers also could argue that "Hands" Stephens got away with a fumble that was called incomplete earlier in the game, which would have been a turnover in Pitts' favor, but it wasn't a bad call ... just a debatable call.

catsrback76 wrote:How about the Rothlesberger TD at the goalline that wasn't even close. 7 points.

actually the ball was at the goalline *which was defined as starting with the white strip*

Jacksons "push off" TD- 7 points

actually it was a push off...barley

Stevens 17 yard catch to the Pittsburgh 1, called back for mystery hold, and should have been defensive offside on the linebacker. Potential 7 points.

Hasselbacks penatly on the TACKLE called a chop block.

actually he chop blocked another player not the ball carier = chop block

The non call on Rothlesbergers chop block on the trick play that scored the TD.

really?

All contested, commented on as bad calls, and huge in the flow of the game. You should have seen the game they were horrible.

Here is an article that talks about a lot of the questionable calls. There were a few more IMO but this address some of the big ones.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs0 ... id=2320683

I honestly am not a fan of either team and I think there were a few missed calls as in everygame, but the "big ones" were right. As others have pointed out, when Ben had the ball tucked, it appeared the very tip of the ball crossed the white. All you have to do is have any part of the ball enter the white line and you have a TD. That was a TD.

The push off was illegal, but shouldn't have been called. Either way, that didn't change the game if you look at the score. Also, Matt did dive at a blocker, not the ball carrier so that was a chop block.

Really what Seattle needed was Jeremy Stevens to catch the ball. If he could have caught 80% of the passes that hit him in the hands they would have had a chance. Overall the Steelers were the better team in my opinion.

As much as we like to get on the refs cases they don't win or lose games.