Super Bowl 43

[Jason Moyer]

It's inevitable after every football game that people are going to complain about the refs, especially given that the losing team typically has more penalties called against them than the winners. I think the discrepancy between penalties called is a little eyebrow-raising, but I didn't see anything that made me think the refs were being biased either.

[MorseMoose]

"i would just like to thank President Obama and all the Steeler Nation for supporting us down through the year[s]."

That was...ummm...weird.

[mrskippy]

Great game, but I didn't like the outcome. Holmes' one foot was latched behind the other one and never touched. I actually looked at the yellow tips on his shoes. If I had a telestrator, I would show it, send it to the commish and tell him that he needs to fire his booth crew.

Secondly, that was an incomplete pass, not a fumble. Again, fire the booth crew on that one too. Coupled with the 15 yard penalty, this would have given the Cards a nice shot at the end zone.

I still say let coaches challenge in the final two minute.

Of course, the Cards could have done their part. Big Ben is so concussion prone, that would have been the first thing I would have inflicted upon him.

[Infinity]

Awesome game, didn't come out the way I wished, but man, what a thrill none the less!

It was interesting that my 68 year old mom made the statement that the Cardinals scored too fast....lol

After looking at the various replays...Santonio did score. Harrison DIDN'T score at the end of the half..... and it WAS a forward pass, not a fumble.

Instant replay is proven to be flawed once again!

Still, with the flaws that are inherent to the process, the Steelers played a great game overall, as did the Cardinals, giving us the greatest Super Bowl of all time!

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by mrskippy

Great game, but I didn't like the outcome. Holmes' one foot was latched behind the other one and never touched.

Disagree. It was close, but both toes were down just barely.

That said, personally, I'd change the rules to require a foot fully planted flat on the ground to count as being down. But then, I'd totally throw out the NFL's current rules on intentional grounding as being ridiculously lenient on offences, so you can see I'm rather stringent on rules being perfectly clear and not necessarily offence-friendly.

Originally Posted by mrskippy

Secondly, that was an incomplete pass, not a fumble.

Disagree again. It was another very close play, but from what I saw I can accept it ruled as a fumble. On some angles it looked the ball was coming out of his hand just as he started the throwing motion.

[TonyJ]

Both toes were down. Not even all that close.

[Jonzard]

Holmes was a completion but the final play was an incomplete pass. The lack of even a review was a joke.

[Sdpm100]

It's quite simple. Just get rid of all officials and let the "experts" at home get every decision "right" by having a American Idol style vote after every play. The game would take five hours but at least there'd be no moaning after every game played. And there wouldn't be any moaning about a "disproportionate" penalty count as no-one would see any.

[Slackker]

On the final Cards play.. it was, as far as I could see, a fumble. It doesn't matter how long the ball is touching Warner's hand, simply when he starts to lose control of it. Unfortunately (since I was hoping Arizona would win) that began before his arm even finished its backwards motion. There still should have been an official review.

I agreed that Holmes was in, and Ben wasn't. I'm still not sure about Harrison.

The only penalty I really disagree on was the roughing call on Dansby. There wasn't even body contact. Just a push without full force behind it. Terrible call.

I thought the game was just okay, overall. The second and fourth quarters were competitive, the first and third.. not in the slightest. Too many penalties, and terrible coverage in the Cardinals secondary.

[Craig Costello]

Originally Posted by Craig Costello

I'm picking the Steelers 27-24. Looking forward to the matchup of strategies.

OK, where do I claim my prize?

[DWK]

Originally Posted by Jonzard

Holmes was a completion but the final play was an incomplete pass. The lack of even a review was a joke.

I agree, I can't believe they didn't even review

[Tony M]

Looks like another 'malfunction' during the coverage...

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Super Bowl porn hits US viewers

[mikev]

Originally Posted by DWK

I agree, I can't believe they didn't even review

It was reviewed about 5 or 6 times. They didn't make a big enough "show" out of the review, though, which is why you didn't hear anything about it. The holding call on the safety was kind of chickensh*t as well. MUCH worse and blatant holding took place and went uncalled during the game. That said, it was a good game.

[Roundin Third]

Originally Posted by mrskippy

Holmes' one foot was latched behind the other one and never touched

I agree, I thought his right foot was caught up in his cleat and never touched - but certainly was not overwhelming evidence to overturn the call.

I was surprised the Harrison call was not overturned. I thought he was clearly down. His forearm hit prior to the goal line and at that point it doesn't matter if the rest of his body landed on Fitzgerald. More surpisingly was that despite how long that 100 yards took to run, the official was still trailing the play and made the touchdown call from about 5 yards away.

The fumble call to end the game was probably 50/50 and certainly would not have been overturned - with that, I still can't believe they didn't take more time, even if only for appearances, to review it.

[DiMaggio5CF]

Originally Posted by Jonzard

Holmes was a completion but the final play was an incomplete pass. The lack of even a review was a joke.

I have to say that I thought it was a fumble. It looked like the ball was knocked out of his control and then he pushed/slapped it forward.

That said, it was undoubtedly too close to go without a review. I've talked to plenty of people who thought it was a fumble and plenty of people who thought it was an incomplete pass; I know the people I talk to is as far from a scientific study as you can get, but the fact remains that people out there thought it was an incomplete pass, and that alone indicates that it should have been at least reviewed.

Really, IMO, whenever a ball knocked loose from the QB goes forward five yards in the air, it has to be reviewed.

The official word is that it was reviewed upstairs and that those officials didn't think it warranted an on-field review. My question, then, is if it's so clear upstairs that you can tell that a play that close is clearly a fumble and not even worth an on-field review, then when exactly is an on-field review needed? For a play that close, the upstairs review must be darn near perfect; so why is there an on-field review at all?

What I think really happened is that the officials thought it was a fumble and called it so on the field, and that they figured the game was over anyway and there was no way that Arizona would score, so they just glossed over the review process. They were probably right -- Arizona probably wasn't going to come back -- but they were at midfield and to rob them of a jump-ball opportunity by refusing to even review it was wrong.

Originally Posted by Craig Costello

OK, where do I claim my prize?

Nowhere. The final score was 27-23.

EDIT: Another thing that, while it didn't bother me at the time, is a valid point is that there should have been a penalty called on Santonio Holmes for using the football as a prop. I'm in favor of letting the players play and calling fewer penalties, really in football in general, but especially in the big games, but that's on close judgement-call type plays. What Holmes did isn't a judgement call; it's a clear did-he, didn't-he, yes or no call. He clearly used the football as a prop, and that's clearly a penalty. If it's a penalty in the first seventeen weeks, it has to be a penalty in the last game. If you don't want that called in the Superbowl, then get it out of the rule book. It was a clear penalty, it was the player celebrating the win before the game was over, and Arizona should have gotten the extra yardage.

[Ragnar]

The only calls I thought were bad were the personel fouls. The first roughing the passer was weak at best. A terrible call. And if I remember correctly, Pitt scored on that drive. Then the other personal foul when the player stumbled into the holder. But that ended up a FG anyway.

All year the refs have been calling a lot of BS personal fouls. They are also too quick to call defensive holding. They should let the game be determined on the field and by the players, not by them. Make the calls when they are obvious.

[Jason Moyer]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

That said, personally, I'd change the rules to require a foot fully planted flat on the ground to count as being down.

I'm on the other side of the fence. I wish the NFL would adopt the college 1-foot rule.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by bababui

And, if you get Fox Soccer Channel, an excellent soccer match in the morning (7:30 PST 10:30 EST) Chelsea v Liverpool.

Its shaping up to be a great day for drinking, over-eating and watching some great sport.

It's a shame the referee got in the way of a good game.

I was rooting for Chelsea, after their player got sent off.

[Craig Costello]

Originally Posted by DiMaggio5CF

Nowhere. The final score was 27-23.

Damn it. If only I would have seen that safety coming.

[Ktulu]

The holding call on the safety was kind of chickensh*t as well. MUCH worse and blatant holding took place and went uncalled during the game. That said, it was a good game.

Ya that one was a mystery to me.