After thoughts--Please take the time to read

[DAREALDEAL]

seattle was clearly the better team yesterday, however they were robbed or the score would have been something like 31-21 seattle..its all everybody is talking about, how the refs won the game for seattle --go to espn, cbs, and fox sports and theres really no congratulating the steelers, only critizising the officials...rothlisberger is a great young qb, but he was awful yesterday and still won. how do you explain that? not the steeler d, but the bs flags in the game that essentially called back the big plays seattle made--

the steelers really were the worse team

on the other hand, im happy cower finally won a sb along with the rest of the classy steelers with the exception of joey "where you at?" porter who didnt earn his sb bonus..

the refs won the game for pittsburgh--plain and simple!

[ackangeroo]

CEC- I have enjoyed your stuff since I have been on here. I respect and appreciate experience talking and sharing regardless of the subject. The best point was pay for production. Golf and Tennis are the only ones in my humble opinion that have it write. When you're a Pro, and you get paid for performance, it's easier to let go and do something different without blaming anyone else for your lack of execution. Best of luck!

[shorty3830]

my opinion.........

Chuck, first let me say that anyone who says "the seahawks would have won BUT FOR the officiating" has no credibility........we will never know that........

However, where i think you are wrong is that this is not a gambling issue and it seems by your questions, you are turning it into one.........do all of us gamblers sometime get irrational with the things we say after games? sure, we all do it........

Step away from the gambling issue here and take all the people out there who may have watched the game with a wife/girlfriend and kids? and had to deal with this

q:was that pass interference?
(honest answer):maybe, but it is rarely called.......(chuck, in 40 super bowls, how many touchdowns have been called back for offensive pass interference?? i bet it is less than 4, maybe 0)

q:why did the qb get called for a 15 yard penalty on that tackle?
(honest answer):i have no earthly idea

q:are the steelers allowed to call time out long after the play clock is at 0?
(honest answer):that happens sometimes b/c the referee is looking at the clock exactly when he sees the timeout

q:was it holding on that play?
(honest answer):holding is something that refs can call on 50% of the plays, so maybe

q:didnt that guy catch the ball? (jeremy stevens first pass where he took 2 steps and fumbled it out of bounds)
(honest answer):without question

q:didnt darrell jackson catch it too?
(honest answer):no

q:was that a fumble (hasselbeck's called fumble after he was tackled and down)
(honest answer):no, but the way this game is being officiated, i think he will call it one

ok, you get the point......when we, as fans see things in the biggest game of the year that we have never seen before, it is shocking, and to a lot of us, sickening..........that game will forever be known as the 'officiating superbowl" much like the royals-cardinals denkenger game

it still falls second behing game 6 of the lakers-kings series where the refs had to give the lakers the game to get to game 7 , but it was bad, really really bad

fixed? i dont like the word, and i hate the way people come on here and cry about it every time they lose, so lets say no, but something was wrong.......you could probably build a better case against those refs than there was the white sox players in the early 1900's

once again, your team won at cincy, indy and denver and won last night.......i think holmgren is lucky b/c that officiating seemed to take away from the poor coaching, especially at the end of the half and game......i thinks your team was the best team in the nfl but as someone that knows as much about sports as you do, forget the gambling issue, that was a terrible thing to watch

just my long opinion
b

[TwoTonTony]

Chuck, first let me say that anyone who says "the seahawks would have won BUT FOR the officiating" has no credibility........we will never know that........

However, where i think you are wrong is that this is not a gambling issue and it seems by your questions, you are turning it into one.........do all of us gamblers sometime get irrational with the things we say after games? sure, we all do it........

Step away from the gambling issue here and take all the people out there who may have watched the game with a wife/girlfriend and kids? and had to deal with this

q:was that pass interference?
(honest answer):maybe, but it is rarely called.......(chuck, in 40 super bowls, how many touchdowns have been called back for offensive pass interference?? i bet it is less than 4, maybe 0)

q:why did the qb get called for a 15 yard penalty on that tackle?
(honest answer):i have no earthly idea

q:are the steelers allowed to call time out long after the play clock is at 0?
(honest answer):that happens sometimes b/c the referee is looking at the clock exactly when he sees the timeout

q:was it holding on that play?
(honest answer):holding is something that refs can call on 50% of the plays, so maybe

q:didnt that guy catch the ball? (jeremy stevens first pass where he took 2 steps and fumbled it out of bounds)
(honest answer):without question

q:didnt darrell jackson catch it too?
(honest answer):no

q:was that a fumble (hasselbeck's called fumble after he was tackled and down)
(honest answer):no, but the way this game is being officiated, i think he will call it one

ok, you get the point......when we, as fans see things in the biggest game of the year that we have never seen before, it is shocking, and to a lot of us, sickening..........that game will forever be known as the 'officiating superbowl" much like the royals-cardinals denkenger game

it still falls second behing game 6 of the lakers-kings series where the refs had to give the lakers the game to get to game 7 , but it was bad, really really bad

fixed? i dont like the word, and i hate the way people come on here and cry about it every time they lose, so lets say no, but something was wrong.......you could probably build a better case against those refs than there was the white sox players in the early 1900's

once again, your team won at cincy, indy and denver and won last night.......i think holmgren is lucky b/c that officiating seemed to take away from the poor coaching, especially at the end of the half and game......i thinks your team was the best team in the nfl but as someone that knows as much about sports as you do, forget the gambling issue, that was a terrible thing to watch

just my long opinion
b

very well put shorty!!!

[DAREALDEAL]

Chuck, first let me say that anyone who says "the seahawks would have won BUT FOR the officiating" has no credibility........we will never know that........

you have no credibility it was obvious --refs took at least 21 pts off the board for the seahawks

[capperjohn1]

Shorty,
Well said. Been trying to say it to CEC all day. He says it was a well-officiated game though, so it might fall upon deaf ears. I might add to your list that during the BIG play of the end around, didn't Ben throw a BLOCK that was low? I didn't think he was tackling anyone since he was on offense. And if you really want to split hairs, TIVO the play right after the "clock did not hit zero before timeout" no-call. Huge no-call from 3 and 11 to 3 and 6.On the shuffle pass/dump-off, an O-lineman was 10+yds downfield picking off a LB. Odd. But since I didn't bet the game, and am a fan of Ward and Bettis, my opinion means nothing!! GL to you...:christmas

[SustainDan]

Shorty well put, the griping of the game has nothing to do with taking gambling more than a hobby chuck it has to do with loving the sport of football...will we ever see a perfect officiated game, NO...but on the spotlight as big as the Superbowl, you would expect better. Put it this way, no matter what WE say on this forum, there is no way a call is going to be overturned. BUT it helps people to let some thoughts about to post their OPINIONS on the game. The way you put it chuck is like saying if people want to speak their mind they might as well not gamble..EVERYONE and i mean EVERYONE who has gambled has lost once in a while and HAS complained about it whether openly or inside themselves. I saw you come into a thread and someone mentioned a score of the game and you said something like quit gambling if you cant take it, Sometimes many people are superstitious and post scores because teams have come back like that..This is not anything against you just my opinion how most people feel they are just scared to admit it because you are a veteran here, so they figure they HAVE TO agree with you. I agree on almost everything you say most of the time, but if this game was switched around and you were on their side(touting the steelers all week) you would gripe a bit, ha maybe not as much as some on here, but im sure thered be some call that was crucial that you would look upon..Anyways GL and stay healthy thats that matters gambling should be one of the last worries on someones list.
Dan

[The Lovedoc]

I'm back from Detroit!!! Thank god... Warm Weather!!!!!! woohooooooooooooooo.. Greatest Superbowl ever!

[Spearit]

Well Chuck- Congrats on a Super Win. Wayne 's thread put me on Pitt as a middle parlayed with the Under. My thoughts are concurrant with various things already said. But Hawks WR Jackson (former Gator) in the first half closing- showed no real value for his catch and getting that ball across the goal line marker much less considering dragging his foot. Absolutely no effort but catch the ball and nothing else-- then the next play-a running play that soaked up time and a missed field goal to wrap up the first half. Holmgren is feeling like a loser at this point. Pitt comes out in the second half and scores- this was the ballgame. The momentum was clearly Steelers until Seattle brought the game to within 4 points. Trick plays are the ones most remembered. This one was drawn up months earlier. It gave Pitt the win and thats the ballgame. Refs made errors- OK- How many games will we continue to hear about fixes and officials and stupid players and on and on.
Look forward to Bases with ya buddy. Welcome back Lovie.

[meaiken]

Great Post and my thoughts:

I think we should all just move on. There is no such thing as a fix and we discuss this all the time. There are gonna be bad calls in every game and sometimes it will see it be against one team and sometimes it won't. Sometimes they will admit it (like the NCAA did to officials in FSU/Duke game)

There were bad calls the whole game. Seahawks got lucky on one also. I forgot who, but a Seahawk player in the 1st half caught the ball took 4 yes 4 steps got hit and fumbled the ball, but the pass was ruled incomplete. It just do happened that the other calls favored the Steelers.

Officials are only human

The Big Ben TD...was a TD?? Was it not?? Did the tip of the ball cross the plain? Noone can tell for sure. Maybe it did, Maybe it didn't. Regardless, when reviewed, it was inconclusive. You can't tell for sure.

Officials are gonna always be accused of fixing a game. Ok maybe it was, but come on now, I think someone here says that a game must be fixed almost every week.

Lets just suck it up, take the loss and move on. I am sure many of you won because of poor calls in games before (like whoever had the broncos over pats, like i did). Yes I took the Seahawks and I accept the defeat.

Lets forget the officiating for one second. Bottom line, when Seattle needed a big play they didn't come through. When Pitt needed one, they converted. Seahawks had every chance to win that game, but they failed when it counted. They had momentum on the 1st drive. They stoped doing what worked.

So enough

Good Luck to everyone in Basketball. Lets, "Lock and Load" as the Kapt would say.

If you can't take defeat no matter how it comes, then maybe you shouldn't be gambling.

[Spearit]

The experts of ESPN discussed the turning point of Super Bowl XL:


Rick Spielman

SpielmanMVP: Hines Ward
Turning point: The big play that ultimately helped to decide this game was Matt Hasselbeck's interception to Ike Taylor. It was a poor throw in a bad situation, and actually pretty surprising because Hasselbeck had played such heady football up until that point. He knows better than to make that pass, and it cost him.

Jeremy Green

GreenMVP: Willie Parker
Turning point: This game changed in two minutes for the Seattle Seahawks. It started in the last minute of the first half, when Seattle hurt itself with poor clock management and missed the field goal, which sent the Seahawks into the locker room on a sour note. Then, right off the bat in the second half, Parker hit them with a big 75-yard touchdown run that sucked the life out of the Hawks.


Eric Allen

AllenMVP: Hines Ward
Turning point: The turning point of this game was when Ike Taylor picked off Matt Hasselbeck near the goal line. That play cemented the game for the Steelers because it completely took the life out of the Seahawks. They were driving and threatening either to score a touchdown to take the lead or to pull within one point with a field goal. Instead, Taylor broke the Hawks' heart and the game was pretty much iced after that.


Sean Salisbury

SalisburyMVP: Hines Ward
Turning point: This game turned on four nonsequential plays. The first was when Hasselbeck completed a pass to the 2-yard line only to see it overturned by a phantom holding call that never should've been called. Then Hasselbeck threw a terrible interception that killed the momentum of this team. To add insult to injury, he was flagged on another bogus call during the runback when he was simply trying to make a tackle. Finally, the backbreaker of this sequence was the Antwaan Randle El touchdown pass to Ward on a trick play that completely fooled the Seahawks' secondary.

Joe Theismann

TheismannMVP: Hines Ward
Turning point: The turning point was the Deshea Townsend sack of Matt Hasselbeck with about six and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter on third-and-long. The Seahawks needed to score on that drive because it could've left them with enough time to score again. Instead of having a shot to score, though, they had to punt, and that effectively ended the game because of the strength of the Steelers' running game.

Steve Young

YoungMVP: Hines Ward
Turning point: It may be weird to say this, but there were several turning points in this game that added up to the Seahawks losing. The first was in the first quarter, when the Steelers blitzed hard and Hasselbeck quickly made a great throw for a first down. The only problem was that it was called back because of a holding penalty. It was the first of many times in that first half when the Seahawks allowed the Steelers to stay in this game despite outplaying them because they kept shooting themselves in the foot. The second turning point to me was when Willie Parker took the ball to the house at the beginning of the second half. That was huge because then the Seahawks were down 14-3 and they no longer had control of the tempo of the game. The Steelers were then able to run the ball down the Seahawks' throats and take away the precious commodity of time.

Merril Hoge

HogeMVP: Hines Ward
Turning point: Randle El's touchdown pass to Ward is my turning point of the game. It was a perfectly set-up play because Randle El and Ward started out on the same side of the field, which helped Ward leak out into the open field. It was a gutsy call that won the Super Bowl for the Steelers.

[10DimeBry]

Randle El was clearly the best QB on the field on sunday. did you see how well he executed that throw on the run, a perfect throw. ben or hissleback dont make that throw if you give them each 5 tries.

[ICBomber]

Cheeseman,

congrats, always feels good to win. From a fans perspective not a really good game, but I'm sure through your eyes it was beautiful. I've always thought the 'tuck rule' is one of the best rules in football. Thanks for your continued postings, many of us check frequently.

Bomber (pats season ticket holder)

[CheechB03]

In a game this big you should be able to use Instant replay on flags to then this game would of turned out different

Then they'd have to review every play.

[PhilJr]

CEC, first off I always read your posts and respect your opinions. You made me some nice coin in baseball last year.
Secondly, I think you made your point with the first post of this thread and hopefully made people sit back and re-think some things.
Lastly, let it go. You can't continue to try and be a den mother to everyone and exert your wisdom on everyone.